Where can two granola dykes get hitched in CNY?
January 22, 2008 2:38 PM   Subscribe

I'm seeking a wedding location in Central New York, the closer to Syracuse the better. Details beyond...

My partner (also female) and I are finally tying the knot at the end of this summer. We plan on having a simple ceremony with family and friends, then getting legally hitched in Canada as part of our honeymoon. We hit our first speed bump when our dream wedding spot, our friend's organic farm, fell through. Googling for wedding locations brings up plenty of options, but they are typically expensive packages from Finger Lakes wineries or country clubs. All of which are very far from our personality.

We're looking for easily accessible, inexpensive location ideas. Ideally, we would have the reception nearby. Our friends will be catering a small (75-100 guest) bbq/clambake style reception for us. We'd love to have the wedding/reception outside within view of a lake or pond or whatever-body-of-water-ya-got. We need to be able to set up tents or there should be some kind of shelter in case of rain. We plan on an afternoon wedding in the summer, so we won't need lights, but I imagine our friends might need some electric for the catering.

All tips, leads, call-my-organic-farmer referrals, and points in the right direction are greatly appreciated.
posted by wg to Grab Bag (9 answers total)
 
Tons of good such places in Finger Lakes.

Taughannock Park in Ithaca would be my first suggestion. About an hour from Syracuse. Picnic area faces the lake, a short easy walk to the very dramatic falls.

Aurora NY (where Wells College is) is incredibly picturesque; I don't know the parks around there very well but would be worth looking into.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:14 PM on January 22, 2008


My sister was married here in Owego, it was very pretty. Might be a bit far from Syracuse for you, though.
posted by Kellydamnit at 3:37 PM on January 22, 2008


We attended a summer wedding at Wells College where the couple rented out two of the dorms and many of the common areas for a few days. I know it wasn't terribly expensive, but it was a great location with lots of amenities and the price was right for all the visitors (about $50/night max.).
posted by yellowcandy at 4:04 PM on January 22, 2008


Best answer: You can book a shelter in some of the Onondaga County parks.
posted by maurice at 4:41 PM on January 22, 2008


Cayuga Nature Center is available for rentals and has grounds plus a lodge where people can stay. It overlooks the lake and I think it is inexpensive.
posted by cushie at 8:15 PM on January 22, 2008


Seconding Taughannock. It's gorgeous. I'm not sure about immediately-accessible reception areas, but Ithaca's less than 30 minutes south and there are some great places around there..
posted by Alterscape at 8:23 PM on January 22, 2008


If you like the idea of a farm setting, investigate the Noble House B&B outside Ithaca - run by cool women with gardens and dogs.
posted by zepheria at 8:35 PM on January 22, 2008


To pick up on yellowcandy's idea, Colgate University in Hamilton is also about an hour from Syracuse and it's fairly picturesque, has a small lake, etc. There's also a big lake in Cazenovia (~20 mins closer to Syr from Hamilton) , and there are lots of cool looking BBs along the shore there. Now that I think about it, you should look into those...I know there's some sort of historic looking building along there as well, which might have some sort of farm presence in the back? Sorry I don't know more details, I just used to drive by the place fairly regularly. Good luck!
posted by theRussian at 5:10 AM on January 23, 2008


Oswego (not to be confused with Owego!) has a number of nice locations looking out over Lake Ontario. The one that comes to mind specifically is the bluffs just southwest of the town which are essentially a field that has cliffs that just go off into the sea. It's very picturesque. It isn't a specifically manicured spot, and might require a little bit of gypsy spirit to make it work as a wedding location, but I'm sure that would also make it very inexpensive to use that spot.

(If this sounds interesting to you, I'll call my dad to get more specific directions for you, but my best guess is that it is up near Sterling!)

Congratulations!
posted by greekphilosophy at 6:22 AM on January 23, 2008


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