Real Wedding at Full Moon Resort, A "Before and After" Story Part I

Hello to all! I'm an event planner at Full Moon Resort, so a lot of thought went into where I should have my wedding along with all the other details that come after you pick your venue. I decided so share my wedding thoughts before I got married and then compare them to my thoughts after our wedding.

When figuring out the right wedding venue for you it is important to think about the following:

Do you want separate venues for your wedding ceremony and reception? Safety is always really important to me. I couldn't stand the possibility of drinking and driving. Not only did I want all my festivities to be in one place, but I also wanted a place that could house all my guests after the party if needed.

We were looking for place that could hold all of our events and offer accommodations for everyone if need be. Hotels, resorts, camps, etc. were all the types of places that fit our first goal.

How many people are going to come to your wedding? From my experience you should not count on more than 25% of your guest list declining. However, there are many factors that go into whether or not guests can easily attend your wedding. Make sure that the reception venues you are interested in can seat all the guests for your ceremony, plus a few more. Statistics show that more people attend receptions than the actual wedding.

We realized that we needed a location that could fit at least 250, just in case we had that many guests accept our invitation.

What kind of place do I want to get married in? A botanical garden, a hotel, a church, a family member's home, a public park, an apple orchard, etc?

Getting engaged in northern California really set the stage for our wedding. We knew we wanted something laid back, a place where our family and friends could get away from it all and have quality time together. However, since I am in the management profession, I have control issues; we wanted a laid back place but it had to be professional at the same time.

What is your budget? Wedding experts say couples are spending 50% of their budget on the reception, but this includes the Reception Site, Food, Beverages, Rentals, etc.

Do the research. You need to get on the web and talk to others and come up with a list of venues to investigate. You can find them by entering key words such as "wedding site," "party hall," "reception facility" or "wedding space." Many sites allow you to search by location and facility type to find the best space. Remember, you are looking for a location that is going to be memorable, cost-effective and that also matches your vision for the event at the price you are willing to pay.

Realize that the wedding venues you are comparing are likely not similar enough to compare apples to apples, so there is going to be some figuring involved. For example, some of the venues we considered provide only the location and nothing else. Other places include everything, even all your vendors (photographer, hair, music, etc.) So when you figure out what 50% of your overall budget is that doesn't mean you should spend it on your wedding location alone. Make sure you can include food, beverages and rentals in that amount.

For us, Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY was the solution to the perfect wedding we were looking for. We worked with them on the date (we are getting married on a Monday) and they worked with us on the price. All of our events would take place on the same hundred acre property.

Now that I'm planning my own wedding, I must agree that planning a wedding is a lot of work.  There are so many ways to customize your wedding at Full Moon that it can be daunting, but who wants a cookie cutter wedding, anyway?  We picked Full Moon because of their flexibility and because (within reason) they are willing to let us do whatever we want. Plus, we will have exclusive use of the facility, so our guests will be the only ones there and we can really make our wedding a world of its own.

Lastly, the biggest thing that sold us on Full Moon Resort was our ability to get the biggest bang for our buck. After spending over a year planning our wedding and all the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into the process, who wants it to end after 5 hours? We were able to design a three day wedding event and create the vacation for our guests we had envisioned.

Below I have listed my experience in my research of these vendors in order of how I suggest you book them.

Fireworks – Legion Fireworks

If you are getting married around the fourth of July and think it's important to have fireworks, look out! The prices are crazy and many vendors book up years in advance. Many firework vendors quoted me $1,000 a minute!

Legion Fireworks had already worked at Full Moon and knew what permits and licenses to get. They made the process very easy. However, this vendor was not a necessity; it was just something we added because of the date we are getting married.

Photographer – Max Nucci Watermarked photos in this blog post are courtesy of Max Nucci.

First off, don't skimp on this vendor. Photos are one of the only lasting memories you will have of all the hard work you put into your wedding.

There are so many great photographers out there that at first I found it hard to narrow it down just to the ones whose work I liked best. As I began to dig deeper, I realized the price ranges were huge. Some start at $600 and some at $6,000.

I decided to first find photographers I could afford, then out of that bunch determine whose work I liked the best, and finally find out who we felt most comfortable with. I hate getting my picture taken; I need someone who makes me feel natural, because even though I don't like being in photos I love having them!

I narrowed it down to Max Nucci and another photographer who was also great, and did an engagement shoot with each of them. We went with Max Nucci, whom I highly recommend.

Florist – Elderberry Flowers

Design of the event is everything to me because it is important that everything goes together. After looking at websites of the preferred florists, I knew only the work of two of the vendors appealed to me.

Jim from Elderberry really makes an effort to get back to you by phone or email and will quickly produce a quote in writing. Communication with my vendors was big for me as I'm a busy bride. Based on that I picked Elderberry as my florist and I even trusted him enough to tell him what my budget was and go from there, because let me tell you...you might know that you want purple flowers, but there are 198 types of purple flowers with totally different prices! By telling Jim my vision and my budget he was able to help us come up with something we are really excited about.

Music – Pat Del

Good music books up quickly, so don't wait. After a lot of looking and listening we really couldn't find a band that fit both our tastes and our family tastes. The groom's family likes country music and my family likes anything but country. My friends like club music and well his friends do not. We decided a DJ was the only way to go.

The groom picked this vendor, ladies, Pat Del. He's been DJing for years and had good responses to the things we were concerned about.

Officiant

We are having a friend marry us, so we didn't need to hunt for this vendor. But I suggest doing this early on in the process because the fact is you can't get married without an official and you don't want to settle. This is your wedding!

Baker – Sweet Nothings

I don't like cake, so we were looking for someone who was able to think outside of the box. If you are a cupcake or pie bride, or if you like any other assorted desserts, the two vendors I recommend based on my research are Sweet Nothings and the Alternative Baker.

I like Linda from Sweet Nothing's style; it seemed like mom's home cooking, but it had a professional look. We are sooo excited for dessert! She is doing an assortment of all kinds of things for us. Now the hardest thing is deciding what to smash in each others faces!

Hair and Make-up Stylist – Karen Neblung 607-326-2951 or kneblung@gmail.com

There are pros and there are cons of getting married in the middle of nowhere. One of those cons was that it is really hard to find professionals. After a lot of looking and comparing, I found Karen Neblung, who is not only skilled but also someone I would rank high on my list of random strangers I'd be willing to spend my wedding day with.

She is about 20-30 minutes away from Full Moon and in order to come onsite she has a minimum, but as long as you have a few others who want hair and make-up done you should be set.

Videographer – Reaching Roots Studios

For me this was a necessity. I want to be able to look back and hear the voices of people who have passed on, show my kids what a great time everyone had, or just be romantic and listen to us saying our vows again.

At this point we didn't have tons of money left for video, so we are excited to have found Nate from Reaching Roots Studios. We really like his style and we are very thankful he was willing to work within our budget.

Yoga Instructor – Rob Greenburg

I love yoga and I couldn't think of any other way to start my wedding day. So we picked Rob Greenburg to be our instructor for the wedding.

Colors & Inspiration

We got engaged on the beach in northern California and spent the rest of the week exploring the redwoods. Both of us will remember that trip for forever, so we decided to bring all of that into the design of our wedding.

Our colors are green and brown and we have a very earthy, natural, woodland valley themed wedding. We have ferns, moss, birch, monkey tails (which look like fiddle head ferns.) We also wanted to bring the beach into it, so we added blue as one of our colors and plan to have beach glass and sand as decorations as well.

We are so excited for our wedding. I hope my experience will be helpful. Wish us luck!

Want to see more REAL Hudson Valley weddings like this one?

Real Wedding at Onteora Mountain House: The Refined Outdoors September 5, 2009 Michele & Matt

I really felt strongly about not getting married in a banquet hall.  That really limited our choices in the Hudson Valley. When we went to the Mountain House, we loooved the views. It is set high up, overlooking the Catskill Mountains. The reception was in a large, open pavilion.  It was outdoorsy yet refined and I just loved it!

The Photos – Ulysses Photography *All photos in this blog post are courtesy of the amazing Jenni and Ulysses.

My favorite vendor was my photographers, Jenni & Ulysses of Ulysses Photography. They we sooo easy to work with and helpful from the first second.

My husband, Matt, was hesitant to be photographed, but they made us feel comfortable and confident. I love the less posed style of their work. Jenni was such a huge help throughout the wedding process. I asked her a million questions about everything and anything wedding related and she always got back to me right away. I can not sing their praises enough!

The Music – Enriquez Entertainment

I also loooved our djs, Andrew Enriquez Entertainment. My husband and I love music. We had been to many weddings where the djs just didn't get the crowd motivated. We wanted to be really hands on with our entertainment.

Andrew was the perfect fit. He will let you plan everything or nothing--depending on what you want. I wanted no gimmicks, giveaways, cheesy dance songs and he delivered. We gave him song lists and no-play lists and he stuck to them.

Many of our friends have told us he was the best dj they've heard! Dancing with Matt for our first dance and throughout the night was the highlight of my night!

The Flowers – Green Cottage Florist

My florist, Dennis at Green Cottage Florist, in High Falls was amazing as well. He created really cool nest and candle arrangements that were woodsy yet elegant.

The Style – True Grace Makeup

I looooved my hair & makeup girl too! Jen from True Grace Makeup.

The Colors – Choose Your Own Purple

Our colors were shades of purple. I had been in many weddings where I was put in a dress I didn't love because it didn't suit me because of style or color. My bridesmaids chose their style & color dress. They were able to choose from over 30 Enzoani dresses in 3 different shades (plum, lavender, and blush.) Each of my 8 girls chose a different dress!

For the guys, they wore their own black suits. We bought a bunch of purple ties and they chose their favorite. I loooved the way our bridal party looked all together. They were confident in their dresses and ties because they chose them!

Do It Yourself Touches

My mom and I spent many COUNTLESS hours crafting the wedding together.
It was so special to spend that time together. We made at least 100 trips to AC Moore and Michaels!

We made the ceremony pamphlets, place cards, reserved seating tags, hotel bags and tags, cookie favors, flip flop bucket, etc. We had a blast. We got so many compliments on our unique, hand crafted touches. We've since helped two of my friends craft their weddings!

The Sweets

Our ice cream wedding cake from Jane's Ice Cream - DELISH!

Michele's Advice

Make a written list for the venue of things, special details that you want done during the wedding. They forgot my cake topper.

Research your caterer. Do your own research besides what your venue says!

Want to see more REAL Hudson Valley weddings like this one?