Top 6 Venues.. any thoughts?

keekolee414

Hi there,

My fiance Jason and I are looking into a venue and I'm curious if anyone has had any experience with any of the following?

Arbor Ridge
Le Chambord
La Mirage
Mountainville Manor
Colonial Terrace
Villa Borghese


Thanks!!!

chrisnjay2010

I got married at the Villa Borghese this past May- Everything was perfect and went according to plan. The food was great and my guests raved about it and the service.  My DH and I had no problems at all in our planning process. It was really smooth.  Feel free to PM me if you want.

lzbride

we had our wedding at the colonial terrace and was recently there for another wedding.  it was still great.  make sure you speak with leon, he's awesome and very accomodating.

lzbride

as an aside, i recently went to villa borghese and it did not meet my expectations.  did not like the food at all.

woodfrogs

Went to Arbor Ridge recently, I thought that their outside ceremony area could use a little sprucing up. The food was good, the owner is a bit of a control freak(from what I saw).
La Mirage, was there last year, food OK. The round room is interesting, kind of dated tho. They charge extra for chairs for their outside ceremony area.

Le Chambord - I heard that they've renovated since I was there last.

Villa Borghese - they often have more than 1 event going at a time, so that my factor into your decision. Their outside ceremony area is pretty, lots of arches.

They have a new cocktail room upstairs and it's nice. The bridal rooms are a smidge small(IMO).

Good luck with your planning!

Woodsy62

Anyone else get the feeling Izbride is a vendor?

TerriandJoe

Woodsy - yup

KeeKolee - give me a few moments to respond. I'll be back.

kristinanddan

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-york-hudson-valley_top-6-venues-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:113Discussion:b8979f29-0bc8-4ab5-8119-660dae6eaaddPost:b429d1a1-b2a3-4a0b-8c44-eccfdc444b28">Re: Top 6 Venues.. any thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]Anyone else get the feeling Izbride is a vendor?
Posted by Woodsy62[/QUOTE]

Yes, but I do agree about villa borghese - not a fan of the wedding we attended there AT ALL.

Woodsy62

Kee - have you tried The Grand Hotel in Poughkeepsie?  They put on a good wedding and the prices are very reasonable.  Same owners as The Grandview.

TerriandJoe

Hi Kee - (told you I'd be back)

When we were engaged, we (or more accurately, I) looked at literally a ton of venues.

So I know exactly how you feel when you get to your "top 6"

Anyway, you wanted info...

Arbor Ridge -Um, well, I really wish did better in my rankings. saw this place before we officially got engaged. (Joe had already bought my ring) Loved it! But that was when it was owned by the Sinapi family (the same people who own Ceola Manor). Anyway, they sold it and the new owner took over. (He says he used to work at one of the New Rochelle places) Anyway, we went there for New Years eve with high hopes that this is where we would be booking. We were not impressed at all. I will send you a pm, but we were very disappointed.

Le Chambord -Looked at the place, and thought it was ok, but read the reviews online, (this was late 2008 / early 2009). And I was influenced by them. So we didn't go further. However, they recently renovated, so I would check them out again if I were you (and even I am anxious to taste the food). If I were you, I'd ask for references of recent brides and other event hosts to get an idea of the changes. (They more than likely will be aware of the "bad", so hopefully they can tell you what's "good")


La Mirage -Only thing I know about them is their ads (and their website since i've been on it a bunch of times!) They advertise a lot in the poughkeepsie journal, so I was intrigued when we started planning. It's across the river, so we didn't investigate further, but the prices are low compared to a banquet hall. (Temptingly low, which is why I kept checking back) Anyway, depending on how many people you are planning on having, restaurant receptions are perfect for smaller weddings,  however, if you are planning a larger (more than 100 people) size, you might want to look into a traditional reception hall where the attention will be on you and your guests. (unless they will close the restaurant for you, then that's different) Also, the pictures, while pretty, make the place look old.

Mountainville Manor - Looks very pretty! I've never been their and never heard about them before I started to plan our wedding. It's across the river, so I didn't look.  (However, if they were one of our photo possibilities, I would have dropped them from our list because the pictures are dated). The place may look the same, but I'd wonder why they don't have any more recent pictures to show. It might be an oversight, but ask about that). But their pictures look current and the place looks beautiful! But, since I've never been there, I know nothing about them.

Colonial Terrace -The owners are very nice. And you get the feeling that they do really care about their brides. The renovations make the place look beautiful. But for a bunch of reasons, we choose to not have our wedding here. In fact, it never broke our top 10. A couple of reasons:the location of the women's restroom is downstairs, if they have more than one event the start times are too close in my opinion, lack of nearby hotels. There are a couple of other reasons, pm me if you want.

Villa Borghese -Villa Borghese actually made it to our "top 7"! We ended up not using them because my cousin had her reception there and we would have ended up in the same rooms. (Both for cocktail and the reception) (I didn't like the "little" room towards the back, so we would have had the "medium" room. which is what my cousin had. However, the new upstairs cocktail hour room would have been different, so it was in the running. But upon learning that while I could request my cocktail hour upstairs, if another bride was having a scheduled outdoor ceremony and it looked like rain, she would have her ceremony there, and we'd get our cocktail hour bumped to downstairs, which is where my cousin had hers. So we ended up deciding not to go there. But they were in our top 7! (As far as the food, while I didn't care for my chicken marsala that I had at her wedding, everything else tasted like normal catering hall food. In other words, it was fine!) As far as two weddings - as long as they are at least an hour and a half apart - you will be fine!


And as far as the places that Woodsy mentioned...

Poughkeepsie Grand - Another in our "Top 7", unfortunately, my dad didn't like the parking garage and we realized it would have probably been to far for our guests.

The Grandview- This place is beyond beautiful! I would have loved to have had our wedding there. But unfortunately we were looking at having a Saturday night wedding and it would have been way over budget.


Just figured I'd mention them because she gave them as suggestions. But if you are down to a "top 6" you have probably looked at all the venue options. Have fun and good luck with your venue search! And let us know where you end up!

TerriandJoe

Kee - just sent you PM

rblucy

I went to a wedding at Mountainville Manor a few years ago and was not impressed.  The decor was not my taste at all.  The food was just okay and a waitress spilled gravy on my friends new dress.  The space was tight as well. 

karbar42

We had our wedding at Arbor Ridge (09/24/10) and it was great!  Everything went smoothly, the food was so yummy and my guests still talk about how great everything was.  Kevin, the owner is very businesslike/brisk, but in the end he was great to work with and very accommodating.  There were minor snafu's (our guest book wasn't put out correctly), but nothing that took away from the day in anyway.

TerriandJoe sent me her bad review prior too booking, but honestly, we didn't have any of the issues she spoke of.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd book Arbor Ridge again in a heartbeat.