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.
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