Married In America

Planning Your Wedding? Marital Bliss Blooms in Chattanooga

In response to efforts to pass laws that allow businesses to refuse to serve LGBT customers, Queerty and its sister site, GayCities created a column, Outlander, to highlight businesses that embrace the LGBT community in unheralded places around the US and the globe. This week: Outlander visits unique places to host a wedding, beginning with Chattanoogan Hotel, Chattanooga, Tenn.

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Spring is in the air, and the blossoming trees are in bloom. Isn’t it a marvelous time to get married? Springtime may put you in a romantic mood at The Chattanoogan Hotel, the only 4-Diamond full-service hotel in eastern Tennessee, where the grounds sprawl through downtown and are covered in flowering trees.

The Chattanoogan holds a secret that only the luckiest of people in town know about. Take the elevator up to the spa, and outside there is a relaxation deck, where clients can lounge post-treatment amidst the tree tops and breathe the fresh mountain air. The deck is very nice any time of year, but in spring, it is like standing on top of the blossoms themselves. The tree canopy extends at deck level for almost an entire city block, and when the trees bloom they fill the air with a blanket of white petals.

The hotel’s restaurant, Broad Street Grille, serves extraordinary farm-to-table meals that make creative use of locally sourced ingredients; also, the hotel has the second-largest ballroom space in the city, behind only the convention center, so it is a popular locale for weddings, both indoors and out.

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Marriage equality has not yet reached Tennessee, but that hasn’t stopped the hotel’s staff from hosting wedding receptions for gay couples in recent years.

The Chattanoogan has a zen-meets-mountain lodge vibe, with dark woods and earth tones giving a warm feeling. If you stay overnight, for a wedding or any other reason, don’t bother with the standard rooms; stay in a suite. The bathroom is worth the upgrade.

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