New York-Upstate

Just married at Wagner's Estate (on Seneca Lake). Vendor Reviews!

1) The venue itself, the Ginny Lee / Wagner's Estate Winery

Five stars, hands down

The site manager was friendly and quick with responding to questions, the food was AMAZING, and everyone could not stop talking about how beautiful the atmosphere was. I would recommend them to anyone in a heartbeat. For the amount of bang we got for each dollar there, we were completely and totally thrilled :) The wedding was absolutely perfect, and I'm so, so happy we went with Wagner's. 



Again, five stars, hands down. 


Let me preface by saying that I initially resisted the idea of a wedding photographer. 1) I abhor getting my picture taking, 2) everyone and their brother has a cell phone with a camera, so there'd be a thousand free pictures, 3) I REALLY hate getting my picture taken. So this was something I kept trying to weedle out of our planning, but my husband is a photography geek and was not budging on it. (That's fine, he's allowed his few non-negotiables.) So, we hired Meaghan, and I'm *so* glad we did. Meaghan and her crew kept the entire group laughing and smiling (even when we were shivering and getting damp while taking formals on the shore of the lake.) and the teaser shot's I've seen are absolutely gorgeous. I am NOT a great looking woman, but when I saw one of the her shots of me, I had my obligatory "Oh wow, I was a pretty bride!" moment.  So, again, seriously, would recommend her to anyone. She's based out of the capital region right now, and I don't know for sure what her travel policy is, but if you need a wedding photog, you're doing yourself a disservice not getting in touch with her. 

3) The DJ - Finger Lakes Platinum DJ. 

Five stars

So, we delayed on finding a DJ, because initially we were going to take the DIY approach of having our friends each pick a half hour of music, and then crossed that off the list when our DIY projects were overwhelming us. We were able to snag these guys a few months out (I think we formally booked them in June), and I frankly have no idea how that was remotely possible. For 450 dollars (plus travel if you're more than a certain distance from their home), we got 5 hours of DJ/MCing, uplighting, dance floor lighting, and a set of DJ's with fantastic personalities. They were funny and polite, they had a schedule but never pressured us to hold to it to the second, the music was glorious, and up to the wedding, they were super quick in responding to emails (and never once flinched when my father requested Rainbow Connection from the Muppets as our father daughter dance :)). 

4) Rehearsal Venue/ Hotel with room block - Hotel Clarence, Seneca Falls

4 Stars. 

The hotel itself is beautiful (although slightly oddly modern for a historical town like SF.) The rooms were beautiful - but heads up, if you have elderly family with hip or knee problems, this is not the place for them to stay. All of the beds are on risers high enough that my 6'1" husband had to toe up a little to get on it - for my grandmother, it was nearly impossible, and they were in a handicap accessible room. (That's half the star I took off.) For the rehearsal - the food for the rehearsal dinner was AWESOME, and their event coordinator was super helpful and friendly. The reason I took another half star off was when we were initially booking the room block and setting up the rehearsal, a different event coordinator was working there, and she was... less than helpful. When it rolled over all those issues were resolved, but that initial frustration was there, so... thats the other half star. 

5) Flowers - Woodfern Florist, Binghamton NY. 

Five stars

Every single bouquet was gorgeous (I'll happily post pictures if you want), their staff drove up the flowers really early and sat in the venue parking lot so we could come pick them up for formals and then just chilled until they could go into the Ginny Lee, and David, their event person, provided a ton of ideas when we were in the planning phase so we could get EXACTLY the flowers we wanted in the budget we had. Again - Beyond happy with them. 

6) Cake and cupcakes - Walker Cake Company, Corning NY. 

Three stars. Maybe 2.5. I can't quite decide. 

A) Inititally, they were great at responding to calls, and then as we got closer to the date (especially when it came time to make final payments/give numbers/etc), it started taking a few days to get a response, and giant games of phone tag ensued. 
B) We went in and had our initial consultation and listed certain elements that we really wanted on the cake - 3, all together. Only one was really implemented the way we were told it would be. We'd gone with an XKCD themed cake, and requested that the equations that were on other XKCD cakes made ours too - they weren't. And we'd talked about little balls being painted on with food coloring to look like the ballpit from a certain comic - what we got were round fondant cutouts that would have been way more appropriate for a kid's birthday party. 
C) Not all of our cupcakes got decorations. 
D) And, even better, we got mexican hot chocolate flavored cupcakes, and some of them had so much cayenne on top that people were spitting them out and claiming a burnt mouth feeling. 
E) Not all of the frostings were mixed completely through. 
F) They knew what time they were allowed to make deliveries to the venue, and they showed up in the middle of the lunch rush at the restaurant, and made some comment about a birthday party. 

Our order was clearly rushed. If you have a conflict with the date because of a child's birthday or something, don't take the date and rush through people's order. It's unprofessional and uncool. 

We've called a couple times to complain and request some of our money back, and each time we get told the woman responsible isn't there, and we haven't gotten a call back (seriously? the shop manager has been out all week? doubtful.) I'm getting seriously annoyed. 

7) Transporation - J and J Limos

Five stars

We got the stretch hummer, which was A LOT of car - but it comfortably fit myself and my husband, 5 bridesmaids, 4 groomsmen, the groom's parents, and my dad. The driver was flexible and put up with us running all over (or at least it felt that way) to pick up flowers and get formals before the ceremony. After the ceremony, the driver helped us load all of the gifts/wedding stuff/etc into the hummer, and then helped us get ALL of it into our wedding suite. He was totally awesome, and again, I'd recommend them to anyone. 




Those are the big vendors I can think of. If there's anyone else people would like to know about, let me know. 

Wedding Countdown Ticker I feel like I'm counting down the minutes until I marry my best friend

Re: Just married at Wagner's Estate (on Seneca Lake). Vendor Reviews!

  • Hi there! Congratulations! Can you share who you used for bridal hair and makeup? I am getting married at Wagner's in September and am having a hard time finding someone who will travel to the nearby B&B or someone close we can travel to. Thank you!
  • Aloha!

    Congrats on your wedding and thank you so much for posting information, comments, and stars about your wedding details! I am also planning for a FInger Lakes Vineyard wedding, but am at an earlier stage in the planning. Wanger has come up on the radar and your comments provide great support for their venue! What other locations did you look into for a wedding venue?

    Also, did you plan everything yourself or did you find a planner to help? I live in Hawaii so having someone local would help us out a ton!

    Congrats again and thanks!
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