Wedding DJ at The Colonial Inn in Hillsborough, NC

The Space

Few venues on this list have operated continuously since the 1830s. The Colonial Inn dates to 1838, sits on the National Register of Historic Places, and is the only antebellum hotel in Hillsborough still standing today, a distinction that survived nearly two centuries as a cornerstone of the downtown historic district. A full restoration brought the building back and reopened it in 2020 as a 28-room boutique hotel with an event space and bar built in. The inn is recognized as one of the oldest continuously operating hotels in the state and carries the Ascend Collection Hotel affiliation today, a designation reserved for historic, independently distinctive properties operating within a larger hotel brand.

The event space itself includes a ballroom, and the property adds a courtyard between the main building and its annex, a quieter spot to break away from the reception for a few minutes. Out front, the inn’s iconic porch gives the wedding party a backdrop for photos that predates the wedding by close to two hundred years, which is not something a newly built venue can offer.

Capacity & Layout

The event space is designed for gatherings of up to 100 guests, a size that keeps the room feeling full and social rather than half-empty, and that fits the scale of the historic building itself rather than a ballroom built to hold hundreds. For a couple planning a smaller, more intimate wedding, that ceiling on guest count is a feature rather than a limitation, and it means every guest stays within easy sight of the ceremony rather than spread across a room built for a much larger crowd.

Wedding rentals include the bridal parlour space for five hours, enough time to cover hair and makeup, photos, and the walk to the ceremony without watching the clock the entire morning. Because the inn also houses 28 guest rooms, the getting-ready timeline does not have to compete with anyone checking out or arriving for an unrelated stay that day.

Amenities

With 28 furnished guest rooms on-site, the wedding party and out-of-town family can stay the night without booking a separate hotel or arranging transportation back after the reception ends. The Honeymoon Suite is available among those rooms, and in-house catering with a dedicated culinary team handles the meal without bringing in an outside vendor for that piece of the day.

A full bar serves craft cocktails, local beer, wine, and spirits, and the on-site restaurant serves American cuisine for anyone extending the celebration into brunch the next morning. The building is wheelchair accessible throughout, which matters in a structure this old where accessibility is not always guaranteed.

Location & Getting There

The Colonial Inn sits about a tenth of a mile from the center of historic downtown Hillsborough, close enough that guests staying at the inn can walk to nearby shops and restaurants before or after the wedding without needing a car for the trip.

Between the ballroom’s indoor setting and the courtyard just outside it, a DJ setup in this building is working with an older structure’s mix of solid walls and smaller rooms rather than one big open hall, which keeps sound contained to the ballroom itself while the courtyard stays a naturally quieter space for guests who step outside.