Spring-Summer 2010
THE SPA AT NORWICH INN HELPS COUPLES ELOPE, GET ENGAGED, OR RENEW THEIR VOWS IN A PRIVATE, ELEGANT WAY
Not all brides and grooms dream of a large, lavish bash. For some, a private, intimate ceremony is the most personal choice
NORWICH, Conn. – Not all brides dream of walking down the aisle before 200 guests, a gala cocktail party, a formal, five-course sit-down dinner and dancing to a live orchestra. For some, the thought of planning and executing an event of that size is either totally overwhelming or not a good fit for their personal needs.
Recognizing this, The Spa at Norwich Inn has developed special opportunities for couples to elope, renew their vows or even get engaged in a private yet stylish way at this historic country inn and spa, located halfway between New York and Boston. Within three months of offering these specialized opportunities, the inn and spa booked four elopements.
Lori Nittoli and Bill McCambley of Elmwood Park, N.J., were the first take advantage of the property’s new Elopement Package in November of 2007.
“We got engaged in June, and we began planning, but we found we didn’t want to deal with the stress, the pressure, the trying to satisfy everybody else’s needs but our own. It was as if we were planning a party for everyone else, and not planning a wedding for us,” said Lori, 37, a sixth-grade teacher who also designs custom wedding invitations. “That’s what it seemed like to us. So we decided that we were going to change direction and plan a wedding just for us.”
She had seen a brochure for The Spa at Norwich Inn when visiting one of her wedding clients. She loved the look of the inn and its grounds, made contact and found her needs were well understood and easily met.
“We -- she and her fiancé, Bill McCambley, 32, who owns a personal training studio -- visited and toured the property, selected Justice of the Peace Marie Gravell from a list provided by the inn, and a Boston photographer recommended by Marie, who had seen his work on the web and liked it,” said Lori. “I had a photo of a bouquet I cut out of a magazine and had the inn give it to their house florist. I ordered the dress – it was actually a bridesmaid’s dress in champagne – and the veil, and they put a rush on it. Everything was done in five months.”
Wedding Coordinator Jill Fahey became “our family,” Lori said. “She was great!”
The elopement package included a 80-minute private Swedish massage for bride and groom, a private suite for one night, a wedding ceremony site – Lori and Bill chose the private dining room, in front of a roaring fire – a gourmet four-course dinner for two in Kensington’s restaurant and a petite, two-layer wedding cake and breakfast for two the next day. And more.
“When we went back to our suite, the floor was covered in rose petals from the door to the bed, leading to a tray of chocolate-dipped strawberries and a chilled bottle of Iron Horse Sparkling Wine. And they had robes for us embroidered with “Bride” and “Groom” and a gift of a body scrub and body cream from the spa’s private-label “Sugar” line.
How does she feel looking back on her experience?
“There are not enough adjectives to describe how wonderful it was. We had the wedding photos turned into a digital slide show that ran in a loop at a large party in New Jersey several weeks later that was given for us. People then asked us to email the slide show to them, so that they could send it to their friends. At the party, men cried. They thought the simplicity of what we had done was so beautiful and touching.”
As for her family, she had sent them in advance an invitation for a party in Connecticut on Nov. 10, (the day after the secret wedding), with instructions to be conveyed by telephone the evening of Nov. 9. When Lori and Bill had finished the wedding photos but before sitting down to dinner, they called their immediate family and close friends – a total of 16 people --and told them to come up to a nearby hotel the next night for a celebration.
“They were relieved because they had spent the last two months wondering what was going on. Were we getting married? Were we moving? We wouldn’t say. So now they knew. And they had a great time at the party,” Lori added.
A Different Reason For Elopement: To Blend A Family
Connie McGeary and George Livanos of Old Tappan, N.J. had a different situation but a similar need. They had visited The Spa at Norwich Inn several times for a weekend getaway. When they decided to get married, foremost in their minds was to make the event a private, special surprise for her daughters, Chelsea, 15, and Katee, 13; and for his daughter and son, Alexa, 16, and Andrew, 13.
“We are having another wedding in Ireland with my family in the spring, and we will have our marriage blessed in the summer on the Greek island of Chios with George’s family. But we wanted something the children could have that would be just about them,” she said in her lilting Irish accent. “We wanted to show them a different way to get married and for it to be a surprise for them. The kids will never forget it.”
The teenagers were told they were attending a bar mitzvah December 28 at The Spa at Norwich Inn and were dressed up for the occasion. They were shown into the inn’s Hunt Room to wait with George for Connie to meet up with them there.
“I walked in late and wearing a long dress. They didn’t at first see the flowers, and they said later they thought I was rude and overdressed for the occasion. Then Katee saw the bagpiper who entered the room with me and understood the song was an Irish wedding march,” Connie recalled. “All of a sudden they realized George and I were getting married. They started screaming and laughing. They asked ‘Is this real?’ And I heard them use new names for their new family: Sister! Brother! Mom! Dad! “
How did the wedding go?
“It was everything we wanted and more. We knew it would be nice and relaxing. If we had had 100 or 200 guests, we wouldn’t have had what we have today, the memories of a special day with the children as our focus on our first day as a new family,” Connie said. ‘The children had a part in the ceremony, and we had dinner together and enjoyed the petite wedding cake together.”
Connie, who works for a toy company, and George, a partner in an accounting firm in Clifton, N.J., added special touches to notification of their mothers and immediate family. They had a courier service deliver a wedding announcement, a bottle of champagne and a bouquet similar to Connie’s to relatives in Ireland, Canada, Florida and New Jersey.
“The phone started ringing at 2:30 in the morning U.S. time when the first deliveries were made in Ireland,” said Connie, who came to this country 15 years ago from Ireland’s County Armagh. “We were drinking champagne in our suite.”
The family stayed an extra night. For dinner, George and Connie ordered take-out food for the children to enjoy and went to Kensington’s restaurant for dinner á deux.
“Pat Mitchell, the piano player and singer entertaining guests that night, sang Danny Boy for me and a Greek song for George, and she asked us to come up and dance by ourselves. It was a surprise and a lovely gesture,” Connie added.
The spa offers a basic, one-night engagement/elopement/vow renewal package at $1,445.27. Couples can upgrade to the Spa package, which adds facials and a manicure or pedicure for each to the basic package for a price of $1,826.07 per couple; or to the Golf Package, offered seasonally, which adds to the basic package a round of golf for two at the award-winning Lake of Isles Course & Golf Academy, which includes cart practice range, yardage book and on-course soda, water, juice and snacks. That price is $1,775.27 per couple. All packages include taxes, gratuities and service charge.
For more information about these packages, contact Jill Fahey at jfahey@thespaatnorwichinn.com or 860-425-3686 or go to http://www.thespaatnorwichinn.com/weddings_elopement.aspx.
About The Spa at Norwich Inn: The Spa at Norwich Inn is an intimate, 100-guestroom retreat. It is home to an elegant, award-winning spa offering a blend of fitness programs, nutritional instruction and beauty and body treatments designed to restore and rejuvenate the mind, body and spirit. Guests are housed either in the 1930 Georgian Colonial inn building, or in villas with wood-burning fireplaces and balconies.In 2009, the property was named “Best Destination Spa in Connecticut” by the Editors of Connecticut Magazine and received an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine. It also was named to the Connecticut Magazine Hall of Fame in 2008 for winning “Best Day Spa in Connecticut” for 10 years in a row. It is consistently rated “Excellent” in the Zagat Survey of U.S. Hotels, Resorts and Spas. It was named “Best Destination Spa in New England” in Yankee Magazine’s 70th Anniversary issue, and was recognized in 2009 by the Editors of Yankee Magazine for “Best Pampering in Connecticut.” As a property that also hosts conferences and executive retreats, The Spa at Norwich Inn was awarded its seventh “Best of the East” title in 2009 by Meetings East magazine.For information and reservations on a wide variety of weekend, weekday and overnight packages and options, call 800-ASK-4-SPA or visit www.thespaatnorwichinn.com.The Spa at Norwich Inn is a member of the National Trust Historic Hotels of America • National Trust for Historic Preservation. For information, visit www.historichotels.org.
Press Contact:
Peggie Cosgrove
Peggie Ford Cosgrove Public Relations LLC
860-447-9217 or peggiecosgrove@mac.com
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