Gratitude…A Proud Year Behind, a Promising Year Ahead
- ps
- Feb 4
- 8 min read
As the calendar year transitions from one to the next, we take time to honor our 2025 newlyweds and we embrace and gear up for the year ahead with our engaged 2026 couples, corporate and private clients .
Although our new year is already busy and well underway with client calls and meetings (and many emails), venue site meeting, tastings, vendor timeline refinement, floor plan layouts, guest seating preparation and décor appointments, we continue to celebrate our 2025 clients with heartfelt gratitude.
At the end of January, we received exciting and validating news from Wedding Pro, a professional wedding industry directory and advertising platform.
Photography: Brian Barnicle | Venue: Innisfree Gardens | Special Guest: Dragonfly
Thanks to our 2025 clients and their 5-star reviews, we won (yet again), both the Wedding Wire Couple’ Choice Awards and The Knot Best of Weddings 2026. These coveted awards validate our success and give credit to our team for fully meeting clients’ expectations as wedding and event planners and in most cases, exceeding them.
So many, many details go into the curating, managing and executing a wedding or event day. This day has so many expectations on so many levels for both guests and vendors alike. This day seals the ultimate memory. The consistent care, work and focus over many days, months and sometimes years, is what it takes to ensure that this sacred day runs like clockwork, is power-packed with joy and delivers a celebration that our clients truly deserve. If all of this aligns, and it plays out above and beyond their vision and expectations...even better! Delivering above and beyond is alway our goal and hope.
Photography Credits:
Brian Barnicle, Joshua Brown, Jessie Casey, Kevin Madigan, Kristen Marie Parker, Sarah Wallace
To say the least, we are so proud to be honored with these awards!!! Our busy and dedicated clients took time to step up for us and share their experiences “in detail” with Wedding Pro and essentially placed their vote for us. Reading these glowing reviews is beyond settling at the end of year. It's the juice that truly fills our souls and warms us up for our next up clients and the demanding season ahead.
In our 2025 event calendar year, I intentionally planned for fewer events due to my knee surgery recovery and supporting our daughter in her move to a new city and her start at vet school. But even with less on our plates, we made the most of each one. In fact, with less events and demands, we were able to give even more of our time and attention. Our reviews reflected that it mattered.
To our 2025 clients....
As I viewed the endless joy-filled captures in your photo galleries, it appears that all went perfectly—in our memories, it aligns. But to read “your” words and to know what mattered most to "you" and for you to share them on our behalf with a broader audience, well, is quite frankly the ultimate gift and the personal validation that fuels us for the next group of our clients.
We thank you deeply for trusting us with your day and for your support!
We would like to share a little bit about each event and invite you to click to our website galleries to enjoy the joyful and beautiful views. Please take note of the wonderful vendor teams that contributed their skills and talents to support the success of each celebration.
Zeynep & Simon held a rare full wedding mass in a local stone church with the perfect “Bishop’s Red” door. It truly felt like we had stepped back in time —scripture, choir and organist. On par with this historical and classic setting was the reception celebration and feast to follow at the Stissing House. This wedding celebration truly warmed the soul even before dinner, when everyone had a sip of the bone broth from the cauldron and at the finish of dinner, the best bite of winter white coconut cake. It was all “simply divine”!
Vendor Team Credits:
Photography: Sara Wallach Photography
Venues: St. Thomas Episcopal Church + Stissing House
Officiant: Reverend AJ Stack
Catering + Bar: Stissing House
Musicians: Lewis Todd + Paul North
DJ: Kat Wong
Sound: Hudson Valley Audio
Transportation: JTR Transportation
This year’s theme for this incredible natural landscape for the Innisfree Annual Benefit in June, truly aligned with my style and taste in all matters of the details. One of my favorite gardens inspired live and dried florals and fauna, recycled glass, fibrous textures, objects plucked from nature, neutral fabric tones, and organically-inspired cocktails and bites. Bringing the outside inside made this event even more special for me. Guest of Honor, Oakleigh Thorne took to the podium with wit and insight, and brilliantly recalled the history behind this natural treasure, and the work that lies ahead in keeping this garden gem growing and protected. The rain DID NOT dampen this crowd and their loyalty to Innisfree. Side note - the best collection of 🌂 I have ever seen!
Vendor Team Credits:
Photography: Brian Barnicle Photography
Catering: The Farmer's Wife
Bar: Domaney's Wine & Spirits
Rentals: Columbia Tent & Event Rentals
Sound: Hudson Valley Audio Visual, Inc.
Restroom Trailer: Stone Industries
Gillian and Jeremy’s wedding vision featured so much brightness and creativity—personalized moments that sprung from their deep well of love for each and every guest, an upbeat and warm color palette sprinkled like confetti in each decor moment and whimsical flowers that gleeful danced in display indoors and out, an even across the wall. The fun, laughter and joy-filled energy captivated each moment of this sunny summer weekend on the hill at Gather Greene.
Vendor Team Credits:
Photography: Jessie Casey
Venue: Gather Greene
Caterer: Hunt + Harvest
Bartending: Top Notch Events
Brunch Catering: Talbott & Arding
Wedding Cake: Banana Moon Cake Bakery
Band: 45 Riots
Florals: Athabold
Lighting: Bear Fly Designs
Hair + Makeup: The Luminous Bride
Rentals: Broadway Party + Columbia Tent + Highstyle Event
Transportation: Coxsackie Transport
Golf Carts: W+B Golf Carts
Golf Cart Drivers: Hudson Valley Ceremonies
Hannah and Hunter’s wedding weekend reflected their love for the Catskills and pulled from her childhood and their couple memories of happy times spent over a lifetime. These feelings were the guiding light as their wedding weekend was crafted. What a joy to witness the warmth and fuzziness of this weekend! The Catskill landscape and inspiration come into focus even through some rain and fog, and full color and full-on energy never lessened from the moment guests stepped into the scene.
Vendor Team Credits:
Photography: Joshua Brown Photography
Welcome Venue, Catering & Bartending: Phoenicia Diner
Wedding Venue, Caterer & Bartending: Onteora Mountain House
Wedding Cake: Overlook Bakery
Band: Great Family Artists
Florals: Hops Petunia
Lighting: Bear Fly Designs
Karaoke: Amanda Lees
Hair + Makeup: Pre-Dame Beauty
Rentals: Rhinebeck Rentals
Shuttle Transportation: Coxsackie Transport
Fall peaked early for us this year in an epic way as we celebrated Katherine and Nicholas’ wedding weekend. Their wedding day, hosted at their family home in Millbrook kicked off gloriously in the sacred space of their orchard and continued as guests strolled through the meadow’s path to the majestic reception compound of tents and a perfectly curated barn event space. The beautiful vistas on this property continued to expand as the day and night unfolded. Every moment was filled with so much beauty, endless joy, tons of love and so much elegance.
Vendor Team Credits:
Photography: Kristen Marie Parker
Welcome Venue: Beekman Arms & Delamater Inn
Caterer-Food Truck: Plate & Graze
Games: Upstate Jamboree
Wedding Catering & Bartending: CRISP
Wedding Cake: The Duchy of Millbrook
Florals: Athabold
Lighting & Draping: Stortz Lighting
Band: Atomic Funk
Ceremony Musicians: MK Entertainment
Hair + Makeup: New York Bridal Beauty
Bridal Stylist: Agency Eight
Rentals: Columbia Tent Rentals
Restroom Trailer: Premier Executive Trailers
Shuttle Transportation: Coxsackie Transportation
Parking: Mike Linck Parking
Golf Carts: W+B Golf Carts
“Honoring the people in one’s life that made life better”—In late October, I had the honor of working on an outdoor memorial for a beloved member of the Millbrook community, Bonnie Stedt. My client as well as the host of this day, shared the depth of their friendship and gave me insight to why this day was so important to her and to those that shared in Bonnie’s professional, recreational and countrified life. This event was striking in how grounding it felt to reflect on a life well lived and a career that soared. Honoring her equestrian lifestyle, we leverage on the warmth and beauty of the season and her farm.
Vendor Team Credits:
Photography: Paula Smith
Caterer: Hunt + Harvest
Florals: English Garden Grown
Audio: Hudson Valley Audio
Rentals: Columbia Tent + Event Rentals
Golf Carts: W+B Golf Carts
Jimmy dream of kicking off his 70th with a mass at St. Mary’s of the Isles followed by a black-tie cocktail party with everything from soup (I mean, lobsta chowder) to “the best” Jimmy Hays steaks, Sabretts & even Good Humour was such a fun and unique event assignment. The BIG challenge was the event space which required a very full makeover from a school gymnasium to a black-tie cocktail. Strategic lighting wizardry, to tippy top (16 ft) draping, yards of tartan plaid & velvet, many candles, seasonal evergreen & florals decked the halls with amazing effective camouflage. The vision featured Scottish accents beyond plaid…bagpipers, not 2, but 10! AND mounted police officers to welcome guests as they entered the reception. Jimmy’s 70th… a visual, culinary & sensory delight embraced and shared with a lifetime collection of dear friends and family! All “Jimmy”, right down to his photo board. A truly epic end to our year!
Vendor Team Credits:
Photography: Kevin Madigan Photography
Venue: St. Mary of the Isle Church + Parish Hall
Catering: Dover Caterers, Jimmy Hays Steakhouse, Sabretts & Good Humor
Bartending: Jimmy Hays Steakhouse
Birthday Cake: Baked by the Ocean
Florals: Laskas Flowers
Lighting: Bear Fly Designs
Drapery: Drape Kings
Band: Lester Lanin Orchestra
Live Artist: Sara Martin Creative
Bagpipers + Mounties: Nassau County Police
Rentals: Broadway Party Rentals
We are so uplifted by the memories of these events and of the oh-so-many mini moments that filled hours and days—from behind-the-scene and on-the-scene. I could sit indefinitely recalling each one... smiling & laughing
Personal and spontaneous interactions with our clients and their guests as well as intentional and sometimes intense interactions with our vendor teams, give deep meaning and pride to what we do. I simply cannot describe the value of these treasured moments as we march on.
With all certainty, they fuel us for the year ahead. We are lifted and we leverage from another award-winning year under our belt, cementing even more tricks-of-the-trade and further solidifying our vendor relations.
For all of you that were a part of our proud moments last year, and for your dedicated support— we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Photo lovingly captured by Jessie Casey
Thank you so much for this gift, Jessie!
Curious about our clients good words that results in our awards, have a read of our 5-star reviews — "KUDOS" !
Best wishes in year ahead and look forward to our connections in good times, celebration and love!
XOXO
Paula
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