As I mentioned earlier, Mona and I are in the midst of planning our wedding.

We had fairly specific criteria for our wedding:

1. Since we’re Indian, needed a venue that allowed Indian food, preferably from a place like Shalimar or Ronguli
2. We love being outside, and prefer to have an outdoor ceremony.
3. Because Michigan is known for awful erratic (Mona edit) weather, there’s a good chance that our outdoor ceremony will be moved indoors.  In the very likely chance of rain, we don’t want an inferior indoor option for our wedding ceremony.
4. I get to ride into the wedding on a horse.  The venue needs to be okay with this.
5. Size – We’re looking at around 300 person capacity.
6. Location – I’m from Minnesota, so my people will be traveling in.  Mona is from Ann Arbor, so we need to keep it reasonably close to Ann Arbor.  Let’s say a 35-40 mile radius of AA.

While confident that the Dearborn Inn is great, Mona still felt that it was missing something.  So we trekked back up to Dearborn, and checked out Lovett Hall, literally right across the street from the Dearborn Inn.

Outdoor Ceremony

The outdoor area at Lovett Hall is a very stately area, with a nice statue and lots of brick.  Some planted lillies gave the area a nice scent, and the the setting was very nice.

Outdoor Cocktail Hour

After the ceremony, our guests would move to another courtyard area for an outdoor cocktail hour.  Similiar to the outdoor ceremony area, the courtyard is very stately and nice.

Indoor Ceremony

The ground floor of Lovett Hall serves multiple purposes.  If the weather cooperates, then this becomes an indoor area to compliment the above-mentioned outdoor cocktail area.  If the weather does not cooperate, and forces us indoors, than the ground floor would host our Wedding Ceremony.  Marble Floors, French Doors, very elegant and stately.

Reception Hall

Located directly above the indoor Ceremony grounds, Lovett Hall Ballroom is absolutely gorgeous.   Stunning chandeliers, a nice hardwood floor (apparently the original one installed by Henry Ford back in the 1930s), and incrincate crown molding make this ballroom the nicest that we’ve seen.

Adjacent Balcony

Connected to the Lovett Hall Ballroom is a very nice balcony that overlooks the main entrance.  We’d likely have a few high-top cocktail tables installed, and just give our guests an additional area to relax.

Lovett Hall Pros:

• Nicest ballroom that we’ve seen yet.  I’ve made very liberal use of words like “nice”, “stately”, and “elegant” for a reason (no, not because my theasuarus was missing)
• As is, the Ballroom itself will need little decorating.  This may make the next year of our life much easier.
• The indoor option is almost as nice as our outdoor option.  While it’d suck to rain on our wedding day (thank you Alanis Morrisette), we would be cool with the indoor option.
• Loads of history in this building.  Henry Ford built the Ballroom to host elegant parties with the captains of industries. 
• Being a non-profit, our wedding would help support the museum.

Cons:

• No suitable dressing/changing rooms on site.  In Indian weddings, the entire wedding party typically changes outfits from traditional Indian to party wear after the ceremony.  Given the sheer size of our wedding party, we’d have to swing by a local hotel to make the change.
• Similiar to the earlier point, since there is no connected hotel, it may not be as comfortable for our guests that travel in. 

Does anybody have experience with Lovett Hall?  Any tips, tricks, or ideas that might make our event (maybe at Lovett Hall) nicer?

Link to the Lovett Hall website