Planning Ahead

While the wedding weekend is still months away, we thought it would be a good idea to give you all some information about the general plan. For all those guests who are in town and available, we will be having a very low-key, early dinner on Friday night, Sept. 5th, (5-8ish, we think) at our house in Hampden. Think crab cakes, beer, etc. Saturday is, of course, the big day, beginning with the ceremony in the morning (which you are all welcome to attend but shouldn’t feel obliged to) and concluding with the evening’s festivities at the Baltimore Museum of Industry (http://www.thebmi.org). All of this information and more (including directions to all important locations, as well as our recommendations for fun places to see and things to do in town on Saturday afternoon) will be contained with the formal invitation or available on this website later this spring, but in the meantime we wanted to provide you with a general sense of the weekend’s timeline, as well as with some information on hotels, for those who are going to be traveling to Baltimore from out of town.


GETTING HERE

The airport is Baltimore Washington International/Marshall Airport, (BWI/Marshall)—we highly recommend flying into Baltimore directly, rather than Washington, DC, as the commute to Baltimore from DC is a pain and can take anywhere from 1-2 hours. Amtrak also serves the city, and the principal train terminal, Penn Station, is quite close to downtown. BWI/Marshall is roughly 15 minutes away from downtown Baltimore.


WHERE TO STAY

Once you arrive, you will need somewhere to stay. If you prefer to stay very close to the site of Saturday night’s party at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, you may want to book at Baltimore’s Intercontinental Harbor Court hotel (http://www.harborcourt.com), the Sheraton Inner Harbor (http://www.sheraton.com/innerharbor, the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel, (http://www.marriott.com/city/baltimore-hotels) or the Hyatt Regency Baltimore (http://baltimore.hyatt.com). These hotels are pricey (over $200 per night), so we decided not to book blocks of rooms with them, but they are all quite nice and conveniently located close to both the Museum and Baltimore’s Downtown/Inner Harbor area, so you may want to look into staying there. You can also of course find many good deals on hotels on websites such as http://www.travelocity.com/, http://www.hotels.com/, and http://www.kayak.com/. If you do your own searching, the Museum is in a neighborhood called Federal Hill, and the exact address is 1415 Key Highway, Baltimore MD 21230.

We have, however, booked blocks of 10 rooms at two Baltimore hotels.

The Radisson Cross Keys, http://www.innatcrosskeys.com, is located near our house, in a quiet, leafy suburb about 6 miles from downtown Baltimore. It is about a 5-minute drive to our home (and to the Johns Hopkins campus), a 15-minute drive to the Goucher College campus where the wedding ceremony will take place, and a 25-minute drive to the Baltimore Museum of Industry, where our party will be held. The hotel is adjacent to a number of small boutiques that are fun to shop in, as well as a good, reasonably priced restaurant and bar. The Radisson runs a free shuttle to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor (the city’s premier waterfront tourist area), so it would be easy to explore the city with this hotel as your base. It is a nice, peaceful area with free parking, and rooms are available at $149 a night. (Make sure to request the "Warsh/Gwiazda Wedding" group rate when you book your room.) Their phone number is (410) 532-6900, and the online promotional code for booking rooms is WGWED (it is not case-sensitive). Rooms in our block will be held until August 6th, so please reserve before then to guarantee this rate.

If you prefer to stay in downtown Baltimore, in one of the most beautiful and historic parts of the city (called Mount Vernon, see more at http://www.mvcd.org/) we have reserved a block of rooms at the Peabody Court hotel, http://www.peabodycourthotel.com. This is a gorgeous hotel right off Mount Vernon Square, near many shops and restaurants. You can walk the 8 blocks to the Harbor, or catch a cab for the 5-minute ride. There is a great deal to see around here, including Baltimore’s premier (and free) art museum, the Walters gallery, http://www.thewalters.org, just one block away, as well as many restaurants and boutiques. The hotel is located about half way between our house and the Baltimore Museum of Industry, about 15-minute drive away in both cases. From the hotel to the Goucher Campus is about 25 minutes. There is relatively abundant on-street parking near the hotel, but if you prefer a valet, the cost is $29 per night. We have reserved a block of ten rooms here at the rate of $179 a night, with a two-night stay minimum. Guests can choose from Doubles, King or Queen rooms for the above rate, and our block will be reserved through August 4th, so if you are interested in this hotel, please take advantage of this rate before then. Ask for the Warsh/Gwiazda wedding rate when you call. To reserve, the phone number is 1-800-292-5500. There is no online booking code for this hotel, but the phone number will connect you with Ms. Debbie Billings, who is handling our reservations.

If you wish to stay closer to the Baltimore Museum of Industry and/or in a more intimate setting, we also recommend the Scarborough Fair Bed and Breakfast, in another one of Baltimore’s hip and beautiful neighborhoods, Federal Hill. (To learn more about Federal Hill, see http://www.historicfederalhill.org). The B&B’s website is http://www.scarboroughfairbandb.com/. The rooms are lovely and luxurious, and the location is excellent—an easy walk to the Inner Harbor, a stone’s throw from Federal Hill’s boutiques, bars and restaurants, and a 5-minute drive to the Museum of Industry. Our house is about 20 minutes north of this neighborhood, and the Goucher Campus is about 35 minutes away. The B&B is in a beautiful neighborhood of quiet urban elegance. The phone number is 410-837-0010. Rooms run in price from $175-$200 a night, and as of now, all six rooms are available the weekend of our wedding, but we are told they fill quickly, so if you are interested in staying here, the sooner you book the better. We are told that their prices are set to increase in March, so book this month in order to lock in the earlier rate.