We love Katie. You don't just get a wedding planner, you get a friend. We live in California, but…read morewas planning a wedding to have in New York. Where do I start? I found Katie and she was amazing. She was a God sent. She gave us options for everything and walked us through everything. The time difference was a struggle, but she was up late repling to all my messages. I'm the type of bride, where I just wanted to show up and everything was taken care of. Since we were planning from a distance, she made that happen. She went over and beyond with great ideas. On our way to the airport to NY, for our wedding, we found out my husband's suit never arrived in NY. Since we were about to get on a plane, I texted Katie our situation and when we arrived in NY, she had taken care of everything and his suit was being sent overnight. She is absolutely amazing with kids. My son and nephew got a bit wild and put their swords on top of the closet and they were told they would get it back once they were done getting ready and behaved. They called her "the boss" and kept telling my sister in law and I that "the boss" took it. We applauded her. My 2 year old grandson was extra crazy and wanted to run around as we were waiting to go into our reception. She scooped him and kept him in line till we were announced. She feels more like family and a friend. When you are planning the most important event in your life, make sure you have Katie on your team.

Without A Lively Event, our 200+ person wedding would not have been the perfect day that it was!…read moreKatie was easy (and fun) to work with, and had tips/tricks that cannot be found on the big wedding blogs across the internet. I live in MA, so I appreciated that she accepted PayPal as means of payment, and was accommodating to communication mostly via email and phone call. Quick anecdote: At the beginning of our reception, my husband and I realized that we forgot to bring snacks for our after party, Katie took the lead on ordering pizzas later in the evening and stayed later than she was scheduled to, to make sure everything turned out okay. We would book Katie again in a heartbeat. Thank you for your enthusiasm, professionalism, and attention to detail!

I hired Linda a year before my wedding. It's my first wedding, i have no clue what i'm doing, and…read morei'm a mom, work full time, and go to school full time. So needless to say, i put a lot of trust into her to help coordinate and facilitate. I had my initial appointment with her, which went well. She told me she was going to do all these things, and help with all these things. After that very first appointment, i started to immediately notice that she didn't follow through with the things she was saying. I had to stay on top of her asking if she did this or that, and the answer was always no with some excuse. Then she started canceling appointments. About 3 months in, i wrote Linda an e-mail expressing my concerns. I felt that my wedding wasn't a priority for her and if she was to busy with other clients to please let me know. She swore up and down she would get better about keeping appointments and giving my wedding the attention it deserves. Well, that was a lie too because she continued to cancel appointments. In the 6 months that i hired her and was paying her monthly, she did not keep 1 single appointment with me (besides the initial one to rope me in), and did not do a single thing to help plan my wedding. She never contacted vendors, never visited the venue, wasn't having monthly meetings with me, she literally did nothing. So finally 6 months in, i gave her one more chance, and i said if she cancelled this venue appointment i was firing her. Low and behold, 4 days before the reservation to visit the venue (for the 5th time) she cancelled. So i told her i was cancelling our contract for all of the above reasons. Linda quickly became very rude and acting very better then. She had excuses after excuses after excuses. She refused to give me so much as a penny back, she told me i just didn't understand billable hours and that i wasn't entitled to get any of that money back. I payed her $900 over 6 months. She did however offer me $250 to not write a bad review, which i declined because i would rather warn the next bride and keep her from wasting her money and adding a lot of stress.

These folks were amazing! Everything one could want and more - even helped put the arbor back up…read morewhen it blew down just before the ceremony. We engaged them late in the process for support on the day before for the rehearsal and the day of the wedding, and they exceeded all our expectations. Highly recommend!!

I am working with the WCA to plan my bridal shower and wedding at their beautiful historic…read moreclubhouse. The women are a delight to work with and it's a gorgeous venue! Highly recommend this site!

I attended a bridal shower here and it was the perfect venue. I am now planning my cousin's bridal…read moreshower here and they have been a pleasure to work with!

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Sandra O'Connell or Hudson Valley Ceremonies. Not only did she…read morestreamline the bride's "to do" list by recommending musicians and florists, her excellent knowledge of wedding-day requirements helped ,  my Daughter in Law Amanda immensely, saving her lots of computer search time and false-starts.  Her help walking us through the rehearsal was vital, getting us organized the day of and "on our spots" at the right critical time. It's all such a whirlwind of activity. And the logistics at our farm were challenging, to say the least. I also greatly appreciated how, during the actual wedding and party afterward, Sandra and her assistant were there, in the background, keeping the caterer happy, moving tables, shuttling slightly inebriated guests to their cars, (thank you, especially for that. I think I would still find people walking the horse pasture fence, looking for their cars.) And for doing the behind-the-scenes things that rarely are noticed, unless they're not done. (For example, one of the porta potties malfunctioning). Sandra handled that with quiet speed. And mostly I appreciated how she took care of Amanda's mother's doilies, the family mementoes, tucking things away in the pool house for safe keeping. And for a good, general tidying up at the end of the night.

We were married this past September at Timber Lake Camp and had the wedding (and weekend) of our…read moredreams thanks to Sandra O'Connell at Hudson Valley Ceremonies. If you don't get to the end of this review and only read one thing: Hiring Sandra was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding. She is beyond dedicated to giving you the wedding of your dreams, and her ability to execute and make it ALL happen is nothing short of extraordinary. Every wedding needs a Sandra! We had the pleasure of working with Sandra from the beginning of our wedding planning journey all the way through our 3 day wedding weekend. When we were stumped looking for venues that could accommodate our large guest list AND a weekend-long celebration. Sandra approached us with a "think outside the box" venue: Timber Lake Camp, a beautifully serene summer camp nestled in the Catskills. We were unsure about the idea of a summer camp wedding but trusted her instinct - and thankfully we did. The day we visited the camp we knew it was PERFECT. 500 gorgeous acres with plenty of room to accommodate ALL of our guests, that we could have all to ourselves for an entire weekend - camp cabins, facilities, staff, and all! It truly felt like she had pulled a rabbit out of a hat and that was only the start of Sandra's magic! Throughout the entire year and a half long planning process, Sandra lent us her ear and expertise: she listened to our wishes, concerns, thoughts; guided us through a million different decisions; provided alternative options/ideas to meet our budget; and found the perfect vendors to bring our vision to life. She sat in on our calls with the coordinator at the camp, and even made visits to the camp with us - including one visit during a snowstorm! She also managed our multitude of vendors (including 3 separate caterers!) from the initial inquiries all the way through to the end of packing up after the wedding. When the wedding weekend came around, Sandra stayed on site all 3 days and made every event run smoothly - we felt like she was somehow everywhere all at once! We had multiple events, including our rehearsal, a Welcome BBQ, Karaoke Night, late night bonfire, and activities throughout the camp. If there were any hiccups, we didn't know about them! The day of the wedding, between everything she was coordinating and the multiple vendors on-site, she somehow still found time to check in with us to make sure we were okay. But honestly we truly felt at ease with Sandra running the show. Her professionalism, calmness, and get-it-done attitude made every part of the weeknd run seamlessly! And on top of it all, she made our marriage official by signing our marriage license. :) A total bonus that she is ordained and a special memory to share with her as she was such a big part of our special day! Our guests are still talking about how magical the weekend was. Many specifically commented that even with so many events and activities going on, it was one the most well-coordinated and organized weddings they'd attended. It was definitely a huge effort to pull off a 3 day wedding weekend on a 500 acre camp, but teamwork truly made this dream work! We could not be more grateful to Sandra, her team, and all of our amazing vendors for giving us a wedding better than we could have ever imagined! We can't recommend Sandra and HVC enough.

Nice location, decent food. Lousy hosts, bathrooms far walk and dirty, surrounded by bees .read more

I recently was in a wedding for a family member were the ceremony and reception was at Crystal…read moreCove. Pro's: The weather was beautiful and the scenery of the plush landscape and lake were great for a wedding! The main course was excellent, some of the best wedding food I have had. There was a lot of space and chairs for people to sit and talk outside of the pavilion. Ruth was great and very attentive to the couple and the wedding party and parents. Con's:The couple told me they had problems with getting questions answered timely and there was also confusion on who was a partner vendor and who wasn't. The wedding party didn't get any drinks or cocktail hour snacks while taking pictures. I heard from other guests there wasnt much being passed around and people were starving after waiting in line for a cocktail (one bartender for 150 person wedding). BUGS BUGS BUGS, thank god there was bug spray in the bathroom baskets because they were out and with vengeance. No water on the table- really odd, if you wanted water you had to go to the bar. Also, where was the champagne for a toast? Depending on where the ceremony is you may need to help elderly guests get up and down steep hills. All in all it was a great event for the couple. If the facility took care of a couple minor issues then they would have no problem being one of the best wedding facilities in the capital region!

Conway Entertainment, and DJ Jeff, were amazing! We had a lot of complicated aspects to our wedding…read moreand Jeff was there for us every step of the way, happy to work through some of our sillier requests and giving great, honest feedback whenever we asked him for it. If you need him to freestyle and come up with his own playlist, he can do that. If you have specific music cues or transitions that you need someone to nail, he can do that as well. Through it all he was an incredibly fun and calming figure in what can be a stressful planning process. I cannot recommend this company, or this DJ enough!

Wow, a DJ really can make or break a wedding. And Fernando made our wedding! I've never seen…read moreEVERYONE at a wedding on a dance floor. But Fernando's music and energy got everyone up and moving. Conway Entertainment is incredibly easy to work with - professional, responsive, respectful and communicative (the perfect amount of calls/emails).

Just had a lovely bridal shower party event at Dukes in June. The catering here was excellent. We…read morewanted a clam bake type event with seafood and I was originally concerned with the quality and amount of food we would receive but it was plentiful and very fresh. Everything from salad to lobster exceeded our expectations. The grounds are so beautiful and peaceful for any type of celebration! It can be decorated or customized in any way you want. There are un limited options. Annette the lovely lady we worked with is better than a wedding planner! She made me feel at ease when I told her my concerns and everything came out perfect! I highly recommend! Thank you Dukes! We'll be back next year for sure for our office party!!

I attended a work picnic at Duke's Grove . The food was great and the staff was greater. They had…read morenice personality and were very pleasant. Everything was on point