Wedding Block Weekends: How Couples Are Using Both Hotels for The Ballroom & The Ivy

A wedding at The Ballroom or The Ivy creates a particular kind of guest list — three or four generations, a wedding party that wants to stay up late, and a set of out-of-towners who want to be in bed by ten. One hotel rarely serves all of them well. Two hotels, four hundred feet apart, do.

The split that works

Couples who have done this well tend to use Hilton Garden Inn for family blocks — parents, grandparents, families with young children, and any guest who wants a full breakfast in the morning. AC Hotel takes the wedding party itself, late-arriving friends, and anyone who wants the cocktail-bar lobby on Friday night.

Why the geography helps

Both hotels sit on the same campus as both venues. The walk from AC Hotel to The Ivy is under three minutes. The walk from Hilton Garden Inn to The Ballroom is similar. Neither requires a shuttle for the venue itself, which simplifies the entire transportation plan.

Welcome bags & logistics

Front desks at both properties will hold welcome bags for arriving guests if you coordinate with the sales teams in advance. Most couples drop bags off Thursday afternoon — half at each hotel — and the front desks distribute at check-in.

The Sunday brunch question

Brunch the morning after tends to anchor at Garden Grille (cooked-to-order, larger groups, families) or at LaScala’s Fire on the campus (livelier, hangover-friendly, mimosa-forward). Either way, no one is driving on Sunday morning, which is the entire point.

What couples tell us afterwards

The feedback is consistent: guests stop thinking of it as ‘two hotels’ by Saturday afternoon. It becomes one weekend, one campus, with two front desks that know your name. Which is, in the end, exactly what a great wedding block should feel like.