Thursday, March 6, 2014

Salem Common Wedding Ceremony

While the ground is currently covered with ice and snow, it will not be long before the huge park known as the Salem Common, and located right next door to the Hawthorne Hotel, will be a beautiful green jewel.

This historic park, originally set up by the townspeople of Salem as "common" grazing land for the needed family animals such as cows and horses, is now a lovely city-center green space.  Many of our wedding couples use the Common in some manner for their wedding, whether for the actual ceremony, as a beautiful backdrop behind the head table for wedding receptions in our Grand Ballroom or simply for photos, it plays a huge part in so many of these special events.

We thought it would be helpful to create this blog post to pull together some important information for you. Here are some photos:

 This first photo shows the entire park, as seen from the air.  You can see the Hawthorne Hotel in the lower left-hand corner.

 Wedding ceremony on the Common.

 Winter Wedding Photo


 A view of the gazebo as seen from the corner by the Hawthorne Hotel on a sunny summer day.

This couple used the gazebo for photos.  We loved this one!

Here is a link to a post on this blog from 2008.  While our video abilities have improved, thankfully, we have not thought to put them to use in video recording a ceremony recently (but I will this summer, I promise!)  In any case, these video snippets will help you in visualizing a ceremony on the Common.

Wedding blog post with videos, 2008

To add to the value of this post, here is some more information about using the Common for ceremonies:

Salem City Hall

(978)745-9595

And here is a link to complete information for obtaining a marriage license in Salem, MA:   Getting a marriage license in Salem, MA

Here is a list of officiants that the Hawthorne Catering Department recommends:

Barbara Sica  - 266 Newbury Street 11A Peabody, MA 978-535-2040

Jodi Paris Anastos - 781-820-8444

 Rev. Eleanor R. Fisher
Lynn, MA
(781) 595-1059

 Rabbi Irving L. Luchans
Jewish, Interfaith and Non-denominational
Framingham, MA
508-877-1234

Rena Jean AndreolaSalem, MA -  978-744-5634

 James C. Gibney
27 Paula Road
Brockton, MA 02302
800-I-DO-WEDS


I hope this blog post is helpful to you.

Juli