Overall, we are very pleased with our wedding at Diamond Mills. We received many compliments about the beautiful venue and the town of Saugerties. We had about 70 guests, so it was on the smaller size. The ceremony was on grounds, we reserved... 10 rooms at the hotel and also chose to keep the tavern open following the reception so our entire wedding was with DM.
We worked with Laurie H. throughout the year for our wedding planning. Laurie was always very kind, helpful and communicative when we had questions/concerns. We were able to go to DM several times to get a better feel for our special day and plan decorations and set up, Laurie coordinated all of this. About 2 months before our wedding we were contacted by Josephine, saying she would now be taking over our wedding and would be reaching out again as we got closer to the wedding. We did not hear from her again. This was confusing and concerning as final details were still not discussed. Thankfully, Laurie continued to coordinate. Josephine was present the day of the wedding, however, Laurie ended up being our main go to person and we were very pleased and thankful for this as Josephine does not seem to have great people skills. Several of our guests asked who she was and noted she scowled most of the night and/or was rude to them. Gina, the hotel manager was of similar kind. There was a mix up early on with regard to hotel reservations and although it was corrected, Gina was unpleasant, rude and talked down to my parents several times even though it was the hotel staff’s mistake which needed to be corrected. There was a sense that because were were not reserving the entire hotel that we were not good enough to be treated with the same respect. Additionally, the Gold Package is supposed to include special hotel rates, however, apparently this only applies if you book the entire hotel. I wish there was another hotel around that we could recommend instead, however, this was the most convenient and in the end they allowed us to check in early which was a plus. You also can’t beat the view and the rooms are definitely top notch.
The ceremony was perfect. Again, Laurie was there to walk us through each step as we went through it as we did not have a rehearsal prior to the big day. This was a bit nerve-racking for me, but Laurie was calm, organized and this was greatly appreciated.
The Gold Package provided just the right amount of food (we are Italian) and we were very pleased. The cake was beautiful (the chef took the lead on the design and matched our colors perfectly!) however we had a difficult time deciding on the flavor as we did not really like any of the choices we sampled at the tasting. The assorted pastries, we heard were delicious, however, they were only left out for about 30 minutes and taken away before many people were able to sample. DM allows you to have a signature drink and this allowed for no back up at the bar, which we had seen at many other weddings. Table wine service was superb, I don’t think anyone’s glass was ever empty, whether it was water or wine, the waitstaff was EXCELLENT.
Keeping the bar open at the tavern was a bit disappointing financially. In hindsight we could have continued the party up at The Pig instead and saved about $300, tax and gratuity were tacked.
Again, overall, we were very pleased with our wedding and would recommend DM because of the beautiful location and the elegance the venue provides.