Basilica Hudson

Basilica is gorgeous but had I known we would enter into a year+ long contractual nightmare i would have never even thought twice about getting married here. Renting the basilica for your wedding is very expensive, $13k expensive, but what they don’t disclose is that $13k is just the start of the fees they will randomly hit you with. If you’re like me and money is valuable to you, then please keep reading before you book. Here is a *short* list of all the ways Parker at Basilica scams you: -1) First contract included a caveat that IF basilica gets a liquor license within 6 months you must pay them and undisclosed amount for alcohol. Parker refused to give us an amount to budget for this secret clause. -2) Next issue was when Parker rented out the Friday of our wedding without telling us the amount we would receive back. She promised us we’d “split” the cost which would mean $6k, but in reality we only received $2k back, and the Friday bride still paid the full amount. When we said no, we were told it’s too late to go back and she wouldn’t even issue us a new contract detailing out the change because she didn’t have time. At this point we knew our contract meant nothing. -3) Third issue was when we wanted to bring in all our own rentals, including lights, since of course the lights are extra. Parker told us it would cost us a fee to remove the lights, and that we had to pay to rent the lights from her. -4) Fourth issue was after we just gave in to paying for lights that we couldn't take down, we decided to add on tables. We originally ordered 20 to be safe but we got our final count and only needed 15. Parker told us we couldn’t change the tables because the Friday bride needed more. -5) One week before our wedding, we were then told we owed tax on the rentals for the lights and table rentals, even after we had her confirm there were no more incremental hidden fees. -6) Lastly our “refundable” security deposit apparently contains a $400 non-refundable cleaning fee which we also found out days before the wedding. I pray that the Basilica hires a new, professional coordinator so no other couple has to go what we went through. Good luck!!

We got married at Basilica Hudson in August 2016 and loved every aspect of it. The choice to get married at Basilica is one of the best we made throughout the entire planning process. Basilica has two separate and equally beautiful spaces: a ceremony room with raised steps and mismatched chairs (perfect size for 80-120 people), and the main hall which has plenty of space for up to 200 guests, a dance floor, etc. There is also outdoor space surrounding the entire building and parking, and while the scenery next to the train tracks is not traditionally beautiful or picturesque, it has a unique and authentic charm. Both inside and out, Basilica is extremely photogenic! Practically speaking, Basilica offered a number of conveniences, such as full freedom over vendors, a 48-hour rental window, and a discount for mid-week rental that made it one of the most affordable places we visited. There is also plenty of space for caterers and other vendors to work in private, and the bathrooms are very nice. The ceremony room is air conditioned; and while the main hall is not air conditioned and can suffer from a bit of a greenhouse effect, it was not too warm for our wedding on a mostly sunny, 86* day during a stretch of very warm weather.