The Briarcliff Manor — Attraction in Town of Ossining

Got married here fall of ’23 and have been taking our time thinking about what and how to describe our experience. For context, we are quite familiar with the area and NYS, and at the time of our planning, lived a number of hours away by car.

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE: planning a very traditional wedding, and/or are taking a hands-off approach to planning, and/or are in a situation where budget is not a concern and you have a number of planning supports, this will likely be an ideal venue for you, and that is great; I am happy for you! IF YOU ARE: anxious about planning, taking a hands-on approach, budget-conscious, navigating a lot of things yourself, and ESPECIALLY if you are planning to do anything at all that is non-traditional, read on.

I’ll start with positives. They say “it all starts with great food,” and they’ve got us there. It does take pressure off knowing that all your food is in-house. That included a tasting, signature cocktail and bar, cocktail hour apps, desserts, and some flexibility in terms of what items went where, and when dinner started. The view was fantastic. The venue itself is also great looking and recently underwent some upgrades (the ballroom opened up in the back by large windows, and a refinished floor).

On the day of our wedding, everything went just about as perfectly as we could have imagined. We particularly thank Erica and Stephanie for their attention to detail for us and our guests, and that they made us feel like we were truly in the middle of one of our most meaningful days, as well as an excellent group of staff including servers, bartenders, kitchen staff, and everyone else that made things happen on the day of.

So, you might ask, what could have possibly been a negative?

Up to and including the day before the wedding you could have asked me, do you think this’ll go well, or do you think this’ll be a disaster? And my guess would have been 50/50. The reason for this is due to large gaps in and lack of communication with venue management prior to our wedding. We booked far in advance, and figured communication would improve starting the year of our wedding, more so about 6 months out. Additionally, we signed up for day-of wedding coordination via the venue as an additional service, which included “bi-weekly calls 3 months out from your wedding date.”

Things did not seem to improve. We regularly had to follow up, CC general emails, follow up again. When we got to day-of coordination meetings, not only did we start late, but they felt rushed. Our coordinator experienced personal family obligations during 2023, of which we are of course sorry for and understanding around. And, it is notable that issues were occurring regularly across our entire planning process, not just at that time. Typically, the responses we received were acknowledging that it has been very busy with weddings. But this is the venue’s bread and butter, no? And, we did manage to always get timely reminders, both automated and personal, about when next payments were due.

I had to sub out calls for “20 questions” style lists of both broad and specific topics, multiple times, within weeks of our date to get info on how vital details of our day would go, including menu and timeline. The fact that we designed and supplied our own decor added to the stress, despite the fact that setup was included in our day-of coordination cost (we ended up opting to set decor up ourselves the day of; we did not trust the setup would be completed properly).

The lack of effective communication and planning left us feeling anxious and frustrated directly leading up to our wedding. We felt with booking with lots of time to spare and adding day-of coordination that we would be relieved leading up to our wedding, not feeling intense dread. Every other vendor we worked with was great, and as responsive as you would want. Looking at reviews, I have seen that others have shared similar experiences. It sounds from other reviews, other times things do go smoothly. I’m happy for those couples. Maybe you’ll get lucky....

We had our wedding reception at The Briarcliff Manor in November 2022, and it was AMAZING! We highly recommend using The Briarcliff Manor as your wedding reception venue: Emily (the director of events) and her team did a fabulous job every step of the way!

We immediately fell in love with the historic manor: it exuded classiness, tradition, and elegance. We were impressed with the food and beverages offerings, which exceeded those of their competitors. We also appreciated the location, about 30 minutes south of West Point, NY, where we held our wedding ceremony, and 15 minutes north of Tarrytown, NY, where we reserved our room block. Emily King answered all of our questions and was very patient and helpful throughout the consultation process. She provided a list of recommended vendors with whom the venue had worked with in the past, and all of these vendors were excellent.

The food was delicious. During our tasting (approximately 3 months before our wedding), we sampled many different options. Their bartender provided samples of two unique cocktails they could make, and was open to suggestions. This ultimately allowed us to choose a Trader Vic's original Mai Tai (think rum punch, without the dark floater) as our signature cocktail. They provided numerous options for our guests with gluten intolerances and our vegetarian/vegan friends and family. Selecting the foods was easy, and Emily and her team answered all of our questions along the way.

On the day of, the venue looked beautiful! We did a lot of the decor ourselves, and Emily worked with us to pre-position decorations and flowers so that we had less to do day-of. We did our own DIY florals (from Costco), which turned out beautifully. One small surprise for us was the venue's "setup fee," which surfaced after a consultation with Vincenza, their in-house design specialist. The setup fee was about $500 for DIY flowers. However, Vincenza was able to rent us linens, chargers, vases, and a cake stand, which helped reduce our burden. We had to constantly reiterate our vision to Vincenza, but luckily Emily and our MC were able to make it a reality.

Our cocktail hour was outdoors, on their beautiful back lawn overlooking the Hudson River. The Briarcliff Manor put out more than enough heat lamps (like you see in outdoor restaurant seating) and built a medium-sized bonfire in the fire pit. The amount of food and beverages for the cocktail hour was exceptional: there was so much! All of our guests raved about the food and beverage options at the cocktail hour.

The ballroom looked stunning. The team made our vision of a classy, elegant, yet cozy wedding come to life - no easy feat when you have 140+ guests! Table service was prompt and attentive. Our guests ordered their meals at the table, which helped eliminate the hassle of pre-ordering via guests' RSVPs. The kitchen did a phenomenal job getting everyone's meals out on time. Chris, the maitre'd, kept everything running smoothly. He and our MC perfectly timed everything so that guests could eat, dance, and drink throughout the night.

We want to point out a few things for out-of-town couples. We communicated pretty effectively with Emily and The Briarcliff Manor team via email throughout our 11-month planning process. We made regular payments in-person (about every 3 months) and were generally able to schedule those payments with a consult, or a vendor fair, etc. The Briarcliff Manor graciously offered us a cash discount. They also offered a $5 per person incentive, which we applied to a special option (lamb) for our cocktail hour. We had to be very clear about our DIY plans and vision, especially because it was out of the norm for Vincenza, but everything worked out well. Emily was fantastic to work with: thank you for all your help!

We loved our wedding at The Briarcliff Manor: thank you for an...

The Briarcliff Manor is a lovely venue, well-maintained with gorgeous grounds and a beautiful interior. For 75 guests, it provided the perfect space for a cozy and intimate wedding. Throughout the entire event, there were plenty of staff members on hand to ensure everything ran smoothly and according to schedule. At some moments, we felt slightly rushed, but their efficiency was certainly undeniable. The food was delicious, and guests were particularly impressed with the cocktail hour offerings. It’s worth keeping in mind that while the reception tables can seat up to twelve people, they’re actually quite cramped with even eleven. Nine to ten people per table worked better and allowed everyone more space. The wedding was overall quite successful owing to the venue’s high level of organization and experience, and we deeply appreciated that the staff gave us an extra hour to fit in a few more photos, despite being tired from a long week of work. My bridal attendant Stephanie was also amazingly courteous and patient, making sure I had everything I needed and offering assistance until the very last minute. One of the servers, Jimmy, was especially attentive and very sweet—he was mentioned to me by several guests. However, collaborating with this venue was quite frustrating for me, and the stress of the entire planning process was greatly exacerbated by lack of communication on the venue’s side. I do understand this was one of their busiest seasons, and they were definitely swamped with work, so slow replies were to be expected. Still, I had to constantly reiterate questions and requests, especially the ones sent through the client portal, which were seemingly ignored or not received most of the time. Even in the days leading up to the wedding, there was virtually no communication, and we received almost no replies to emails or texts. I also didn’t feel the venue was particularly accommodating throughout the planning process, and there seemed to be many restrictions in place, although we were allowed relatively more freedom the day of. At some point between cocktail hour and reception, perhaps while the tables were being moved, the reception place cards became completely disarranged. Luckily, my friends discovered and rectified the situation, but the staff members were initially unhappy with them, claiming that the placement was correct. One staff member was seen speaking rudely to some of my guests, even losing her temper momentarily. Additionally, the venue neglected to follow through in some aspects—we paid for 81 guests and were promised during the final meeting that we would receive takeaway meals in compensation for the 6 who did not come. However, those meals were not packed for us and, being in a huge rush to leave, we didn’t remember to ask. I had assumed the coordinator would have made the appropriate arrangements to honor our agreement, but I was sadly disappointed. Similarly, the venue agreed earlier to provide a gold cake stand, but upon learning that our baker (a family friend) had brought one herself, immediately told us their own cake stand would require a rental fee. Perhaps I was just unlucky to have booked my event during such a busy time, when the venue was too overworked to take care of all the details. The wedding was still very enjoyable, and I appreciate the venue and its staff for their hard work in making my big...