Nretrospect: A Blushing Bride

For over a century, The Hermitage Hotel has been Nashville’s top destination for the city’s brides. One such bride was Dorothy Vogliazzo Smith, who had a special tie to the hotel. Dorothy’s father was Alfred Vogliazzo — head chef of The Hermitage Hotel’s famed Grill Room from 1931 to 1951. Chef Vogliazzo was known as the “smiling chef” for his brilliant and ready grin.

In 1944 Dorothy married Lovell Maxwell Smith, and the couple held their wedding reception in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom.  Maxwell would go on to become one of Nashville’s first interior designers, and Dorothy helped him manage the business — L. Maxwell Smith Interiors, which used to sit where BrickTop’s is today. Dorothy and Maxwell’s daughter-in-law would go on to own the wildly successful (and still missed) Stacey Rhodes Boutique.

Research by Wanda and Tom Vickstrom