Gracie's

It's hard to choose a place to start telling the story of how much I love and appreciate Gracie's. It's one of the times I feel limited by language because I haven't found just the right word that means "astounding, incredible, and exceeds expectations in every regard" yet. I really want to give this review some justice in case anyone is on the fence.

First and foremost, I did not intend to give Gracie's a fair shot. I scheduled all of my venue tours into two days and Gracie's was the very last one on the second day. I had already mentally decided to book elsewhere so I went home, showered, and came into their beautiful establishment with a damp messy buns and slippers with real soles on the bottom. I didn't care what kind of impression I left because I "knew" Gracie's wasn't the place. If only I knew how wrong I was. My husband and I knew we wanted a Harry Potter themed wedding originally scheduled to be on a Monday evening (more on that in a bit). As I walked around Gracie's, I just knew it was the right place. I'm not one to be overcome with the "YES, this is the one!" feeling and that was true, but seeing the natural decor and ambiance, my mind wandered to the pages of the story we wanted to bring alive for our special day. Kendal can confirm that I made the same comments each time I visited (I never did get that handle for the broom decoration, but c'est la vie).

Before we even officially booked them, the entire team had gotten together to discuss ways to make the magical Harry Potter theme come to life, including beverage and food ideas to be created specially for our event. I recall feeling humbled that they had taken such an interest in us and already demonstrated their passion for excellence, as I would come to realize was their norm.

As to their flexibility, well, you can't top them. My husband and I are not really what you'd call planners. I'd say we're big-picture thinkers that believe in serendipity and good things occurring with little effort on our part. Others might call us "laissez faire" or perhaps "indecisive" or maybe even "annoying", but Gracie's never made us feel like we were inconveniencing thing. In fact, I asked Kendal a series of increasingly silly ideas about what we would be allowed to do, including hanging candles from the ceiling, and at no point did she even say no, only that we had to find the appropriate people licensed to do that. The food we had at Gracie's was so delicious that we had a terribly hard time deciding what to put on our official menu. If I have any regrets about the day, it's that I still think about that gnocchi from time to time, but hey! That's what anniversary dinners are for!

So not only are they completely fantastic, but they had no qualms with any of the alternative things we wanted to do. I asked if they were LGBT+ friendly, the answer was a strong yes (which was important because of my bridal party makeup). When we told them we weren't hiring other vendors, the team at Gracie's never batted an eye or made attempts to change our mind, they just gave us options on how to proceed. The day of our wedding, we completely forgot our card box and they handled it all with no shaming. Sometimes, I think I should petition Merriam-Webster to change the definition of accommodating to just have their contact info. And while we're on the topic of their flexibility.......

We ended up having to push our wedding back a year because of this or that. On top of that, a thing you might know about, a global pandemic that put most small businesses into mortal peril and essentially changed society as we know it for now hit us too. I worried how it might affect Gracie's or if we'd have to cancel entirely. Their quality of service and dedication never wavered. It truly felt as though we were a part of a team all working towards the goal of making. this. work. For a while, we exchanged what felt like daily but was probably actually biweekly emails updating each other on changes I had to my plans or new safety guidelines they had to follow. We dramatically downsized and built a Spotify playlist. The guidelines allowed a special dessert display table and then they didn't. We would have it in the main dining room, then the Private Dining Room, then back up to the main dining room. If I were to liken keeping up with all the changes to a sailboat, we were in stormy waters with the best, hardiest crew of creative problem solvers you could imagine.

I've said a lot of words, but as I said in the beginning, words honestly fail me here and do a disservice. I've shared all of the things you would expect to hear about a vendor you might be consider booking, but the things I have trouble putting into words are the little things, the everyday touches. While my husband and guests waited downstairs for our ceremony to begin, I was given the opportunity to walk around the empty dining area and admire the work we put into it. They put my personal collection of books out as the decor as I asked, they had beautiful illuminated fairy jars alongside the candles. Considering we gave very little direction, the Gracie's team really made magic come to life. I was never rushed to go downstairs or to move anything along faster than we'd like. Then as I waited alone for a few moments for our closest friends and family to take their seats for the ceremony, I had Kendal to talk to, who, if I'm speaking candidly, I've grown very fond of. Some bonds are built through time, and others with experience, and with her, we've gone through it all.

So yes, we had to downsize. No, we couldn't have the dessert display of my dreams. No, we couldn't have a dance floor. Yes, we had to wear masks. And you know what? It was a splendidly perfect night. I had three goals for that day: I would wear a pretty dress, I would eat cake, and we would end up married. While there are many stories related to each of those, Gracie's facilitated all of these goals seamlessly and without hesitation even during a pandemic during an election year. If you're not sure if Gracie's is the right place for you, please allow my words to sway you: They are. If you want a great, standard, beautiful, traditional wedding, go ahead and book the other place you have in mind. If you would rather have a night to remember, a total experience, and feel like a valued member of your wedding team, it just might be Gracie's you need. And hey, if you don't believe me, just go in and meet them for yourself. You'll see.