hotels in bel air MD area??

ahw001

Hi! I'm getting married next October at the Liriodendron mansion in Bel Air While I love the venue, I'm having a hard time figuring out where my out of town guests and wedding party should stay! I had originally thought about the Inner Harbor, but the Baltimore Marathon is the day of my wedding.  Moving on the plan B.... It doesn't seem like there are many options! Especially if I want my guests to be able to go out after the reception is over! Help!

SweetCFly

I actually live in Bel Air!  Unfortunately, there aren't too many hotels in Bel Air proper near Lirio.  However, if you go down Rt. 24 towards 95 (from the Lirio), there are several hotels in the Edgewood area right off the 95 exit (77A).  Sleep Inn, Ramada, Holiday in Express I believe.  Also, if you take Route 22 up to 543, the Aberdeen/Riverside area, coming from Lirio (which is exit 80 off 95) there are more hotels: Spring Hill Suites and a branch off the Westin chain, and one or two more.  There's also the Vandiver Inn and the Crazy Swede up in Havre de Grace, they're privatley owned inn's, not chain hotels.  Hope this helps!

taracy

I got married at Liriodendron last month. Most of our guests stayed at the hotels in the Riverside area, and that's also where we booked our wedding night hotel. The rest stayed at the Ramada in Edgewood, I believe. The hotels off the Riverside exit are all pretty new and nice. Two just opened up this year. 

gottahavashorti

I'm getting married at Liriodendron as well.  As PP said, the closest hotels are Edgewood and Aberdeen/Belcamp.  The Edgewood hotels are slightly closer (under 7 miles).  From what I've seen, there's a wine bar & coffee shop next to the Aberdeen hotels.  Best Western in Edgewood has a bar & restaurant either in it or next door.  The Inner Harbor is pretty far.

gottahavashorti

Taracy, did you have any trouble making sure everyone used the lower lot for parking?  I'm not sure how to convey it and I'd rather not have to ask someone to hang out in the parking lot to ask cars to move.

taracy

No, we didn't have a problem. We did put on our wedding website that there was parking at the bottom of a hill and guests would have to walk up. The spaces in the front of the mansion can be used until they're gone, then folks will have to just follow the signs for more parking.

gottahavashorti

Thanks, that's good to know.  It sounded like those spots coudln't be used at all when we looked at the mansion.

FieryIrishAngel

When my friend got married at the Lirio a few years ago, she sent out a list of hotels and they were all of the ones off of exit 77A in Edgewood.  DH (then boyfriend) and I stayed in one of those, but I forget which one.  None of them are terribly fancy, but they're functional enough.I love off of exit 80 and the hotels near me are newer and a bit nicer, plus if you give good directions for the back roads, the trek to the Lirio really shouldn't be too bad (they'd be taking Route 7 to Abingdon Rd. to 924).  Bliss is the wine bar that's near the hotels, and there's also a Pizza Hut, Cracker Barrel and Ruby Tuesday in the immediate vicinity.  Alternately they'd be close enough to go to Bel Air (again, same route as above) to get to a wider selection of restaurants.

ahw001

Yeah- I think those (is it technically riverside??) are nicer too!  My friend's mother actually suggested Bliss for the rehearsal dinner- I've seen mixed reviews online- do you think would it be a nice place to have about 40 people for an intimate dinner if they would agree to clsoe for a private party?  My fiance and a lot of our wedding party live in NYC and are used to cabs/walking everywhere so I guess I'm just a little nervous that if people want to continue the party there won't be anywhere for them to go.... we would provide a shuttle to and from the hotel to the reception but that's it....

taracy

Our caterer is the one who told us that the spaces could be used. They do weddings there pretty much every weekend. We parked there as well as our bridal party and we didn't have a problem.

FieryIrishAngel

I think Riverside is the opposite side of 543, but I'm not positive about that.  The Cracker Barrel is listed as being in Bel Air according to their website, but I don't think you hit Bel Air until you go down Abingdon Road, so I'm not sure.  The exit off of 95 does call it Riverside, though!I live only a couple of miles down 7 and my mailing address is Aberdeen, just to make it all a little bit more confusing ;)Unfortunately I can't give a review of Bliss myself - I've not been there.  I'm not big into wine and a friend who's been there said it isn't really a great place for kids, so we wouldn't want to take our 2 1/2 year old.  The menu sounds good and the friend who's been there had nice things to say about it, but beyond that, I'm not sure.  I'm sorry!  Can you take a trip up one Saturday night and experience the atmosphere and food for yourself?Since your out of town guests will have to drive from out of town to the hotel maybe you should skip the shuttle and have them drive to the reception and spread the word of an after-party somewhere in Bel Air instead?  There's quite a few bars in downtown Bel Air, not far from the Lirio, so maybe if you spread the word ahead of time folks could plan for that?

tmp101108

Another option if you're already planning on providing transportation to/from the wedding is White Marsh.  We had a room block at the Hilton Graden Inn.  There are plenty of other hotels in that area, too, in case people wanted to shop around.  But we heard great reviews from our friends/family about this hotel after the fact.  There is a lot to do in the area.  The Hilton Graden Inn also has a trolley that drives around The Avenue, to take them to any stores, restaurants, bars, etc.  But it's still close enough to walk, too.  FYI - We continued our party after the wedding at Red Brick.

Casamassima

It's technically Belcamp, but calls itself Riverside...Stay away from the Wingate...poor quality. I've heard good things about the other hotels.