Murder Mystery at the Warren Center

Time to head out on the time machine again to Friday, March 12. That's when Eva, Rosie and I headed to the site of our wedding for an event that was completely unrelated to weddings - a murder mystery!

The three of us were seated at a table for eight that included a married couple who had been married for 45 years and a trio of friends who were slightly younger than us. Special thanks to Eva (L) and Rosie (R) for braving the Green line during rush hour to meet me, and enduring a 45 minute drive on top of that!

Arriving at the table, we quickly scoped out the food situation (a cheese and cracker station before the Italian dinner buffet started) and read over the programs at the table that detailed the "suspects" - here I am carefully reading the descriptions in completely unposed fashion!

Basically, our job was to help the guy in the trench coat (Detective something, I can't remember at this point) investigate four authors competing for a top book selling award:

Overall, there were six actors, including the Detective, mingling among us, offering us clues and give us a chance to ask any question we wanted!

This is the point where we got sworn in a deputy detectives to find the murderer - as you can see, Rosie and Eva dutifully raised their right hands while I snapped away!

I hate to say it, but the murder mystery was pretty boring. There were way too many of us (guests) in the room and not enough actors to keep the plot rolling. Plus, I think it was hard to logically deduct who the murderer was - the point was to guess, so I don't feel too bad that the three of us spent most of the time talking and catching up with each other rather than interrogating the suspects! In the end, the Detective brought all the suspects to the front of the room, explained how each one had a motive, and ended up arresting the "nerdy" writer who wrote about texting:

What saved the evening (other than the fine company of my friends) was the fact that the actors put on an impromptu version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" for an hour afterwards. I'm a sucker for improv and this part of the show was hilarious, especially since they took written suggestions from all the tables and managed to work them into all their skits.

So although the murder mystery concept fell a little flat (I think having the actors play out some sort of scenario with costumes rather than ordinary clothes would have also helped), overall, the evening was pretty fun and I was glad to give the girls a sneak peek at our wedding venue.

Our Wedding Venue - The Warren Center & Inn

As I had hinted at earlier, Andrew and I had toured three different venues (from an initial list of fifteen I created) and we had a hard time deciding between two in particular - the Connors Center in Dover and the Warren Center in Ashland.

Andrew and I had gotten a good feeling after visiting the Warren Center. But then I fell in love with the Connors Center. What helped us reach a decision in the end? The fact that Warren Center would allow us to have part of the ceremony outside, without being too dependent on the weather (Connors Center would have been all outdoors) and the fact that it would've been roughly at least 10K more - yikes!

Ashland is located more in Central Mass but isn't too far out. We also think our guests are going to love it because there is lodging on site, making it convenient for anyone coming out of town. You'll be able to simply exit your room and take a short walk to our ceremony and reception site!

This is what the Warren Center looks like when you approach it, it sits on acres of land:



A lovely gazebo on site that screams photo opp:



Did I mention that the Warren Center is owned by Northeastern University and we managed to score a 10% discount since Andrew graduated from Northeastern Law? That was definitely a big plus. You can see subtle signs of Northeastern's emblem throughout the Warren Center and one unsubtle sign in the shape of a husky, that Andrew got acquainted with:


This is where the outdoors ceremony take place - picture fall foliage, an white arch against the trees and rows of white chairs:


This is where cocktail hour will take place, right next to the ceremony site - just a short walk to the open bar!

This is the reception site on the second floor of the building - the room would be set up slightly differently for our wedding and would feature our wedding colors instead, but you get an idea of what it will look like:

For anyone staying over early on Friday night, there's plenty to do and explore at the Warren Center:

Including a lake - it'll probably be too cold for swimming but it makes for another beautiful photo opp:

That's one big thing crossed off our wedding planning to-do list - next thing to tackle is the photographer! We hope you're as excited as we are to see how the wedding turns out at the Warren Center.