Rooftop pool at the Alfond Inn
It’s not often that you can plan a pop-the-champagne-cue-the-D.J.-bring-on-the-shrimp-and-grits wedding while simultaneously giving back to society. But at the Alfond Inn, a new hotel in Winter Park, Florida, you’ll be helping financially-strapped college kids while treating guests to a bash at a venue with all the trimmings: lush lawns, palm-lined gardens, formal courtyards, and wrought-iron terraces—the kind of grand European-style place the neighborhood is known for, despite its proximity to Orlando (Walt Disney World is only 30 minutes away).
Here’s the scoop: The inn is owned by Rollins College, a small, well-regarded private liberal arts institution in Winter Park. Built with a $12.5-million grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation, the inn’s net operating income will endow The Alfond Scholars program, which offers full scholarships and provides additional financial aid to deserving students.
Philanthropy is lovely, of course, but you’re probably more interested in what kind of a party you can throw. You’ve got venues from a glass-domed Conservatory (ideal for ceremonies, cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres) to a Spanish-style pool veranda (we can picture lantern-lit tables under the loggia) to a 5,000-square-foot ballroom, should you be going the princess-for-a-day route. You’ve got menu offerings from cheesy fries (at a wedding? oh, yes!) to Wagyu beef carpaccio. And you’ve got 112 high-tech-but-high-style guest rooms in which to stash your buddies—and, in some special accommodations, their dogs.
And here’s something almost as amazing as the hotel itself: its prices. Rates from October 1 start at under $160 a night. For guests traveling with youngsters in tow, that’s the kind of rate that lets them effortlessly combine your wedding with a visit to the Happiest Place on Earth. See, you’ve just done another good deed.
Ironwork comes with an edge at the Alfond Inn
