Saying "I Do" in Dearborn: 5 Elite Wedding Locales

Three months ago, I was consumed with planning my wedding. As a bride-to-be, everything on my big day had to be perfect. The wedding dress had to be memorable, the food had to be delicious, the décor had to be jaw-dropping, but the most important thing of all was location, location, location!

However, a couple must consider these particulars when choosing a venue: price, presentation, food, service, photo ops and number of guests. Dearborn has a number of different places suitable for a wedding reception, but after scavenging around, I was able to find five of the city’s most elite areas to tie the knot.

The ’s Alexandra Ballroom

The Dearborn Inn’s Alexandra Ballroom is the oldest and most popular in the hotel. The historic banquet area was built in 1932 and its original chandeliers still hang from the ceilings. Renovated in 2009 with new window and wall treatments, the floor was also changed to what is now royal blue carpeting.

The hall can comfortably fit up to 200 guests with a dance floor and entertainment. It also includes a foyer just outside the ballroom for cocktail hour and hors d'œuvres.

“The Alexandra Ballroom is very popular because it’s very historical, (and) people like the windows,” said the Dearborn Inn’s Senior Catering Sales Manager, Lisa Slepsky. “Pretty much every Saturday, there are two weddings going on: one in the Alexandra Ballroom and one downstairs in the Dearborn Ballroom.”

According to Slepsky, most couples tend to have their wedding ceremonies outside in the gardens. The outdoor gazebo seats 350 guests and after the ceremony, guests are invited to the ballroom where the reception is held.

Wedding packages at The Dearborn Inn start at $77 per guest and may differ when choosing an entrée course. However, prices also vary depending on the day of the week your wedding will take place.

If you decide to have your wedding at the Dearborn Inn, you will be assigned an event manager who will help plan your big day. The packages include an overnight guest room suite in one of the colonial homes in the outdoor gazebo area. The homes are replicas of famous American homes such as Walt Whitman and Edger Allen Po that Henry Ford had admired, according to Slepsky.

Your wedding package also includes a customized page that allows your guests to see places you’ve registered and reserve a night’s stay at a discounted rate.

The Bint Jebail Cultural Center banquet hall–where I held my wedding–is best known for its mouth-watering dinner menu. It was not surprising to find that most of the venues in Dearborn allow Bint Jebail to cater their events.

Habib Bazzi, the executive chef and owner of , is widely known in the Arab-American community for his delicious wedding entrees that are guaranteed halal. His sister-in-law, Leila Salame, is the event coordinator at the hall, and says the food is really what lures people in.

“The most popular (choice) is our traditional menu, which usually includes the house salad or the fattoush, hummus and steamed vegetables. You have to have the oven potatoes, which have inherited the name ‘Habib's potatoes balls,'” Salame said. “You’ve got to have the baked chicken on the bone–that’s everybody’s favorite–and you definitely have to have the oozie (a rice and meat dish).”

Bint Jebail charges $23 and up per plate, and also can negotiate its prices depending on the day of the week.

In addition to the popular food menu, the hall’s setting is elegant and unique. It is equipped with an earth-tone color scheme, a large dance floor and architectural Roman columns. The hall can fit 700 guests comfortably.

“What I’ve been doing from the beginning, which has been successful, is providing quality, freshness and quantity,” Bazzi said. “Also, the addition of cleanliness and service is very important.”

The Rotunda Banquet at the

For a breathtaking view overlooking the metropolitan area, the Rotunda at the Hyatt Regency Hotel is an ideal place for an intimate wedding reception. It can rotate 360 degrees in 55 minutes to an hour and seats 175-225 guests.

“The view is fabulous,” said senior catering Manager Pamela L. Nickles. “It works for a station reception or a walk-around reception. It does work for a plated, seated meal as well.”

The Hyatt Hotel has a variety of other ballrooms that can be used for wedding receptions. There is the Grand Ballroom and the Great Lakes Ballroom, which can seat up to 1,200 guests. It also has rooms that are used for wedding ceremonies and smaller wedding receptions. Their wedding packages also include a room for the newlywed couple, direction cards for out-of-town guests and complimentary staging for a band or DJ.

Prices range from $80 and up per guest.

“The location is good, the parking is good and we do so many of the outside weddings and we are flexible of allowing a variety of catering that I don’t think any of the facilities offer,” Nickles said. “The flexibility and the locations … those are the biggest attractions.”

The Presidential Ballroom at the

Formerly known as The Ritz Carlton Hotel, The Henry is another fine choice to celebrate the oneness of two people in love. The Presidential Ballroom in the hotel is a higher-end venue with a large foyer and seating that accommodates up to 800 people. The hall is about 12,000 square feet and was remodeled five years ago. Fancy chandeliers that accent a gold color in the room gives the hall a classy look.

Alan Osborne, the director of sales and marketing at The Henry, emphasized that the service at any of the banquet rooms at the hotel is unlike any other.

“Most of our banquet servers have been here for 20 years,” Osborne said. “Most of the banquet servers are well-trained Ritz Carlton banquet servers. And that has carried over to The Henry. They’re very attentive.”

Osborne mentioned that their wedding packages include a romance package. A romance package is a suite given to the bride and groom that is decorated with rose petals, candles and desserts like chocolate-covered strawberries. The Henry also provides private tastings for your event where the couple can determine what they like and don’t like in their wedding menus.

Dinner menus at The Henry range from $70-99 per guest.

Lovett Hall at the

Large windows, teak hardwood floors, antique chandeliers and the perfect place for pictures is what Henry Ford thought up in building this one-of-a-kind ballroom area. Lovett Hall is another historic venue that surely would make for a memorable wedding ceremony or reception.

“When Henry Ford Built Lovett hall (in the 1930s), he built it to entertain, but he also built it as an educational facility,” said Christina Dodge, the Henry Ford’s social events manager. “He felt that students at the Edison Institute needed to learn proper etiquette and they needed to learn how to ballroom dance.”

Lovett Hall can seat up to 300 guests comfortably with a separate stage for entertainment. It also has two floors. The first floor is usually used for ceremonies or any other pre-wedding reception festivities. It is complete with black and white marble floors and 14-foot-high crown molding ceiling. The second floor is where the reception typically takes place, according to Dodge. It looks similar to the inside of the Titanic (the movie version).

Another interesting feature about Lovett is the balcony.

“Guests are always welcome to go to the balcony,” Dodge said. “The nice thing about Lovett Hall is you do get all of Lovett Hall. And once you get out here, it’s like, ‘Wow, Dearborn is really pretty.’"

“You see a little bit of the architecture of the museum and the trees. It’s nice to be able to give people the option if they wanted to have a private conversation, but they can still hear the music and are part of things.”

Though The Henry Ford doesn’t allow outside catering, Dodge assures that the food won’t disappoint.

“It’s really delicious,” Dodge said. “They make most things from scratch … It’s really a labor of love.”

According to Dodge, the Henry Ford has a food and beverage minimum. On Fridays it’s usually $12,000, while Saturdays run up to $19,000.

“It has so much architectural detail that you don’t have to do a lot,” Dodge said about Lovett Hall. “Sometimes people have to spend so much money on décor and they’re trying to camouflage something and create something out of nothing. With our spaces you don’t have to do that.

“If anything, you can do a little something to enhance it and show off your personality and you don’t have to cover anything up or create anything from scratch.”

Choosing to have your wedding at The Henry Ford also means stunning photo opportunities. Whether it’s inside the museum or around Lovett Hall, your photographer won’t have to look far to capture beautiful backdrops.