Weddings in North Carolina

Wedding location: Burwell School Historic Site

My daughter was interested in getting married at the Burwell School, which is a historic site in Hillsborough. On my way back from the car mechanic this morning I took these pictures. Advantages: a big, beautiful sweeping lawn and a lovely historic house to serve as backdrop to an outdoor wedding. There is also an older building (perhaps the original school?) behind the main house.

Burwell School 2

Hillsborough wedding site Burwell School, grounds

Well, obviously the place looks fabulous on the outside. The inside would be fine for a small, intimate wedding, and the dark wood floors are quite nice (though the space is, in fact, pretty dark altogether). However, if you have a lot of people it gets cramped quite quickly.

Burwell School in Hillsborough - interior

The large gracious front porch helps. We wedding musicians have often been set up on the porch, along with food vendors and drinks tables. Be sure not to set people up in front of the door, because then they’ll get trampled when guests want to use the bathroom.

Burwell School wedding location: large front porch

Festival tents are usually set up at the bottom of the front lawn, which is pretty steep. (There is another smallish flat area to the left of the house which is sometimes set up for wedding ceremonies.) A problem is that the traffic is quite close.

Truck passes by the Burwell School in Hillsborough

Burwell School seen from the street sidewalk

I have done festivals and weddings here. During festivals, the small back building is used as a “green room” for the musicians to store their instruments, and for vendors to keep additional coolers and supplies. During weddings, it has been used as a changing room or a chill-out space for the bride, groom, and friends. The bridal party often needs to relax away from the guests.

Burwell School from the side, showing small rear building

Older building on grounds of Burwell School

Looking at side garden from small side porch at Burwell School

View inside historic outbuilding at Burwell School

Burwell School's small parking area

Burwell School porch

Burwell School 1

Burwell School in Hillsborough - grounds

The Burwell School has a very small parking area, enough for a couple of vendors and perhaps three other cars at most. Otherwise, parking is on the street. You should be aware of this if you have any disabled guests.

Burwell School street parking

Burwell School's small parking area

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 11:14 am and is filed under Hillsborough wedding vendors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.