Important Factors to Consider When Selecting Your Wedding Venue (Part 2 of 2)

Understanding your guest count and your venue’s minimum and maximum capacity is essential. Does your wedding venue accommodate your guest count comfortably? The key here is comfortably. Is the space flexible to provide you multiple beautiful options regardless of the weather and guest count?

Are there different unique spaces to keep your guests entertained throughout the event? Oftentimes, some guests like to mingle, others like to stroll in a beautiful space and capture photos, while others prefer to dance, and some enjoy relaxing by the fire. A venue where the space is easily accessible and flows effortlessly into other spaces, conveniently located to each other is ideal to meet everyone’s needs.

Unlike traditional corporate owned wedding venues, we are a family business. Your wedding day is a very special day and our family is committed to providing you and your guests a wonderful experience. We offer a personal touch, and take pride in serving our couples, guests, and vendors, which is a very different experience than a corporate experience where there can be a revolving door of people. We go above and beyond to serve you throughout the process and your Wedding Day to ensure everything goes smoothly and you have a great experience. When you support the Sablewood, you not only are supporting family businesses, you are also supporting our agricultural community.

While many of our couples come from the capital district, we also are a destination location for couples from all over the U.S. Location is important from a logical perspective for your vendors and guests. For guests, proximity to highways, rail, airports, and lodging is important. The Sablewood is conveniently located in upstate New York, 3 hours from New York City or Boston. We have an airport, railways, and major hotel chains within a 30-minute drive, making guest logistics easy.

While the weather cooperates on most days, you do not want to take the risk on your wedding day of being unprepared for inclement weather. At the Sablewood, our plan “B” is just as beautiful as our plan “A”, offering both indoor and outdoor weather protected spaces.

Privacy is a factor you may not consider until you experience a wedding without it. Some venues are wedding factories, hosting multiple events per day, leaving you to compete with other couples and guests for your choice of locations, photo ops, and have the challenge of other guests wandering in to your event. Hotels may have other guests traveling through common spaces, kids running to the pool, etc. If you prefer a venue where you are the only event of the day and have exclusive use of the venue, the Sablewood is for you! At the Sablewood, we host one wedding per day and are not open to the public, so you and you and your guests are the sole focus of the day.

Vendors are a key element of hosting a flawless celebration. When your vendors have a great relationship and enjoy working at the venue, you are sure to have an incredible experience! At the Sablewood, we have a preferred vendor list and we will make recommendations based on your vision, budget, and style. We are fortunate to work with many talented vendors, both locally and out of the area. Our vendors are top notch and go above and beyond, and we have worked diligently to create the best experience for our caterers, florists, photographers, and entertainers, setting up our venue and adequately furnishing it to meet their needs.

This is a piece most couples aren’t often aware of, but is a particular concern with non-traditional venues. New York State requires venues to have a certificate of occupancy which requires venues to meet building code, fire, and safety regulations. Most towns also require a permitting process for venues, so if your venue does not have proper permitting and a certificate of occupancy, it is an illegal venue and may have safety implications for you and your guests. Additionally, there is the potential threat that your wedding could be cancelled or shut down shut down due to safety standards. Fire safety, building code standards, and guest safety are all important for an enjoyable event.