Questions couples ask

It depends on the month and the day. October Saturdays are almost always booked 18 to 24 months ahead, and June and September Saturdays go 12 to 18 months out. Fridays and Sundays, and anything between November and April, can often be booked six to nine months ahead, and occasionally much less. Elopements are the most flexible of all: we have married couples on the widow's walk with three weeks' notice. The fastest way to know is to send us your preferred dates through the inquiry form.

With a signed contract and a non-refundable deposit of 30% of your estimated total. After a tour, we are glad to pencil in a date for seven days while you decide, but we cannot hold a date beyond that without a deposit, and if another couple asks for the same date during those seven days, we will call you first. For the Grand Crane, one night of the room buyout is due with the deposit as well.

Thirty percent at signing; a second payment bringing you to 60% six months before the wedding; and the balance, based on your final guest count, 14 days before. Your final count is due 21 days before. Payments by check or bank transfer carry no fee; card payments carry a 3% processing fee. The full schedule is on our packages page.

Deposits are non-refundable. If you postpone, we will apply all payments to a new date within 12 months, subject to availability and the pricing for that date. If you cancel, payments beyond the deposit are refunded if we are able to rebook your original date with an event of similar value. We strongly recommend wedding insurance, which is inexpensive and covers things we can't, like a sudden illness in the family or a flight cancellation for half your guests.

Never. We host one wedding per day, and on most weekends one per weekend. The Lantern Room and The Ledger restaurant stay open to the public on wedding days unless you have the Grand Crane buyout, but the Great Hall, the garden and the widow's walk are yours alone from the start of your setup until your event ends.

Yes, sorry about that. We are currently booking weddings for 2027 and 2028, and we have a few remaining dates in the current season. The banner will catch up with us eventually.

Please do. Tours are by appointment, Wednesday through Saturday, usually at 11:00 am and 2:00 pm, and take about forty-five minutes with tea in the Library at the end. In October, tours are weekdays only. If there is a guest staying in a room you would like to see, we may only be able to show you the photographs, and if a wedding is setting up in the Great Hall we will show you that too, which is often more useful than an empty room. Video tours are available for couples who are far away.

Because we spent too many tours with couples who had already fallen for the staircase before they learned the number. Our packages start at $3,800 for an Elopement at Dusk, $18,500 for The Lantern and $34,000 for The Grand Crane on a Saturday. Friday and Sunday weddings are 15% less, and October Saturdays carry a 25% premium. Service charge (22%) and tax (7%) are added to food, beverage and event fees.

No. The service charge is an administrative fee that covers the staffing of your event; it is not a gratuity and is not distributed to staff as tips. Gratuities are always optional. Many couples give their coordinator, servers and bartenders an envelope at the end of the night, and the team is touched by it every time.

Package prices are a minimum and do not decrease with smaller guest counts, because the costs of opening the Great Hall or putting up a tent don't shrink much with the guest list. If you are planning 30 to 50 guests, The Lantern on a Friday or Sunday is usually the best value, and for 12 or fewer, the Elopement at Dusk. We are also happy to build a custom proposal for a small dinner wedding in the Library and Great Hall.

No. The capacities for each space are set for comfort and by the fire department, and the house is old enough that we take both seriously. The Lantern holds 80 and The Grand Crane holds 140. Children count toward the total, though infants in arms do not.

For the Elopement at Dusk and The Lantern, yes, including the officiant for the elopement. For The Grand Crane, a ceremony fee applies: $2,000 for the Garden or $1,500 for the Great Hall. If you are holding your ceremony at a church or elsewhere and coming to us for the reception only, there is no ceremony fee.

No. The Grand Crane requires booking all nine guest rooms for two consecutive nights, billed separately at our nightly rates for your dates, less 10%. Most couples have their guests pay for their own rooms through a link we send, and cover the Widow's Walk Suite themselves. Any rooms not claimed by 60 days before the wedding are billed to the couple.

No. All food and beverage is prepared by our own kitchen under Chef Dee Okafor and Theo Alcott, and our staff serve it. This is the single rule we never bend, partly for licensing reasons and partly because the food is a large part of why couples choose us. The one exception is your cake or dessert, below.

Yes. Outside cakes and desserts are welcome from licensed bakeries. A cutting and plating fee of $3 per guest applies, and the cake must arrive no later than two hours before the reception begins. Our own pastry kitchen also makes wedding cakes, and they are excellent, if we may say so.

About three to four months before your wedding, on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon, when the restaurant is quiet. Lantern couples bring up to four people, Grand Crane couples up to six. You'll taste two or three options for each course, talk through wine, and leave with a full stomach and a printed draft menu. Elopement couples choose their menu with Dee by phone or email, or are welcome to come in for dinner at The Ledger first.

Yes, and gladly. Dee's kitchen cooks vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free plates every day, and we can accommodate most allergies, including tree nuts and shellfish, with advance notice. Please mark dietary needs on your escort cards or seating chart so the servers know at a glance. We also cook kosher-style and halal-friendly menus on request, though our kitchen is not certified.

We are not able to allow outside alcohol under our license, including gifts and homemade spirits. We can, however, order almost any wine you love through our distributor, and Theo is happy to taste through options with you. Signature cocktails can be named for anyone you like, including the dog.

The event bar closes fifteen minutes before your event ends. For overnight guests, the Undertaker's Parlor stays open until 11:00 pm on wedding nights, with drinks charged to rooms or to a tab you set up.

Every outdoor plan has an indoor partner. Garden ceremonies move to the Great Hall (up to 120) or into the tent. Tented receptions keep going with the sides down and clear window panels up, and heaters if it's cool. Widow's walk ceremonies move to the Library, by the fire, or to the landing of the front stair. We make the weather call with you by 10:00 am on the day, and we have never cancelled a wedding for rain. We have also never had a rainy wedding that the couple regretted.

Yes. Outdoor amplified music must end by 10:00 pm under the city's noise rules, and the house keeps to that strictly; we have neighbors on three sides who have been very patient with us since 2016. Indoor events may continue until 11:00 pm. A sparkler send-off in the garden at 9:55 pm is a lovely way to end on time.

Yes. Ceremony rehearsals are usually held the afternoon before the wedding, for about an hour, scheduled around other events. If another event is in the garden that day, we'll rehearse in the Great Hall and walk you through the garden afterward. Rehearsal dinners can follow in the Library or Great Hall.

Lantern and Grand Crane couples have two getting-ready rooms from noon on the wedding day, usually the Widow's Walk Suite and the Captain's Quarters. The suite's sitting room has the best light for hair and makeup. Elopement couples get ready in the Widow's Walk Suite, which is theirs for the night.

Candles, yes, as long as they are enclosed in glass or lanterns, and we supply plenty. Confetti, glitter, rice, birdseed and loose petals, no, inside or out, since they are nearly impossible to remove from 1748 floorboards and garden beds. Dried lavender tossed in the garden is our favorite substitute, and it smells wonderful. Sparklers are allowed outdoors only.

The inn has ten on-site spaces, which are reserved for overnight guests. For weddings, we recommend event valet ($450 for the Lantern, $650 for the Grand Crane), which uses a nearby lot, and in October it is required, because Salem's streets are full and parking is genuinely difficult. Many guests take the train from Boston, about 30 minutes, and walk nine minutes from the station, or take a car service.

Partly, and we want to be honest about it. The Lantern Room has a ramp, there is a level brick path from there to the ceremony lawn, and the Great Hall is step-free from the garden entrance with an accessible restroom. The Apothecary, on the ground floor, is our accessible guest room with a roll-in shower. The upper floors, the front stair, the Garret rooms and the widow's walk are reached by stairs only, and the widow's walk stair is steep and narrow. Tell us who is coming, and we will plan the day around them.

Of course. Children of any age are welcome at weddings, with children's meals at $45 for ages 3 to 11, and under-3s free. For overnight stays, children 10 and up may stay in the main house; younger children are welcome in the Carriage House Suite. The marbles case in the Library and the lawn games keep most children busy during cocktail hour.

Yes, with a handler who is not one of the two people getting married. Dogs are welcome in the garden for the ceremony and photographs, and may stay overnight in the Carriage House Suite ($50 per night, up to two dogs). Dogs are not permitted in the Great Hall during dinner or overnight in the main house, with the exception of service animals.

For The Lantern and smaller weddings, we hold a courtesy block of up to five rooms until 90 days before your wedding. Please remember that weekends have a two-night minimum, and any stay touching an October weekend has a three-night minimum, with a 30-day cancellation window. For the Grand Crane, all nine rooms are yours. For larger guest lists, we keep a short list of other places to stay within walking distance.

Yes. Welcome drinks in the Undertaker's Parlor or the garden, rehearsal dinners from $95 per guest, and farewell brunches in the Lantern Room from $38 per guest are all popular. The brunch is included for overnight guests with the Grand Crane buyout. See rehearsal dinners and other events.

We say "mostly quiet," and we mean it. The house has a long history, including eleven years when Abigail Crane kept a lantern burning for her husband, lost at sea in 1801, a boarding-house child who left marbles in the walls, and fifty-seven years as a funeral parlor. Guests have told stories about the Lady in Gray, and a scent of lavender and candle smoke, for as long as anyone can remember. Samuel will tell you all of it at the Thursday history talk if you'd like. On your wedding day, the only thing you are likely to notice is that everyone looks very happy.

A tradition that started by accident. A few years after we began hosting weddings, a couple's candlelit portrait on the front stair showed a pale, soft shape on the landing behind them. They loved it, their friends asked for the same shot, and now about half our couples request it. If you'd like one, we set aside ten minutes after the ceremony with the hall lit only by candles. Sometimes the old glass and the candlelight do something curious; most of the time it's simply a beautiful photograph. Either way, it's yours, and we'll never insist.

From 1889 to 1946, it was the Hollis & Vane Funeral Parlor, and the Great Hall was its chapel. A few couples have asked whether that's bad luck. We understand the question, and we don't think so: for more than half a century, this was where Salem families came together to honor the people they loved. It feels right to us that they now come here to begin things. Some couples choose to light a candle in the Great Hall for the family members who couldn't be there, and we will always make room for that.

No. Everyone asks. The house was built in 1748, fifty-six years after the trials of 1692, and has no connection to them. If your guests would like to learn about that history, the city's memorials and museums are a short walk away, and we recommend visiting them with the seriousness they deserve.

You can, and many couples do, but go in with open eyes. October in Salem is wonderful and very busy: the whole city fills with visitors for a month-long festival, streets near the waterfront are crowded on weekends, parking is scarce, and rooms everywhere book a year or more ahead. Our October Saturdays carry a 25% premium and event valet is required. A Friday or Sunday in mid-October, or the last weekend of September, often gives you the leaves and the lanterns without quite so many people in costume on the way to the ceremony.