Wedding weekend ideas in Knoxville — written for the guests

The pedestrianised historic square is ringed by restaurants and shops with tables out on the bricks, open at all hours, and it absorbs a group of any size while three of you are still in the air. Drift out the south end into Krutch Park, a ten-minute stroll past a stream with small falls and rotating sculpture, and you land on Gay Street among the theatres and hotels. Learn that loop and the rental car stays unbooked.

Check in on level 3 and ride up to the level-4 deck for fair history and views over the river and the ridges, all in under an hour and in dinner shoes. The deck is ticketed and closes briefly at midday, so check sunspheretickets.com or ring (865) 314-0660 first.

Nourish Knoxville runs this open-air, producer-only market on the square itself, a hundred metres from the downtown hotels, and it packs up early enough that it cannot make you late. The Saturday market keeps going through winter on a later, shorter day, though that calendar skips some Saturdays around the holidays — nourishknoxville.org has your weekend.

Volunteer Landing is 12.5 acres of Tennessee River waterfront below downtown, with a paved riverwalk, benches and the Neyland Greenway running on toward the university. Turn round whenever the hair-appointment clock says so. It is fifteen minutes downhill from Market Square, which makes it uphill home: wear shoes you can walk a mile in, not the pair you plan to dance in.

So book it on Saturday. The Tomato Head sits on the square, runs a Sunday brunch, takes online reservations and feeds the vegetarian without a negotiation. Reserve for the people who will genuinely show up, not the number in the group chat.

When the weather turns between brunch and the airport, this is the best free hour in the city: small enough to see properly in an hour, ten minutes' walk from Market Square on the edge of World's Fair Park. It closes one day a week and keeps shorter Sunday hours; check knoxart.org, and email info@knoxart.org well ahead for a group tour.

Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria is the group move: pizza, a long tap list, regular live music, open late every day, and a room twelve people can walk into without a reservation. If standing will not work, its private rooms go through Banquets@BarleysKnoxville.com with notice. Past the Old City, you need a car.

The closest real Appalachian outdoors to a downtown hotel: 300 acres of wooded trails, a boardwalk over the Tennessee River and quarry swimming holes, ten to fifteen minutes by car. The grounds are free, with donations welcome, but parking is charged per vehicle, so fewer, fuller cars win. Go Friday afternoon or Sunday morning in travel clothes, never between hair and the ceremony.

Children who have survived aeroplanes and a ceremony need grass, and the 1982 World's Fair site has plenty: festival lawns, the Tennessee Amphitheater, a stream and splash pads in the warm months. It is free and five minutes from Market Square. The free art museum sits at its edge and the Sunsphere stands inside it, so parents stay on the lawn while everyone else heads indoors, and the meeting point is simply 'the park'. Events close sections at times; check worldsfairpark.org.

When a toddler runs out of patience mid-lunch, this is the nearest escape: about an acre of paths and benches with a stream, small waterfalls and two water-play fountains between Market Square and Gay Street. The rotating sculpture, part of Dogwood Arts' public art programme, keeps an eight-year-old busy too. Half an hour here buys the adults their coffee back.