A Stunning Destination Wedding at Hutton Brickyards
This past summer, Angela and Zac got married at one of Hudson Valley’s most exciting new wedding venues: Hutton Brickyards! After a postponement and last-minute wedding venue change, this wedding wasn’t without its planning challenges. Still, it has been one of our favorites to date! Angela and Zac are a busy New York wedding couple and they trusted us as their wedding planners to take the lead on the design and create something truly memorable for them: from fun catering options to finding meaningful ways to include their children in both the ceremony and reception. We worked with some incredible wedding vendors to help bring the vision to life (a wedding day always takes a village!) and special shout-out goes to Athabold Floral for the stunning florals and Hudson Valley Vintage Rentals for the stunning and comfortable lounge set up.
Including Children in your Wedding Day
When we start to design a wedding day, we like to start with a couple’s top priorities. Yes, there are “big vendors” that typically get booked first (like your wedding venue). However, above all else, we really do focus on each couple’s priorities first. For Angela, she wanted to make sure her daughters got to play a part in both the ceremony and reception. First, the girls joined in the vows of the wedding ceremony. It was one of the sweetest moments. Next, during the reception, one of her daughters did a special dance performance for the newlyweds.
Unique Wedding Catering in Upstate New York
After including their children on the wedding day, their next highest priority was having great food. When we spoke with Angela about her vision for the wedding day, she wanted to make sure we created an environment where their guests felt comfortable, there was great food, and the wedding day felt easy. We designed the entire day around that feeling. If you are currently in the throes of wedding planning, remember to ask yourself how you want your wedding day to feel. That will always trump the latest trend or what you see on Instagram.
Because food was one of the top priorities, we chose really unique catering options. For cocktail hour, we hired two roaming oyster shuckers who served guests as they mingled. For the reception, we brought in Heirloom Fire. If you aren’t familiar with them yet, they cook over an open flame in front of your guests. It’s a really unique and fun experience (on top of offering delicious food!). In addition to the experience, the food is served on wood boards that sit on each table so that guests can dine family-style. This ends up making the food a seamless part of the decor.
If you are considering family-style dining, make sure to check out this post on designing your tablescape around your catering choices.
Choosing Hutton Brickyards as their Wedding Venue
Hutton Brickyards recently made our list of new and exciting 2021 Hudson Valley weddings venues. Being new, it has been so wonderful watching weddings come to life here over the summer. Surprisingly, Angela and Zac originally planned to get married in 2020 at their home, so we designed a stunning outdoor tented wedding. A wedding venue – even a gorgeous and untraditional option like Hutton Brickyards – was not in the original plan! Even when they first postponed to 2021, the plan always was to keep their wedding at home.
Closer to the date, they decided to move their wedding away from home and to a wedding venue in order to avoid the strict COVID rules and regulations around home weddings. That’s when we started to look at Hutton Brickyards – just four months before the wedding! It ended up being a perfect fit, and Angela and Zac had 60 of their guests stay onsite in the cabins for the weekend. It was a non-stop party for them and their guests. And of course, we stayed on-site with them to help make sure everything ran as smoothly as planned!
Planning a Destination Wedding in Upstate New York
Overall, Angela and Zac’s destination wedding was a huge success, despite all of the obstacles. Both of them have demanding full-time careers and they really trusted Elite Wedding and Event Planning to take the lead on the design and planning for them. Their destination wedding weekend was filled with three days of activities starting with a Friday night wedding, a fun food truck event the next day (we brought in a pizza truck and Bona Bona Ice cream truck), an evening river cruise, and a casual brunch on Sunday morning (complete with bagels, lox, coffee, juices, etc) to see their guests off. It was a memorable destination wedding weekend and we know guests will be raving about for years to come.
As you start to plan your own destination wedding weekend, your options are limitless. That’s why we love Upstate New York so much! If you are looking at an untraditional wedding venue, we would love to help bring your vision to life. Ballrooms aren’t our thing, but something like Hutton Brickyards? That’s our JAM.
You can learn more about Elite Wedding and Event Planning and how you can work with us here. Or, if you are looking for a little extra Hudson Valley wedding inspiration, make sure to browse our portfolio. When you are ready, connect with us directly, and let’s get started planning YOUR wedding day.
Wedding Planning & Design: Elite Wedding and Event Planning | Photography: Vik M Photo | Wedding Venue: Hutton Brickyards | Catering: Oyster XO & Heirloom Fire | Entertainment: A Perfect Blend Entertainment | Florist: Athabold Floral | Rentals & Decor: Stortz Lighting, Hudson Valley Vintage Rentals, & Events Unlimited Party Rentals | Transportation: JTR Transportation & A.N.N. Transportation | Excursion: Hudson River Cruises | Saturday Party Catering: Bona Bona & Mobile Pie Truck | Band: Upstate Jamboree & The Revisionist
