Grace Church in Salem

This is an Episcopalian Church, located on Essex Street in Salem, across from the Public Library. It is a lovely old building, and if you are an Episcopalian, or wanting to become one, it is a great location for a wedding.

Juli

We're all about the service

If you have ever attended a banquet anywhere other than the Hawthorne Hotel, you will probably expect very impersonal service from the banquet staff. They carry out the food and put it down in front of you and then dash off to deliver the next tray. They don't take special orders, don't explain how anything is being prepared, and in general you usually cannot even ask a questions.

That is not the case at the Hawthorne Hotel, as you can see in this candid video that I shot at a wedding last month. Here you will see Robert (aka Bobby) Celentano, checking in with the guests to be sure that he is aware of any special requests before the food is served.

It is just one small part of what makes a wedding at the Hawthorne Hotel very special.

I hope to see you here.

Juli

Thank you in any language is appreciated!

This week, the mother of the bride (Sarah) who had the African-themed wedding here last week came by with thank you gifts for Christine Turner, Lindsay Otis, and some other members of our staff here at the Hawthorne Hotel.

These gifts had special meaning, and were unusual enough, that we wanted to share these photos with you.

The first was a bag of Ethiopian coffee. The second, and even more unusual gift, was a letter opener, hand carved in Ethiopia, with a hippopotamus as the handle. It was presented in a lovely envelope, with the word, "Amesegenalehu" printed on the outside. In the Ethiopian language, this word, amesegenalehu, means thank you.

In the world of what we do here at the Hawthorne Hotel, we are constantly receiving thanks from our guests, just for doing our jobs. Christine and Lindsay (in the last photo, left to right) wanted me to convey in this post, how grateful we are just to be able to share in so much happiness, and how much we appreciate the thoughtfulness of our guests.

As we posted previously, this wedding was arranged long distance, primarily via e-mail. It was so nice to have the actual people-to-people connections after all that time of the more impersonal Internet communications.

I hope you enjoy this little slice of wedding happiness here at the Hawthorne Hotel.

Juli