New to The Knot....

juda29

Hiee there my friends Im new to the Knot just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Julie my fiance adn I live in Miami. We are planning on celebrating our BIG DAY in upstate New York. Thats where my fiance is from, so since Im planning long distance I would love any help or advice. We are getting married in Sept.  I hope we can all help each other for our BIG DAY and exciting, new life ahead.

Thank you in advance,
Julie

brainybrunette

Congrats and welcome to the Knot : )

Where in upstate NY are you getting married?  

FI and I are gettting married at the Hall of Springs in Saratoga Springs on 10/12/12.

lehc723

Welcome! I'm from Miami originally (around outside of Coral Gables), and getting married in the Capital Region in October.

juda29

Thank you ladies,great to hear from you! Ive heard the Hall of Springs is beautiful! Congrats! Have you heard of any reviews on Mallozzi's? Or Century House?

Thank you again

pockysquirrel

It appears I've joined this thread just in the nick of time. I'm getting married at Century House 10/6/12 and have loved all my interactions with them so far! And while I've never been to Mallozzi's personally, a friend of FI's is getting married there next year and I've heard lots of good things.

I'd be glad to answer any questions you have regarding Century House, here or in PM.

brainybrunette

We're using the following vendors:

Photography:  Joe Elario Photography - pricey, but photography was one of our top priorities.  Our engagement pics came out absolutely beautiful and JP was so fun to work with.  I can't wait to see what our weddings pics will look like!

Video:  Al Woodard - I love his fly on the wall approach to wedding videos

Flowers:  White Cottage Gardens - Bob has been great to work with so far and his prices have been very reasonable

DJ:  Mike Garrasi (Music Man Entertainment) - Mike has been absoutely wonderful to work with!  We're planning our wedding from Rochester, NY, so most of our initial conversations with vendors were over the phone.  Our first phone chat with Mike lasted about 2 hours!  He's a great guy and I'm so excited that he'll be doing our music.

Most of these vendors book up very quickly, so if you're interested in any of them I would contact them ASAP for your September wedding. 

pockysquirrel

Century House has been GREAT to us so far. Marge is the coordinator over there; she really knows her stuff and is more than willing to negotiate the perfect package for you. We ended up paying a bit more than we had originally planned, but there was also a LOT more included, so it evened out nicely! The packages are individually tailored and can be very inclusive - if you wanted to, say, DIY your own linens, chair covers, centerpieces, whatever, they'll accomodate you. Or if you'd rather have them do it all for you, they'll do that, too! They have a hotel on site and offer a discounted rate for your guests, and your room on the wedding night is comped. We haven't done much with them since we booked and reserved rooms since we took a planning break for the holiday, but now that the new year is here and things are starting to settle down, we're going to be contacting them to do our tastings and hammer out some details soon.

The outdoor site at Century House (we're planning on using it also) is situated out behind the hotel, and it actually used to be a tennis court before they repurposed it. The surrounding grounds are gorgeous, as long as you're into a really natural and rustic look - open fields with tall grasses and reeds, the mountains (and fall foliage!) out in the distance, and a HUGE willow right behind where your altar would be. There's a nature trail nearby that would be great for pictures; I'm thinking of doing my engagement shoot come spring. The former tennis court is fenced in and can be decorated however, and they also tent it in case of rain. I don't know that it's open enough to give you the full effect of a sunset ceremony, and I'm not sure how the lighting would be. I'd say try to check it out at that time of day, and see how it looks.

Now that I've written a novel about how much I love my venue, I have a couple things to say about other vendors, too. I got engaged on 10/1/11 and we set the date for 10/6/12 within two weeks of that. So with just shy of a year to plan, I was surprised by how tough it was to find vendors who had my date available! The end result was that I chose a couple lesser-known names in the area who might still be available for September.

Photography - Tim Greer of Camera Famosa. I knew the instant I met this guy that I wanted him to shoot my wedding. He's young, personable, and very easy to work with. He's a former photojournalist who has only been shooting weddings for the past few years and is trying to get his name established in the field. His package options are very simple and user-friendly. None of that pushy 'you need to buy these prints and those stupidly expensive albums' stuff. Just your photos and all the rights to them, plus he covers your whole day rather than charge by the hour. And he includes an engagement shoot at no extra cost.

DJ - Bruce Tallini Mobile Entertainment. This has been the biggest challenge of my planning so far, because it seemed like every DJ I could find was either unavailable or cheesy. :P My mom actually found Bruce after asking another DJ for referrals. He used to be one of the top DJs in this area, but moved to Florida for family reasons and has worked down there for several years. Now that he's back, he's trying to rebuild his business in the Capital Region, and as a result, his prices can't be beat. We got a GREAT deal for not only our reception music, but also our ceremony music and the mikes and sound system we'll need to make sure everyone can hear our officiant and our vows. He is not at all a corny cheeseball DJ. He's a classy guy with a great knack for reading and responding to a crowd.

We're not using a videographer and DIYing the flowers, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. Still, I hope you found this post useful!

Em2Woo91

Nic12184 - out of curiousity, how much is your photographer for e-session and wedding phots?

brainybrunette

Em2Woo91:  I'll send you a PM

crashwee

Hey there.  I'm still in the process of finding that 'perfect place' myself!!  I am from Hunter Mountain and I just wanted to suggest you might want to check out the Hunter Mountain Ski Lodge.  They do a lot of weddings there.  You have access to the ski lift to take sunset pics at the summit or midway if you'd like.  They have a beautiful restaurant with a giant open floorplan and windows galore- perfect for catching the scenic mountain landscape in the background.  The weather should be very nice that time of year (just be careful of outside weddings in NY.  The weather seems to turn quite often).  Windham Mountain ski resort is also only about 15 minutes away....  Check them out when you come in February, even if you're not interested, it's a beautiful scenic ride up.  It's about an hour southwest of Albany.

http://www.huntermtn.com/huntermtn/groups-weddings/weddings.aspx

If you decide to come visit the mountain let me know, I can recommend some great places to stop in for a snack or dinner (lived here for 15 years)
Good luck!!
Ash

oxj7822

Hi! Iive in Rochester NY, recently married. TK helped me a whole lot. I used Jason Gardner from Gardner Photography for pictures and can't be happier! He is very easy going and flexible. He listened to my needs and didn't try to upsell. His website is www.gardnerphotography.net He also is a tv photographer, and doing weddings for about 10 years i think. My cake was from Grand Finalles desserts, the best cake I've ever tasted. I chose Midnight Manhattan but changed banana buttercream to strawberry. My flowers were from Floral FX. Laurie really knows what she's doing. But whatever you do, stay away from Jimmy C Music Machine! He bashed everyone trying to sell me photo+video+dj package, but he is the one I heard horror stories from brides.

juda29

Thank you ladies soooo much for the help! My fiance' and I went up over the weekend and decided to go with having our ceremony and reception at the Albany Country Club on Aug. 31st What do ya think? Does anyone have any advice for that time of year? Im planning a sunset wedding, hoping it wont be to warm. But Ive been told the views looks amazing that time of year!

Any advise on a florist Hair and Makeup artist?

Thank you to all the brides out there

brainybrunette

I've never been to the Albany Country Club, so I can't give you feedback on that.

I'm using Make Me Fabulous out of Ballston Spa for my wedding.  They will come to whereever you're getting ready, so you don't have to worry about traveling to the salon on wedding day.  I'm working with Alayne (the owner) but I've heard that all of her staff is excellent.  I've had my preview session with Alayne and absolutely loved how I looked : )  If you're interested in MMF, I would book soon because they are very busy and might have your date already booked.

: )

riley614

There have been some changes at Century House. I don't know whether or not to recommend it. Normally, they do a wonderful job. Also look at the Desmond in Colonie, Mallozzi's, the Stockade Inn in Schenectady, and the Inn at Saratoga right in Saratoga Springs, and Longfellow's which is also in Saratoga. They are all popular places. The Glen Sanders Mansion in Schenectady is very popular.

juda29

Thank you soo much! I will look into that salon,cause I have NO ONE TO DO HAIR AND MAKEUP (((((((

juda29

Thank you soo much! I will look into that salon,cause I have NO ONE TO DO HAIR AND MAKEUP (((((((

juda29

Great thank you sooooo much! I will look into that salon since I have NO ONE to do my HAIR OR MAKEUP YET!! YIKESSSSSS

juda29

Great thank you sooooo much! I will look into that salon since I have NO ONE to do my HAIR OR MAKEUP YET!! YIKESSSSSS

juda29

Hi Ladies, 
 Ive had a very difficult time finding a florist, and I really like Margette from Price Chopper. Since Im doing a long distance wedding its so difficult to imagine what the pieces will look like. Has anyone seen her work?

Thank you, hope you all having fun planning your special day 
  Julie