Wedding DJ at The Greystone Inn in Lake Toxaway, NC

The Space

Before it was an inn, this was a private home. Lucy Camp Armstrong, wife of Savannah shipping and minerals magnate George Ferguson Armstrong, camped on the site for the whole summer of 1913 in a 2,000-square-foot tent built on a hardwood floor before deciding this was where she wanted to build. The mansion went up in 1915, designed by architects Heinz and Reid in a Swiss-influenced style with casement windows, flower boxes, and balconies, and Lucy kept expanding it through 1932 to add a dining room, sunroom, kitchen wing, and a freestanding library.

Tim and Harriet, known as Boo Boo, Lovelace bought the property in 1984, after a 1980s plan to raze the mansion for condominiums was blocked by the Lake Toxaway Property Owners Association, and renamed it the Greystone Inn for its distinctive stonework. It opened to guests on July 15, 1985, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year. The mansion now holds 30 guest rooms and named event spaces including the Rockefeller Suite, the Lovelace Room, and a freestanding Library, alongside the Restaurant and South Lawn.

Capacity & Layout

The South Lawn is the largest single space, seating 146 for a dinner and holding 100 or more for a cocktail-style reception across roughly 3,000 square feet, making it the room to consider first for a full outdoor wedding dinner on the property. The Restaurant seats 108 for dinner or 125 cocktail-style in about 1,350 square feet, a middle option that works indoors regardless of weather.

For a smaller wedding, the Rockefeller Suite, originally Lucy’s own library, and the Lovelace Room each hold 800 square feet and seat 52 and 40 guests respectively, while the Library, at 600 square feet, also seats 40 for dinner. Because the property offers this range from a 40-person library to a 146-person lawn, a couple can match the room to the guest list instead of renting a space sized for a crowd twice what they are inviting.

Amenities

The 30 guest rooms mean a wedding here can function as a weekend rather than a single-day event, with family and wedding party staying on site rather than driving in each day. The inn has earned AAA Four-Diamond recognition and has been featured in Country Inn Magazine, Southern Living, and Travel and Leisure’s World’s Best Awards, and parking on the property is free.

The Lake Toxaway setting itself is part of what a couple is booking: the lake was created between 1902 and 1903 by damming the Toxaway River, and even after the original dam burst in 1916 and briefly drained it, sending a wave reported at 30 feet downstream, the lake was restored and today the property overlooks it with the Blue Ridge Mountains behind. The nearest airport is Asheville Regional, about 39 miles away, close enough for a same-day drive for most flying guests.

Location & Getting There

Lake Toxaway sits well into the North Carolina mountains, far enough from the interstate that guests should plan the drive time in, but that same remoteness is what gives the property its quiet and its mountain and lake views. The mansion’s long single-family history, nearly seven decades under Lucy Armstrong alone, gives the rooms their character rather than the feel of a hotel built for events from day one.

We’ve worked a wedding on this property, and the rooms call for different approaches to sound. The South Lawn is open air, so a DJ needs speakers aimed to cover 3,000 square feet without walls to help carry the sound, while the smaller indoor rooms like the Library and Lovelace Room, both under 800 square feet with normal ceiling heights, hold sound in more easily and need a gentler touch on volume to avoid overwhelming a room that size.