Anniversary flowers in Wilmington

Hotel delivery in Wilmington is easier than in a big convention city, because the inventory is small and every front desk is staffed around the clock. The Hotel du Pont, inside the DuPont Building at Eleventh and Market, is the anniversary address in this city — a 1913 hotel with Le Cavalier off the lobby and the Playhouse on Rodney Square attached, and the place most Wilmington couples book for a milestone night without leaving town. The Quoin on North Market is the boutique alternative a few blocks up. The Westin Wilmington on Shipyard Drive sits on the Riverfront beside the Christina Riverwalk, the Riverfront Market and Frawley Stadium. The DoubleTree on King Street and the Sheraton Suites on Delaware Avenue handle the downtown business trade. South and west, the Newark and Christiana cluster near the University of Delaware and Christiana Mall takes the overflow. Out in the Valley, the Inn at Montchanin Village on Route 100 — a restored nineteenth-century workers' village with Krazy Kat's on site — is the destination booking for couples who want Winterthur and Longwood in walking-to-driving distance, and the Chadds Ford and Kennett Square inns on the Pennsylvania side serve the same purpose. For any of these, address the order to the front desk with the reservation surname and the check-in date, and tell us whether the arrangement should be in the room or waiting at the desk.

Restaurant deliveries need more coordination than hotels and are worth the trouble on an anniversary. The downtown and near-downtown options a Wilmington couple actually books: Le Cavalier in the Hotel du Pont, in the room that was the Green Room for a century; Bardea on North Market, the restaurant that put Wilmington on national best-chef lists; Walter's Steakhouse on North Union; Tonic on West Eleventh; Piccolina Toscana in Trolley Square; Eclipse Bistro on North Union. The Columbus Inn at 2216 Pennsylvania Avenue is the classic Wilmington anniversary room and sits two blocks from Boyd's Flowers — about as short a delivery as exists in this business. North of the city, Harry's Savoy Grill on Naamans Road is the Brandywine Hundred institution; up Kennett Pike, Buckley's Tavern in Centreville is the Valley standard. The rule for all of them: call the restaurant yourself, confirm they will accept and hold an arrangement, then put the reservation name, the seating time and the confirmation in the order notes. A restaurant that has not been warned will put your flowers behind the host stand, which is not where you wanted them. A compact low arrangement is the correct form — anything tall becomes a sightline problem across a two-top.