Wedding DJ at Embassy Suites Raleigh in Raleigh, NC

The Space

A three-story lobby atrium anchors this all-suite hotel, which opened in 2010 with a modern, contemporary look and its own private guest tower set apart from the event floor. The property sits inside Brier Creek, a mixed-use development in north Raleigh, and was built from the ground up as a suite hotel rather than converted from an older property, which shows in how cleanly the event spaces are separated from the guest room corridors and elevators.

Between the two ballrooms, two breakout rooms and the Flight Deck patio, the hotel carries just over 7,400 square feet of event space, plus the 360-degree bar, restaurant and lounge at ELEVATE FOOD & DRINK for a rehearsal dinner or a late-night gathering after the reception winds down. The layout keeps ceremony, cocktail hour and reception within a short walk of each other without crossing through the hotel’s main lobby traffic.

Capacity & Layout

The Flight Ballroom is the main reception room, seating 200 for a plated dinner or holding up to 350 for a standing reception, and its size is what makes it workable for a full Carolinas-sized guest list without feeling like the room is fighting the crowd. At 3,358 square feet it is large enough for a dance floor, a head table and round tables for 200 without pushing the DJ setup into a corner or blocking sightlines to the dance floor.

For a ceremony or cocktail hour, the Flight Deck outdoor patio adds 3,036 square feet with a water wall and wooden columns, a separate footprint from the ballroom so vendors can flip the space while guests are still outside. Couples who want a smaller footprint, for a welcome party or a Sunday brunch, have the Elevation Ballroom at just under 3,000 square feet plus additional breakout rooms from 520 to over 2,000 square feet.

Amenities

All 173 rooms are two-room suites with a separate living area and bedroom, which matters for a wedding weekend because the wedding party and out-of-town family are not all crammed into a single hotel room to get ready in. Suites include a wet bar, microwave, refrigerator and granite counters, plus a 42-inch television, and every stay comes with a cooked-to-order breakfast and an evening reception with drinks and light snacks included in the room rate.

On site there is an indoor heated pool with a children’s splash area, a fitness center, and Flying Spoons cafe for coffee and casual food outside of full meal times, along with the Lobby Lounge and the bar at ELEVATE FOOD & DRINK. Nine of the guest rooms are handicap accessible, self-parking is complimentary, and the property earned Hilton’s 2019 Conrad Achievement Award for operating excellence, a top-5-percent brand recognition.

Location & Getting There

The hotel sits inside Brier Creek, an upscale mixed-use development with more than 100 restaurants, shops and other things to do within a mile, so out-of-town guests have somewhere to go the night before or the morning after without a long drive. It is three miles from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, and the hotel runs a complimentary shuttle, a real convenience for guests flying in just for the weekend.

We’ve worked this ballroom before, and the enclosed Flight Ballroom, separated from the lobby by its own pre-function space, holds sound well and lets a DJ run a full reception system without bleeding into other hotel events, while the Flight Deck patio gives a separate, open-air option for ceremony music and cocktail hour that doesn’t need to compete with the ballroom’s own system at all.