It’s obvious to say that choosing a venue and food for your wedding is one of the most significant decisions you can make in the wedding planning process. With no shortage of beautiful locales and delicious catering companies in the Albany area, finding the right one is not a quick task.
I’m here to end your search for the perfect venue by highly recommending Birch Hill Estate.
The professionalism of the planning and catering staff, the variety and quality of the locations and rooms, and the creativity and delivery of the food options made for an irresistible combination that sealed the deal for us, and should for you. If you were ever looking for a venue that would respond with “Yes, we can do that” to any of your wedding requests, look no further than Birch Hill.
Our experience with this venue started when we scheduled an appointment with one of their special events sales managers, Sarah Connor, who would later become our day-of coordinator. We met with her in person on-property, and she wasted no time in identifying the basics about what we were looking for, when and for what price. She had lookbooks and slideshows to demonstrate the venue mid-event, and then took us around for a tour of the indoor and outdoor locations. Pretty early on, she could tell we were foodies (out of town, living in the Washington D.C. area), so the menu became one of the focal points of discussion. Sarah told us about the three types of food serving styles they could do, and we settled on the “food station” style, knowing that we wanted to allow for our guests to try foods from our eclectic and varied cuisine choices. Like I said before, not once did Sarah say “We can’t do that”... instead, it was always a positive affirmation that they would make it work. That’s what you need from a coordinator, and from a wedding venue.
With the day and venue spot chosen, we just had to work with Sarah over the months to refine guest lists, specific packages and arranging for occasional in-person food tastings, of which our family members remarked was excellent. During the planning period, Sarah also let us know that we had some flexibility for weather concerns, and options to flex to other venue spots should the right conditions occur. Basically, she was assuring us that we were 100% covered.
Week of the wedding, it was not hard to get hold of Sarah to finalize things, and for arranging our vendors. We were able to perform our rehearsal at the venue, but decided against hosting the dinner there for completely separate reasons (but it was an option!). Again, there was not a small adjustment or last-minute change that wasn’t met with a “Yes, we can make that work” from Sarah.
Sarah was always around when we needed her, and kept us as on time as she could for our schedule. She made sure to cater to our needs and kept us a priority amongst the hustle and bustle of the night. She was instrumental in coordinating all of our vendors into a unique experience for our guests, many of which told us what a terrific night they had later on.
We cannot thank Sarah and Birch Hill Estate enough for making our wedding as memorable as it was, except to try to convince you that you don’t have to look further.