Weddingbee boards

Here is a post about some affordable wedding venues that I checked out in the capital region if you are interested! Hope this helps someone!!! :)

http://myalbanywedding.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/finding-a-venue/

The blog link isn't working, so here's the post.

Finding a venue was definitely the hardest thing we (well, let’s face it – I) have had to do for the wedding so far. I was kind of picky, but I am really happy with where we landed.

It was tough because I couldn’t or didn’t want to cave on any of my criteria.

The potential venue had to meet several criteria:

1. Indoors

2. Located within 25 minutes of downtown Albany (though I was more flexible here and did consider Saratoga venues)

3. Seat 100-120 guests

4. Not a hotel or typical banquet hall, a place with some character

5. Affordable (after accounting for catering and rentals)

Each of the criterion was easy to deal with alone but pull-your-eyelashes-out stressful when considered in conjunction with the other two. In fact, there was only 1 venue that met all three criteria. Yep just 1 and I found it, whew.

1. About being indoors – I know there are several pavillions you can rent in Saratoga State Park and more local parks, but we never seriously considered them.They all have very early “closing” hours – usually around 6pm – and that just wasn’t our thing. Plus, rentals add up quickly.  The same goes for tents, for that matter. Besides, my mother is unable to conceive of having a wedding reception outside. She just can’t do it. I would be worried about the weather too though. Once we discovered our Church didn’t have fall availability until November, that really sealed the deal.

2. About being located nearby – Our ceremony will be held in downtown Albany in the afternoon and we are having an evening reception. Although we knew people would have enough time to travel a little farther away, it just didn’t make sense. All of our guests would have to drive home to Albany or their Albany hotel after the reception. We did discover a few really cute reception venues in the Hudson Valley and near Ithaca, but they were just too far.

3. Seating – OBVIOUSLY the venue had to be large enough for our guests. There were a few places that admitted 120 was really pushing it in their space or that they simply could not accommodate that number of people, like 74 State and Stage 1.

4. Not a hotel or typical banquet hall – I have been to wonderful weddings at hotels, country clubs, and banquet halls. BUT that is so not us. However, I did seriously consider one hotel, more on that below.

5. Affordable - Oh boy. I found that there are very few “cheap” venues and the ones that are “cheap” often require a lot of rentals (even bathrooms). I found a few places with low rentals fees/no rental with reasonable catering:

The Quaker Heritage Site near the airport has a barn ang meeting room for rent. The barn is not heated and does not have restrooms. (I was not really interested in the meeting room, which is heated and does have bathrooms.) Since it would be November, I ultimately did not check it the Quaker Barn, same with Mabee Farm.

The Altamont Manor is a great value. The owner knows his stuff and I can imagine how many brides are very happy there. They have beautiful grounds and he does great photography. They even know a rogue Catholic priest who performs ceremonies outdoors AND they have a vendor naughty and nice list. If you are looking for an outdoor ceremony and cherish photography this place is great – but that was not for us plus the travel time was longer than we wanted.

I really like several beers from in Brown’s Brewery in Troy, NY but I hate their food. They now use Revolution Hall for weddings and since were pretty into the brewery idea. So we arranged to have a taste-testing of their catering menu. The food was <expletive>.

You can rent the New York State Museum at Empire State Plaza. (FYI you can also put a tent on the plaza.) But you need to pay for security and it starts to get a little pricey but it is much more affordable than you think. It wasn’t for us.

We looked into the Saratoga Auto Museum. It was do-able, but ultimately we decided against the extended drive between ceremony and reception.

I contact the Historical Albany Foundation to inquire about using St. Joseph’s in Ten Broeck Triangle as my reception venue. The church is BEAUTIFUL. They said they would need to run it by their Board. They were very unresponsive to subsequent emails and I ultimately got too worried that being the first wedding in there would require more collaboration than they had time to give. Compounding this fact, it does not have heat or bathrooms. After more than a month, they said they were leaning toward allowing me to use the space but would know for sure in a few weeks. At that point I moved on. If I had an extra $15,000 in my budget I would have hired the best wedding planner around; rented the heaters, generators, and luxury port-a-potties; and partied it up in there. It just wasn’t meant to be.

Had I not found my venue, we would have had our reception at the Comfort Suites in East Greenbush (but more like Castleton.) WHAT? A HOTEL? A COMFORT SUITES? I know, I know, but yes. It’s actual very nice. It was built in 2004. The ballroom is plain and normal-looking. It is better than being in an ornately decorated 80s masterpiece. They have some really great deals with rooms and caterers. I was willing to settle for it. I would have dealt with it.

Then, on a whim, I emailed Daisy Baker’s in Troy to ask if they hosted wedding receptions. Yes, yes they do! Daisy Baker’s is in a renovated 1880s Brownstone. It was previously a YWCA and a church. It is now a vintage-looking restaurant. They have excellent pricing and have really worked with us to develop a unique menu. I am thrilled. <Edit> Unfortunately, Daisy Baker's has difficulty seating 100 guest for dinner, which they only discovered recently. I was planning to have my reception here but it's just not big enough.

Taste in downtown Albany was shockingly affordable and has an AMAZING view from their penthouse balcony where they sometimes do ceremonies and cocktail hour. Since it would be November and we wouldn’t be having our ceremony there, I  wasn’t sure if it was worth it but they do have heaters for an outdoor cocktail hour. The reception room carpet was well-worn, but Will didn’t notice and by bridesmaid thought I was crazy for becoming pre-occupied with the carpet. Their event coordinator took a few extra minutes to put together a great menu for us. Ultimately, we chose Taste after I revisited it when Daisy Baker's fell through.