My FI and spent Wednesday visiting venues in the Poughkeepsie/Wappingers Falls area. We went to three places, Villa Borghese, Le Chambord and the Poughkeepsie Grand.
We met with Karen at Villa Borghese. I have to say the place is gorgeous, just this side of over the top gaudy. Their packages are resonable. However, what really put me off the place was Karen herself. Rather than selling the wonderful place she had, she kept bashing all the other places in the area. She also couldn't take hints. While we were going through their brochure, she was literarally reading it to us, while stopping to tell us more stories about horrible weddings she'd been to at other places. My mom and I kept turn the pages of the brochure and looking at our watches, hoping she would take the hint and move on and she didn't. All in all, she was very off-putting and we nixed Villa Borghese from the list as soon as we left. That was a bit disappointing, since it looked like such a nice place.
At Le Chambord, we met with Roy. The place is nice and I could especially see a beautiful vintage wedding happening here. They only do one wedding a day and their room prices are very reasonable. I did have a few reservations about my wedding being coordinated by two guys named Roy and Antonio. We ended up not booking with them because the date we wanted was booked and our alternate date was $10 more a head, which made the package not as good a deal.
Michelle at the Poughkeepsie Grand was very nice, just kept pointing out all the good things they could do for us. The hotel is beautiful and the Terrace Ballroom is so not hotel-y. The little terrace garden they have is so lovely. We've booked there and we're so happy about it.
My mom and I also went to the Town Shop to look at dresses. Justine was really nice and kept picking the more beautiful dresses. I ended up getting a gorgeous Maggie Sottero and I'll be going back with my bridesmaids to get their dresses as well.
Edit: Apparently, my Maggie is called Kadence.