Courtesy of BRIDES: The Catskills, a mountain region in the southeast part of New York State, is an ideal wedding destination. The area is full of natural beauty; you can get married along a creek or in front of a waterfall, and mountain ranges give incredible vistas. Because of its proximity to New York City (it’s around a two-hour drive), there are amazing chefs and hoteliers who call the region their home, too. Whether you’re looking for a hipster hotel to a grand estate, the Catskills has something for you.
To help you plan your perfect Catskills wedding, we turned to Bethany Pickard, owner and lead planner for Modern Kicks, an event planning firm in the region. Weddings in the Catskills are all “beautifully different,” she says. Still, there are some general rules. To get married here, she recommends having a budget of at least $800 to $1,000 a guest. While there are options for year-round weddings, she also suggests late May to early October as an ideal time to tie the knot in this region.
One of the greatest parts of the Catskills is how many beautiful, diverse venues there are. “The hotel venues in the Catskills are anything but ballrooms,” explains Pickard. “Some require a tent, while others have a barn or other raw space that can be transformed for the wedding day. In addition, we have a large number of stand-alone barn spaces, estates, and reimagined historic properties to choose from.”
Here are some exceptional Catskills wedding venues for your big day…
8 of 10 | The Eldred Preserve
A new, more formal option in the Catskills is The Eldred Preserve in Sullivan County. This venue has options for indoor and outdoor weddings. They also have a world-class chef, formal rooms with elegant décor, and a luxury boutique hotel where you can get ready before the ceremony and stay after your wedding. Plus, it’s nestled into the Catskill Mountains so you’ll have gorgeous scenery all around you. The Eldred Preserve can accommodate 30 to 100 guests, making it perfect for small or medium-sized affairs.