Wedding DJ at Graduate Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, NC

The Space

Franklin Street’s hotel here began in 2009 as the Franklin Hotel, was sold to AJ Capital in 2018, and reopened in August 2020 as Graduate Chapel Hill after Graduate Hotels bought and renovated the property in 2019. The design leans into UNC and Tar Heel culture throughout, including reclaimed basketball court flooring used across guest rooms and public spaces, and a detailed replica of Michael Jordan’s UNC dorm room from his 1983 stay at Granville Towers, built to match the room as it appeared in a Sports Illustrated photo shoot.

The hotel holds 69 guest rooms across five floors, along with more than 2,400 square feet of dedicated meeting and event space split across two named rooms. Because the building started life as a different hotel entirely, the bones are older than the branding: a boutique property shaped twice, once by its original owners and again by Graduate’s renovation, with the basketball-themed touches layered on top rather than built in from the start.

Capacity & Layout

The larger of the two event spaces, the Davie Poplar Room, measures 1,431 square feet and seats 100 guests banquet-style, or holds up to 125 standing. The smaller Dorrance Room measures 1,166 square feet and seats 56. Together the two rooms total 2,597 square feet, giving couples a choice between one larger room for a full wedding or a split arrangement using both spaces.

A 100-seat capacity in the Davie Poplar Room puts this venue toward the smaller end for a full wedding, better suited to a focused guest list than a large one. Couples choosing the smaller Dorrance Room for a rehearsal dinner or a more intimate reception get a room sized for around 56 without it feeling like a downsized version of a bigger space. Booking both rooms together, at 2,597 square feet combined, gives a ceremony-and-reception day room to breathe without leaving the building.

Amenities

On-site catering runs through the hotel’s Trophy Room restaurant and bar, so meals do not require an outside caterer to be brought in and set up separately. The property offers free WiFi throughout, a 24-hour fitness center, and wheelchair accessibility.

Parking is self-serve at $27 per day, with covered and secured options and EV charging available on site, worth knowing for a couple with guests driving in from out of town. Because 69 guest rooms sit above the event space, a portion of the wedding party and out-of-town guests can stay in the building itself rather than booking a separate hotel block elsewhere.

Location & Getting There

Graduate Chapel Hill sits on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, about 18 miles from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Franklin Street itself is the town’s main strip, lined with shops and restaurants, which gives out-of-town guests somewhere to walk to before or after the wedding rather than being stranded at a stand-alone venue.

We have worked a wedding in this hotel, and the Davie Poplar Room, an indoor space measuring under 1,500 square feet, gives a DJ a contained footprint to fill: at that size, sound reaches every table without needing to push volume, and the room’s modest scale means setup and breakdown both move quickly between the ceremony and reception if both happen in the same space.