With summer behind us, it’s now time to focus on… holiday parties! We were so pleased to be included on this list of holiday party venues in Boston, that we decided to round up a few of our favorites here.
Our list has a bit of a twist – these are unique venues that will offer a fun and memorable experience. No boring, cookie cutter venues here!
Easily accessible from Boston, Cambridge and Metrowest, this 3,300 square foot venue features a flexible, open floor plan and a capacity for 240. Operable garage doors allow for access to an adjacent courtyard, giving your guests options – and the possibility for adding an outdoor bar or pulling up a food truck. >> Get in touch!
This historic, spacious warehouse space balances historic and modern elegance beautifully. Warehouse XI has been fashioned to honor the history and beauty of the neighborhood it belongs to but has evolved into an industrial, chic, modern event space, perfect for your holiday party.
This fun and funky restaurant and jazz club is located in The Boston Center for the Arts complex in Boston’s South End. Host your event amongst the backdrop of an eclectic and bohemian art space, while enjoying delicious food, cocktails, and world-class live music.
Located in the beautiful setting of the Larz Anderson Museum’s idyllic grounds, the historic Carriage House was built in 1888 and is a perfect setting for a corporate dinner, fundraiser, meeting or cocktail reception. Your guests will have access to all public galleries and a docent can be made available for guided tours.
This historic 19th-century textile mill overlooking the scenic Charles River provides a unique, historic, picturesque backdrop for your next event. Smaller parties can make use of the Museum’s Main Gallery or Watch Gallery.
This summer, we welcomed back our friends from CommonWheels for their annual fundraiser, the Allston Rat Race. What is a Rat Race, you ask? It’s an all day bike ride around Allston and Brighton, filled with community based events and lots of fun. The day-long event ended with an after party at Garage B, filled with live music, great food, and community spirit.
CommonWheels is a non-profit organization that offers Open Shop, a free, DIY, bike-maintenance skillshare and education program. The goal isn’t to fix your bike for you, but to help you fix your own bike and learn from the experience. Open Shop is also a great chance to hang out with your fellow Boston cyclists, trade stories of biking adventures, and share your own knowledge. The Speedway is proud to host Open Shop throughout the year.
Firmly rooted within the Brighton/Allston neighborhood, as well as easily accessible from the rest of Greater Boston – Garage B prides itself on being a community resource. We host maker and vintage markets, concerts, workshops, fitness classes, kids events, and so much more. Have a great idea of how your group could use this space? We want to hear it! Get in touch.
This past weekend, we welcomed Rivian, maker of highly-coveted “adventure vehicles” to Garage B and the Charles River Speedway. For the New England stop on their “Rivian on the Road” tour, the brand was looking for a venue that would allow their deep customer and fan base an opportunity to connect directly with the electric vehicles.
Rivian needed a venue that allowed a multi-day booking and that could easily accommodate the potentially tricky load-in for showcasing large vehicles. Garage B and the Charles River Speedway fit their needs perfectly, and also allowed Rivian to accomplish a full site takeover.
In Garage B, the team parked two cars inside and built out their Gear Shop. This space created a quiet, focused environment where potential customers could ask questions, sign up for test drives, and learn more about the technical details. Rivian also parked two vehicles in the Speedway’s well-trafficked upper courtyard, a space surrounded by small-format food and beverage businesses that attracts a strong weekend and evening crowd. This allowed for more casual interaction with the cars, allowing for organic discovery and introducing the brand to a new audience.
Garage B and the Speedway also proved to be an excellent location for test drives. Rivian parked their vehicles on site, allowing hundreds of potential customers to test drive the cars or take ride-alongs. Taking full advantage of Garage B’s location on Soldiers Field Road, the drivers had the unique opportunity to pull right out of the site and follow an attractive loop that gave a driving experience with very few interruptions or city traffic. A very rare find in Boston – and a fun callback to the former location of the original Charles River Speedway, a historic racetrack located where Soldiers Field Road is today (and the source of our name!)
The Rivian team also capitalized on the location by taking full advantage of the Speedway’s food and beverage offerings. Rivian fans and staff members made Rite tea & espresso their go-to daytime drinks location, and after touring the vehicles, guests kicked back and relaxed with beer in the Notch biergarten or a glass of wine on the patio. Even on the last day, which proved to be a rainy and humid summer day, there was no slow-down in Rivian fans and potential customers coming out to see and test drive the vehicles.
With the 2023 wedding season nearly upon us, we had to share one more absolute gem of a wedding from last fall. Garage B hosted several weddings in 2022 that quickly have made “hall of fame status” in our books. These couples brought so much creativity and life to our blank-slate wedding venue, making each wedding incredibly unique and custommade for their tastes and interests.
When planning an event in a space like Garage B, there are so many directions to take the look and feel of a wedding. Some couples can walk in and picture what they’ll do with the space right away, others need some visual inspiration to help make decisions. That’s where we come in! Looking for more unique weddings and how they made the most of our blank-slate wedding venue? Check out Sara + Tom’s Traditional and Bright Wedding, Rohan + Jackie’s Vibrant and Colorful Sangeet, and Olivia + Dylan’s Rock n’ Roll Wedding.
Carrie + Ricky
From the minute we met these two, we knew that they were the perfect couple to make the most out of Garage B’s blank-slate canvas. As Allston residents, Carrie and Ricky are deeply involved in the local community and love where they live.
It was on their way back from a visit to check out a nearby traditional wedding facility when they passed Garage B on Soldiers Field Road. The idea dawned on them then that this just might be the creative solution they were looking for all along.
Engagement Photos
The couple booked the wedding in January 2022, and asked if they could take their engagement photos at The Speedway. They loved the historic and urban setting, and also wanted to introduce the idea to their wedding guests through pictures. With a few costume changes and using nearly every corner of The Speedway, they got an incredible collection of engagement photos from their photographer Brain Pu Ruiz.
The Ceremony
Carrie and Ricky not only utilized Garage B for their wedding, but they also used the entire Charles River Speedway complex in a really creative way. The beautiful fall evening got off to a very fun and celebratory start when the bride was dropped off at Gate 1 on Western Avenue, and walked with her wedding party through the busy Speedway courtyard on her way down to Garage B. The courtyard was already buzzing as the location for a 5k race afterparty, but when Carrie and her bridesmaids walked through, the crowd went wild. And we were off to the races!
The couple held their ceremony inside, with a really creative and effective layout. With the altar set up opposite the wall of garage doors, the wedding party made their grand entrances through the center open door, walking in under a sparkling disco ball chandelier. After the beautiful and warm ceremony, the party moved to the courtyard for a cocktail reception and for family photos. (The bride and groom also took a very photogenic breather on the lawn on the Charles River Speedway buildings – swapping their wedding shoes for fashionable – and comfortable – sneakers.)
Party Time
Back in Garage B, the catering team was efficiently moving the ceremony set up into a wedding reception arrangement, moving the chairs and setting up the dining tables. The reception layout mimicked the ceremony, with a head table where the vows took place, and a large dance floor in the middle of the space. The disco ball was still prominently featured.
They ate, and drank and danced the night away – but the night wasn’t over yet! It was time to move on to the after-party, but they did it high style, of course. A New Orleans-style street band, The Pat Gaulin NOLA Trio, led the wedding party in a rollicking second line parade from the Garage, up through the Speedway courtyard (where the Speedway courtyard crowd showed their appreciation so much that the wedding party took a few laps), before heading down Western Avenue to a post-wedding party at Avenue 24. The traditional second line parade signifies the start of a new life together – we wish Carrie and Ricky the very best and will welcome their creativity and energy back here anytime!
Boston Beauty Coalition Fashion Show, Andrew Dunne Photography
As an event venue, Garage B’s open plan layout is perfect for setting up seated dinners for weddings and special celebrations. For meetings and retreats, the open plan lends itself well for presentation-style seating arrangements, which can then be rearranged for breakout sessions.
These are the types of events our Garage B team expects, and can execute flawlessly. But in recent months, Garage B has showcased flashy motorcycles, hosted photo shoots, and now – our first ever fashion show. As it turns out, Garage B can also transform into a runway!
Boston Beauty Coalition Fashion Show, Andrew Dunne PhotographyBoston Beauty Coalition Fashion Show, Andrew Dunne Photography
We were thrilled to welcome Boston Beauty Coalition into the event space a few weeks back, as they hosted the Boston Spring Style Showcase. The day-long event included a marketplace of beauty vendors, and then transitioned the room to host a wildly successful – and FUN – fashion show. We loved seeing the space used as a backdrop for such colorful and vibrant looks.
Looking for a place to hold your next fashion show? Garage B is runway-ready.
Garage B is the ultimate flexible space. Beyond weddings, corporate meetings, and family celebrations, Garage B has also become a sought-after photography shoot location. Brands and location scouts have reached out time and time again to use the event venue for a studio setting, pointing to the open layout, abundance of space, availability of natural lighting, and great location. Our team is ready to provide the space you need for commercial photo shoots, film locations, video production work and more.
Image by Jess Oldham PhotographyImages by Jess Oldham Photography
Benefits of using Garage B as a film or photoshoot location
Space
Garage B is an event venue with 3,300 square feet of raw space, featuring operable floor-to-ceiling garage doors along one wall. The space has an “industrial loft” feel.
Location + Parking
Located in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Garage B is located at the crossroads of Soldier’s Field Road and Western Avenue, and is easily accessible via the Mass Pike. Close to Cambridge, Watertown, and Newton. Parking available on site, and the site is serviced by multiple bus lines, including the 70 and 86 lines, and a short walk (0.7mi) to the Boston Landing Commuter Rail station.
Amenities + Break-out Spaces
Garage B is an event venue within the Charles River Speedway. The Speedway is home to several shops, restaurants and bars situated around a central courtyard. Breakout space is available.
Availability
As an event venue, there is a great deal of flexibility around off-hours availability. Venue is available to rent for the day, or in some cases, multiple days or longer timeframes.
Brands using Garage B as an actual raw garage space to showcase or market new vehicles? We absolutely love it.
Garage B has a lot of range – the blank slate venue can host beautiful weddings, lavish birthday parties, and impactful fundraisers and corporate events. We all know that this place looks really great all dressed up. But since 1940 – the building has a history as a real working garage, where DCR parked their trucks and kept their equipment. So it’s not surprising that Garage B is also the perfect place to show off vehicles of all kinds. Last year, we were lucky enough to play host to the unveiling of the new Ineos Grenadier – and last month, Garage B was a stop on the multi-city Ducati “Ready for Red” tour.
This was experiential marketing at its finest – giving bike lovers a chance to come preview their newest line in person. Ducati fans poured into Garage B to take a look at the new models, gear, road bikes and more. The advance team used the blank slate venue to their advantage – placing strategic uplighting in brand colors throughout the space, and veiling the bikes for a big reveal after the guests arrived. The event space at Garage B was easily transformed to provide the edgy and cool vibe the brand was looking to establish.
Guests enjoyed refreshments from Boston Catering + Events, get a feel for the new line with a rousing update from the Ducati team, and even get a chance to hop on the bikes – both to get a feel for the new bikes, and for those ever-important photo opportunities.
Are you a location scout or marketing director looking for the perfect blank canvas to showcase a brand? Garage B is just the place.
Garage B hosted several weddings in 2022 that quickly have made “hall of fame status” in our books. These couples brought so much creativity and life to our blank-slate wedding venue, making each wedding incredibly unique and custom-made for their tastes and interests.
When planning an event in a space like Garage B, there are so many directions to take the look and feel of a wedding. Some couples can walk in and picture what they’ll do with the space right away, others need some visual inspiration to help make decisions.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to share some of the most unique weddings and how they made the most of our blank-slate wedding venue.
Next up, Sara and Tom! This couple’s late October wedding was just simply gorgeous and a wonderful example of how to hold a relatively traditional wedding in Garage B’s blank-slate space.
Sara and Tom chose to host both their wedding and reception inside the Garage. As guests arrived, they were greeted with a cocktail set-up outside the venue in the adjacent courtyard. Just before the ceremony, the guests were ushered inside and invited to take their seats.
The ceremony was framed by a beautiful and bright floral arch and the aisles were lined with candles, all setting the stage for a warm and intimate service filled with family and friends. Afterward, the attendees filtered back outside for a cocktail hour while the bride and groom took photos around the Charles River Speedway. The guests were entertained by the Vine Shakers, who set up a three-piece band outside during the cocktail hour. The beer was flowing, thanks to the Notch mobile tap truck, which parked next to the party-goers in the lower courtyard.
Meanwhile, inside – the caterers from La Bonne Maison quickly flipped the space beautifully from ceremony to reception, setting the stage for a night of speeches, great food, and plenty of dancing.
This was such a beautiful and elegant wedding – we absolutely loved hosting Sara and Tom at Garage B!
Garage B hosted several weddings in 2022 that quickly have made “hall of fame status” in our books. These couples brought so much creativity and life to our blank-slate wedding venue, making each wedding incredibly unique and custommade for their tastes and interests.
When planning an event in a space like Garage B, there are so many directions to take the look and feel of a wedding. Some couples can walk in and picture what they’ll do with the space right away, others need some visual inspiration to help make decisions.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to share some of the most unique weddings and how they made the most of our blank-slate wedding venue!
Garage B hosts weddings, yes, but we are also a great venue for wedding-related events. We have hosted engagement parties, rehearsal dinners, elopements, engagement photo shoots, and anniversary celebrations. One of our absolute favorite events to date was Rohan and Jackie’s Sangeet, held as part of their wedding weekend.
A Sangeet ceremony is a traditional Punjabi and North Indian pre-wedding celebration involving lots of festive dancing, singing, speeches and other performances in honor of the couple and aimed toward bringing together the two families.
Garage B was transformed with the most beautiful draping throughout the space. The entire back wall was draped, creating a soft and vibrantly colored backdrop for the event. Uplighting did a great job highlighting the colors and textures of the draping. A henna station was a real draw, allowing family and friends to prepare for the next day’s wedding ceremony. (The station was later transformed into an ice cream stand, which was also very popular!) Beautiful lounge furniture was also centrally placed to allow the couple to take in the festivities.
The result was one of the most dramatic transformations we’ve seen of Garage B – we are absolutely obsessed with all the color and texture present at this occasion, and also by the amount of love, tradition and fun witnessed during this very special Sangeet ceremony.
Garage B hosted several weddings in 2022 that quickly have made “hall of fame status” in our books. These couples brought so much creativity and life to our blank-slate wedding venue, making each wedding incredibly unique and custommade for their tastes and interests.
When planning an event in a space like Garage B, there are so many directions to take the look and feel of a wedding. Some couples can walk in and picture what they’ll do with the space right away, others need some visual inspiration to help make decisions.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to share some of the most unique weddings and how they made the most of our blank-slate wedding venue!
First up – Olivia + Dylan!
Let’s just put this right out there: Olivia and Dylan are incredibly cool. They brought such a unique, rock n’ roll vibe to Garage B, we simply had to share all the thoughtful details and considerations of their big event.
Coming from the world of party production, where music and dancing are a huge deal, the couple immediately established that live music was going to be a focal point of their event. The layout of the room was organized to accommodate the biggest possible dance floor. In this space, that meant one very long table, creating a dramatic and intimate party atmosphere. With the big long table, the floral design followed – including a custom-made suspended structure draped with long-stem roses.
The wedding took place on a beautiful October day. The ceremony took place at nearby Herter Park on the Charles River; afterwards the wedding attendees were shuttled over to get the party started at Garage B. The party was designed to invoke music festival vibes. Two live bands (Playing Dead and Seba Molnar Band) performed throughout the reception – to maximize dance floor space, the bands set up outside in the lower courtyard with the garage doors wide open. Later in the evening, the Glitter Boys kept the party going.
Personal touches by Olivia and Dylan were scattered throughout – table numbers were made from beloved album covers, charcuterie-lined dining tables, a lounge area featuring vintage furniture, and other personal details like custom-made neon signs, coozies, and canvas bags all featuring their beloved pup made the day truly memorable.
