Hotel Perry weddings: venue guide and wedding DJ

Hotel Perry stands at the corner of Bay and Lewis Streets in Petoskey, a brick hotel looking out over Little Traverse Bay. It's been welcoming guests since 1899, and for a wedding it offers a garden by the water in summer, a reception room with views of the bay all year, and rooms upstairs for your guests.

Menzo Weddings provides wedding DJ and MC services in Petoskey and across Northern Michigan, with live ceremony and cocktail-hour music to add. Dave Menzo, who founded Menzo Weddings, played a wedding here in June 2016. The photograph at the top of this page is from that day: the white tent and the fountain, ready for the guests. This page covers the hotel, that wedding, and how we approach music for a lakeside wedding up north.

What is Hotel Perry like for a wedding?

Dr. Norman J. Perry opened the hotel in 1899, and it was the first brick hotel in Petoskey. A young Ernest Hemingway stayed in 1916. A four-storey wing was added in 1926. Stafford's Hospitality bought and restored the hotel in 1989, and it was known as Stafford's Perry Hotel for many years. In 2023 Jon and Lauren Cotton bought it, returned it to its original name, and made it part of their Cotton Collection. It sits within Petoskey's downtown historic district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The hotel's weddings page lists:

• The Rose Garden Veranda: outdoor ceremonies and cocktails for up to 250, from June through September, with the permanent Conservatory and gardens over Little Traverse Bay.
• The H.O. Rose Room: an indoor reception room for up to 200, available all year, with views of the bay.
• A combined package: in May and October, ceremony and cocktail hour in the Rose Garden Veranda, then dinner and dancing in the H.O. Rose Room, for up to 200.

The hotel also offers getting-ready suites, room blocks for guests, in-house catering and a wedding coordinator. See Hotel Perry's weddings page for current details.

A June wedding at Hotel Perry in 2016

On June 25, 2016, Dave played a wedding at the hotel, then still Stafford's Perry Hotel, with The Groove Party, a Michigan wedding band he performed with at the time. The couple isn't named in his post, so we don't name them here. That summer he also played Kara and Matt's wedding just along the shore at Bay Harbor Yacht Club.

Ceremony music over Little Traverse Bay

A garden ceremony with the bay behind you is the kind of setting couples drive four hours north for. Outdoors, sound carries away over open water, and a breeze off the lake can take quiet vows with it. Our approach is to amplify the officiant, the couple and the music lightly, enough that guests at the back hear every word without it sounding loud at the front.

Live guitar and vocals, or piano, suit a garden ceremony, and can be added to your DJ and MC booking. We plan the processional to the length of the aisle so the part of the song you love lands as you reach the front. See live ceremony music.

Cocktail hour as the sun goes down

Little Traverse Bay faces west, and the hotel itself talks about its sunsets. In summer up north the sun doesn't set until after 9 pm, so cocktail hour in the Rose Garden Veranda happens in full daylight, and the light starts to turn gold as dinner begins. A live acoustic set fits the garden and the view. See cocktail hour music.

Wedding DJ and MC in the H.O. Rose Room

A reception room for 200 with views of the bay is a good size for a dance floor that fills quickly. Our approach is to keep dinner music in the background while the sun sets, then bring up the energy for the first dance and keep the floor full from there. The wedding DJ and MC booking covers the whole reception, with the MC keeping entrances, toasts and the cake on time.

Weddings up north are often destination weekends, with guests who have travelled and are staying in the hotel. For a crowd settling in for the weekend, DJ plus live music adds live drums, guitar, sax or violin on top of the DJ set. If you'd rather have most of the reception played live, a live wedding band package can have a DJ playing between sets and closing out the night.

What to ask Hotel Perry before you plan the music

• Where the ceremony moves if the weather turns.
• When vendors can arrive, and where they can park and unload downtown.
• What time music needs to end, especially with guests staying upstairs.

More Northern Michigan wedding venues

Dave has also played Bay Harbor Yacht Club, a private club and marina on Bay Harbor Lake just west of Petoskey. For more of the area, see Northern Michigan weddings, or browse all the venues we've played.