Wedding DJ at Shaffner House in Winston-Salem, NC

The Space

The Shaffner House took two years to build, going up between 1905 and 1907 for Henry Fries Shaffner, co-founder of what became Wachovia Bank. The Tudor Revival mansion, faced in white and green half-timbering, still shows its money in the details: a grand staircase, hand-carved Tiger Oak paneling, nine original fireplaces, and a wraparound porch that was later enclosed, all original to a house built for one of Winston-Salem’s founding banking families.

After the Shaffner family moved out in 1948, the house passed through use as an American Legion post and then a boarding house before Betty and Henry Falls restored it and opened it as a bed and breakfast in 1992, returning it to the kind of use a couple can still book today. A substantial 2021 renovation brought the inn a more boutique feel, and Founders Restaurant opened on the first floor in late 2022, serving breakfast and lunch to overnight guests and the public alike.

Capacity & Layout

With eight guest rooms, the Shaffner House is built for a small, contained event rather than a large ballroom wedding, which is worth knowing before booking: this is the venue for a couple who wants their whole guest list, or at least the wedding party, staying under one roof rather than checking into separate hotels scattered around downtown Winston-Salem for the weekend.

The inn’s meeting and event space is sized for intimate gatherings, corporate outings, and business meetings, and that same scale is what a small ceremony, a rehearsal dinner, or a Sunday brunch would use. Nine original fireplaces are scattered through the house, so even a modest guest count fills the rooms visually rather than looking sparse in a space that was built as a family home, not a banquet hall.

Amenities

Founders Restaurant, on the first floor, gives a couple an on-site option for a rehearsal dinner or a brunch the morning after, without moving the party off property or into a rented tent. A rear parking lot is available, which matters on a downtown street where guests would otherwise be circling the block hunting for a space to leave the car.

The original fireplaces, the grand staircase, and the Tiger Oak paneling all carry over from the 1907 build, so a couple photographing here is working with the same architectural details a Wachovia-era guest would have seen, not a themed reproduction of one. The 2021 and 2022 renovations updated the finishes and added the restaurant without replacing any of that original woodwork or the nine fireplaces.

Location & Getting There

The Shaffner House sits in downtown Winston-Salem, about fifty yards from Business 40, close enough that out-of-town guests are not navigating rural roads to find it, and close enough to the rest of downtown that a rehearsal dinner or an after-party can happen a short walk from the inn’s front door rather than a drive across town.

For a DJ, the house’s original plaster and wood surfaces, nine fireplaces, and enclosed porch mean the rooms are smaller and more acoustically live than a barn or a hotel ballroom, so sound has to be set at a level that suits a historic home’s own proportions rather than filling wide-open space built for a crowd.