Watkins Glen State Park - Watkins Glen, NY

South Entrance Pavilion.

State parks are rustic and underutilized for weddings for a number of very valid reasons, but I thought that maybe I should give them a chance.

This is one of those moments that I have to say my future husband was really spot on. He was totally pulling for Watkins Glen back in February and I had my nose in the air. Well honey, you were right.

Watkins Glen State Park is right in Watkins Glen NY. No really, I mean just before you hit Seneca lake there's the state park entrance. It is a park known for the gorge walk and stairs, gorgeous hikes, and super family friendly camping.

The most frustrating thing about the park is the NY website for state parks. There is very basic and limited information on the site about renting the pavilions and two pictures, tops, which when you're a) almost two hours away and b) trying to figure out a wedding reception, two pictures are not helpful.

What the website lacks, the park rangers make up for. I called before they closed on a weeknight (6pm in August) and Christina was super helpful. She went through the cost of the South Entrance Pavilion and how we'd go about getting it rented in our names and suggested that I stop by and fill it out over the weekend.

Things to know:

State parks in NY only book 11 months out from the date you want. Since we were originally looking at July 4th weekend, it only just opened up for rental.

State park pavilions book up crazy fast. They are awesome choices for family picnics and get togethers because hey, it's a park. There are things to do. Nature! Water! Inexpensive!

For the south pavilion, there are three electrical outlets that I could see. It's about as dingy as one might expect a park pavilion to be. It comes with two fridge/freezer combos, (really awesome) fireplaces on either end, electrical, and downstairs there are 'comfort stations' open to everyone in the park - even if you book the pavilion, expect it to be used by others in the park. The bathrooms (comfort stations) are not awesome. Peeling paint, the smell of ... well. Park bathrooms, very old and very dirty. Ladies, this is not where you're going to get ready for your big entrance.

The pavilion is at the end of the entrance, the road loops around in front of it. There is parking near by, which is also parking for the state park pool which is also close by. The pavilion itself is open on the front and enclosed on three sides.

There is a small, narrow balcony off the back but it is showing the signs of time and state budgets, so please do not reenact Romeo and Juliet from there.

All those things considered, it has got a lot of character and space. You can easily get 100 guests in the full pavilion (they rent it out center and ends, or you can rent the whole thing. We'd go for the whole kit and kaboodle). It would be easy enough to decorate with a ladder as there are steel and wood rafters with old hanging lanterns. There are also hooks and eyes above the open entrances from a previous wedding (seen on pinterest in fact) where they hung curtains and kind of classed it up a bit.

It comes with picnic tables as well. I'd want to move those out or into one of the side rooms and not use them as well, climbing over a bench to sit down is not in my plans for a wedding but it obviously worked for other couples so make it yours.

Ceremony: there is a large area at the base of the hill behind the pavilion that is flat and lovely that has been used for ceremonies in the past. It is really lovely, near a pond but not so near that you have bugs competing for your attention. My biggest problem with this is that for the mobily challenged guests, this ceremony site is not going to work. It is definitely not a spot where you'd be wearing heels unless you were keen on breaking your leg or your neck. Or both.

But. For the couples who are into cowboy boots, converse, flip flops, this could definitely work.

Summary: 

Cost: $ 225.00 per day for the whole pavillion. Does not include exclusive use of the bathrooms below.

Inquiry: Best by phone. They will mail a rental agreement to you or you can stop by the park office and get one.

Response: less than 24 hours

Follow Up: We drove out, got the pictures and are still considering it. It would be an entirely different affair and where we would save on rental fee, we'd incur other costs.

Other notes: Super rustic. Not for the meek of heart getting to the field below. Can only rent out 11 months in advance. Watkins Glen hosts a huge racing event the second weekend of August every year - the whole town books so be aware of that.

Ithaca Yacht Club - Ithaca, NY

I had a lot of hopes for IYC. It is right on the shore of Cayuga Lake (being a yacht club, that might make sense) and the company running the catering (H&J Hospitality) has gotten stellar reviews all over the web. Kelly was our contact and after an initial email snafu (my email address is complicated so I always try to follow up in different ways) Kelly was very accommodating and helpful.

We arrived Thursday night to the club without any problems other than some to be expected traffic in Ithaca itself. The parking was a bit haphazard as there are no guidelines but there is ample parking space for approximately 50, maybe 60 cars depending on a parking attendant.




The club is okay but a bit dated. The main dining area has low tiled ceilings. There are large windows looking out to the lake, a view only partially blocked by the blue patio tent to the left. The bar area is in good condition with vaulted ceilings and the same large windows. Wood paneling and nautical theme throughout but not terribly kitschy.

There are several patios off the main club house, a large playground area, and a roped swimming area into the lake.

The point, or ceremony spot is level, with a nautical style flagpole kind of centered. The flagpole itself is showing the same wear and tear the rest of the club is showing and could use a refresher. For an outdoor ceremony Kelly recommends renting a tent just in case of inclement weather. We would also have to rent chairs which I thought was included in the $ 350 ceremony fee, though looking over the package again it is marked that there was an additional chair fee so that is my fault and not theirs. Despite this, I am still not entirely sure what we're paying for by having the ceremony there.

Ceremony spot

There was a lot of animal feces at the point. Being animal people we ignored it at first, but within minutes the sporadic clusters became landmines. We were fairly certain it was from maybe the ducks wandering around but I couldn't be sure. I assume that they would have a ground crew sort that out before a ceremony. I would absolutely include that in the contract.

View of the club from the point

The firepit area

There was a separate room that had a pool table in it. The lights were off so I didn't get a good look. There was a small lounge area that I was able to get a picture of but realized this morning there was a gentleman sitting right there. I have no problems taking pictures of people, or having people in the pictures, but I try to be courteous and not show faces especially when I'm posting reviews. So no picture of that. Sorry!

The bathrooms smelled like lake water and being you know, on the lake that makes sense. Like the flagpole, it could use a refresher. It was two stalls only and I didn't think to ask if they has another bathroom for use. I'd hope so but it's definitely something to follow up on if we decide to pursue this venue.

The tables sizes and types are a nice mix, though the chairs are definitely dated as you can see in the pictures above. Kelly brought that up in fact as other couples have rented more modern chairs for their reception. I am not sure I'm willing to add that to the overall cost at this point as the way it stands, IYC is just outside the top end of our budget for 75 people. Doable, but it's a stretch.

The food options are really excellent and priced decently - right about the same price point as other places we've looked at. Their presentation is easy to read and understand and their catering packages are explained very well. H&J Hospitality has a couple other venues that they oversee, so they are sounding like a well oiled machine at this point.

The space is ok. I might be able to do some nice lighting, candles. Nothing really with the ceiling as it's so low so the tiles will have to stay. The dance floor is small, and depending on the party size could be in the bar area, out on the patio, or in the main dining area.

Kelly was very helpful - I can't say that enough - and flexible. We haven't ruled it out entirely but we're going to keep looking. Moving the wedding date is helping a bit, though then we're running into Fall rain. We are thinking about checking out the UU chapel in Ithaca for the ceremony itself at this point.

Anyway, we're going to keep plugging on.

- E

Summary: 

Cost: Depends on time of year and space needed. For us, $750 facility charge (66-120 guests), $ 350 ceremony fee, minimum of $ 4700 in food and drinks.

Inquiry: By email and phone

Response: 24 hours initially, phone calls immediate.

Follow Up: We drove out, got the pictures and are still considering it.

Other notes: None at this time.

Edited to correct Ceremony fee and information, add summary - E

New Park - Ithaca NY

Chalk this up to a place that didn't get very far.

The pictures are lovely. The whole space looks amazing. If we were planning a weekend long event, rather than an evening/night affair, we might have looked further.

Things that made me draw a line through this:

1. Weekend long event usually means thousands of dollars just in rental and before we get to catering.

2. We would have to rent a toilet trailer. I cannot tell you enough how that immediately crosses places off my list. If I wanted a porta potty, we'd have it at a friend's place and skip this venue search altogether. (for some folks a toilet trailer is not a deal breaker - I'm not judging. I just am not willing to do that for our wedding, or worse pay for the ability of our guests to relieve themselves especially after paying for the rental of a venue)

3. When I request information, I'm looking for hard numbers. The email response was genuinely kind but too fluid. Nothing concrete. That is basically a strike, especially after not having anything on their website about fees.

4. The website made me crazy. The pointer is a hard to see bumblebee and the pictures took forever to load.

If anyone has held an event there, let me know. I'd love to include a review on them.

New Park Ithaca Summary:

Cost: Unknown
Inquiry: by email.
Response: less than 24 hours
Followup: No for reasons listed above.

Interlude from the reviews

Hi all! So we're getting a bit of traffic on this site and I want to say Hello and ask that everyone is patient with me while I'm getting the reviews published. I will definitely be taking more pictures to add to the posts as it has been terribly frustrating to only see some pictures for the venues, and not necessarily the pictures I needed to see before heading out to check out the space. Be warned, I'm packing an iPhone so this isn't going to be magazine quality.

Upcoming reviews (or Good Grief I've Been Driving Everywhere and Still Don't Have A Place Picked):

Vestal Hills Country Club
West Branch Resort in Hancock NY
Watkins Glen State Park - South Pavilion
Chenango Valley State Park - Twin Lakes Pavilion
Celebrations! - Ithaca
Tioga Gardens - Owego

We're also firming up the criteria to give summaries in addition to the descriptions because lets be honest, what didn't work for us might absolutely work for you.

If there's a place you'd like to suggest we check out, please leave it in the comments. I'm looking for something within a two hour driving distance, max, and I'd like to keep it to NY rather than PA. Beyond that and the future husband might have a point and get me to run off to St. Thomas (which my parents are all for!)

So thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave comments or follow for updates which should be pretty steady over the next month.

- E

Scotts Family Resort

Scotts Family Resort - Oquaga Lake, NY 

This was our third stop on the first day we went looking for a venue so sadly, the best I can do is link to their website for pictures as I didn't have the forethought to bring a camera with me or use the darn camera on my fancy phone.

Brides, Grooms, interested parties: ALWAYS take a camera. Please learn from my mistake.

This was a place that my dad had actually reached out to and asked me to check out. He was really impressed with their response - they sounded like the would be very accommodating over the phone. They mailed information to the house rather than emailing it which was both really nice and slightly frustrating as I pretty much want to see all the information on the internet right away.

We set up the appointment and off we went.

Sadly, that is kind of where the good stuff ends.

The resort was really dated. Not just in the time capsul-ness of it, but in the rundownedness as well which is a shame as my dad can remember spending summers on the lake when he was a boy and how it was the place to be. My future husband made the quip that if one was doing a Dirty Dancing themed wedding, this place would be ideal.

Despite having explained our wedding date and party size, when we got there we discovered that we would basically have to guarantee a block of rooms (not necessary as 90% of our guests live within driving distance) or we would have to share rooms with guests - neither of which was explained or brought up during the phone call. And that sharing of the space included the reception space. And because it's a running resort, guests would have the priority over space and events - for example, the one room we both liked - their ballroom - we would not be able to use as it would be reserved for guest functions that night.

The outdoor ceremony space at the gazebo was depressing. There was a gazebo, yes, and there were benches for guests (which is more than we can say for some places, so there's that) but not only were they all showing their wear and tear, but it was overgrown and very much an after thought. There was another ceremony site down by the lake which had a slope to it - not terrible but something that should be taken into consideration. This was right off another building where the coordinator suggested we have cocktail hour. It was in better shape than a lot of the other places at the resort, but again, very dated.

The coordinator was really lovely and tried to be helpful, to the point that she and my dad were discussing maybe renting a tent and putting it on the grounds for a party, but by then we were talking rental of the 'venue' without any of the perks, plus renting a tent, plus all the accessories for the tent... and well, you could hear the dollar signs adding up.

To be fair, they had just had a wedding cancel for the 4th of July weekend and they didn't at the time have a good deposit system in place so it sounded like - from what the coordinator explained - that they were at a significant loss for what should have been their opening season. So it is understandable that going through that right before we walk in with our hopes of a July 3/4 wedding, that she'd be trying to cover their bases to make sure that doesn't happen again.

I can't really recommend it for a number of reasons. I didn't get a good sense that they had the ability to handle weddings - their primary function is a family resort, not a wedding venue. I'm sure there are brides and grooms out there who have had nothing but awesome experiences there but from our walk through there was no sense that anything we had discussed prior to arrival was taken into consideration so essentially it was a waste of time for us and them.

Pheasant Hills Country Club - Owego, NY

This place snuck up on me.

At first I dismissed it. The pictures show a giant red barn which was not at all what I was looking for when I said I'd be open to a rustic barn wedding. However, continually hitting road blocks will make one cast a net further afield than originally intended and this is how I found myself out in Owego. 

They have two venue spaces. The first one that Brandon showed us to was okay. Under cover, yes, the front 'open' but you could insert plexiglass in case of inclimate weather. The floor was recently poured, stamped concrete and while it was nice enough, it didn't really hit my YES list. It was too big, the space was kind of awkward as it went around a corner into a bigger space for the DJ and all that. 

So, as I am mentally just gearing myself up for this to be another loss I ask Brandon if they had any other venue space. 

And that's when we found the perfect reception space. 

Their clubhouse is also recent. From the outside it is nothing exceptional, but the inside is rustic and charming without being kitschy or so rustic that I have to haul in portopotties. There's a gas fireplace, windows and several french doors that open to a patio that overlooks the valley golf course. A bar with six taps is in the back of room with space enough to seat more than 100 comfortably. 

I was pretty well sold at that point. 

The sticking points came when we looked at the ceremony space, and later when I looked at the budget for catering and venue rental. 

The ceremony spaces include two spots: One next to the clubhouse (easily accessible, electricity is near enough to run a small PA system or lights or whathaveyou) and we wouldn't need golf carts to get mobility challenged folks to the site. 

The second was a bit further afield overlooking their signature golf hole. It was a large enough pad (t-box) for all our guests, definitely, but we would need golf carts to get folks there. J was not happy with the view though - for us it would be great because we could see everything, but for our guests it was kind of meh. Just trees and scraggly looking. It was also completely exposed which meant that if the weather was really sunny (July wedding, even around the Southern Tier it *could* happen) our guests would be sweating themselves silly in their fancies. If it rained, we'd be looking for plan B. 

I could have worked with the second spot, but J wasn't sold and instead thought maybe we could consider a different ceremony spot and just have the reception at PHCC. We ended up looking at Tioga Gardens for a ceremony which was less than 10 minutes away. The upside is hey, he would be happy, the downside is we'd be paying more for a separate site, travelling to and from places, and all that. 

Then the catering. 

They do not do any catering on site because as Brandon explained, they just don't have the staff. This is a good thing to know and totally not a ding on PHCC - anyone who is serious about finding a good vendor for a venue and catering should be okay when the contact says yeah, no. We cannot in good faith provide that service.

They have three local caterers that they'll work with though and you are limited to using one of those three: Terra Cotta, PS Restaurant, or Red & White. I'll go into more detail about the catering options in other posts, but sufficed to say as of this post Terra Cotta's minimums were out of our range, PS Restaurant didn't respond to repeated requests for information, and we are on the books to meet with Red & White at the end of August. 

Only having one caterer to choose from pretty much took the wind out of my sails. 

They recommend is Stacey Webb for decorating and I've worked with before. She unfortunately is busy that weekend and I'll review that later. 

So for everyone else out there here is the takeaway. 

1. Don't dismiss PHCC. If you have a smaller party check out their clubhouse. I will try to get back there to get pictures as they don't have any listed on their website. It is absolutely worth a check. 

2. The price is okay. Comparable to other venues we've looked at but with slightly more effort in catering. 

3. Brandon was very easy to work with and on the ball with answers and honest about what they could and could not do. That kind of knowledge is super important as there are a lot of people out there who might believe they can do things they really can't. There are hundreds of reviews on WeddingWire and TheKnot that will attest to this. 

So I am bummed that we couldn't work around the issues, but I definitely recommend it for other couples looking to have something slightly rustic but with style. 

The Run Down or Why I'm Doing This and What To Expect

Hello!

On my way back from an impromptu trip up to Watkins Glen NY (on a Thursday before the races start - good grief) I started thinking about all the places my future husband and I have driven to, checked out online, and done a lot of work trying to find a decent spot to get married at and have a reception.

It has been frustrating. Any bride will tell you finding a venue is kind of a nightmare. I worked at a bridal shop and I remember thinking that there was a whole lot of crazy that goes into everything - I loved what I did but I always had that nagging feeling of how much churning the bridal industry does to make one day profitable for a whole lot of parties interested in everything that happens *before* the marriage.

I decided on the drive back that I was going to blog this - Every venue we've looked at will get its own post with pictures, contact information, what we liked and what we didn't like. There will be reviews - some of the contacts have been incredibly helpful, others have been really not helpful. I think you should know going in what to expect.

And I will finish this blog after we get married but leave it up so other people might get some use out of it. It's been equally frustrating to find blogs that are half started with awesome ideas but no idea what happened to the couple, if they chose one of the venues or what happened - I want pictures of receptions! Ceremonies! What went right? What went wrong?

Of course, the other reason I'm doing this is to give my poor friends a break from my half wild zomg I don't have a venue and we're supposed to get married in 11 months stare.

No one needs that! I don't need that! So. Here you go internets. Upstate NY, Wedding Venues and Catering and Decorating galore.

A little bit about our parameters.

1. Our wedding party is small. No seriously - we have a ton of friends and despite the high days of huge bridal parties, we have decided to do a best man and maid of honor only. We love all our friends and will include them on a ton of things, but not in the dress the same and be our bridal monkeys. Save the money! Drink more!

2. Our guest list is smaller than the industry standard. By a lot. Depending on the venue and catering costs, we could be as small as 50 people or go to about 100 and no more. Budget for the reception is $5000. The whole thing - food, venue, decorations, DJ, the works. That is a whole lot of money to us and a pittance to most places we've talked to and visited.

3. Our budget is still in the works. We are going through some challenges just like any couple and we have to be super-duper realistic about what we can afford. My parents have offered to help (hence having a reception budget) but we are pretty much on our own. And you know, that's a good thing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love to have the ability to just throw $50,000 on a day. But we're not those kinds of folks.

4. She likes pearls, he likes rustic. Our tastes as a couple couldn't be further apart most of the time. However, we've learned to work together on renovating a 100+ year old house and have gotten this far, so we're making it work. It means a lot of humor, a lot of patience, and a bucket of compromise. But dammit, it will be pretty.

So I think that's everything to get started.

Let's have some fun, shall we?

- E