Review and Pictures from a very original Mount Mohonk wedding we went to Saturday!
Here's the Shutterfly link!
We had a REALLY nice time... what a great place for a wedding. My feet are KILLING me from all the walking!
The wedding was in the parlor room... my friend is B'ahai, so it was not a traditional wedding ceremony, but it had some elements of a traditional ceremony. There was no bridal party. No clergy... just an officiant to oversee things, but pretty much the bride and groom ran the show. They had a guitar player/piano player who sang beautiful music, which was a big part of the ceremony. The bride's sister also sang (I've known her for years and never realized she could sing that well... she was awesome! I may ask her to sing at my wedding!).
Then we had a cocktail hour - minus cocktails (it's illegal to drink in that particular area because of old puritan law or something), but it was very nice! Crabcakes, lambchops, shrimp, spinach something or another, this tomato thing that was awesome... and everyhing else we tried, but didn't like. My FH tried something he thought was chicken, but it was patte... poor guy looked like Tom Hanks in BIG when he started wiping his tongue with his napkin!![]()
(well, not quite that bad... lol). I'm glad he tried it before me! He warned me! Then we all took a group photo with the bride and groom (there were only about 50-60 wedding guests). Then we all took a LONG walk through the garden to this little house (thus the burning feet) where the reception was on a PORCH, strung with lights in tulle all around.
Each table had a glass bowl with different colored floating roses in them, and candles. This may have been ill advised, but comical. Each guest had to match what color rose was drawn on his/her table card to the color rose floating in the bowl, but some of the colors matched too closely. Our peach rose matched the pink one too closely, and we ended up at the wrong table! It was funny. So, table numbers, yes. Table names... yes. Table colors.... ummmm not unless the colors are DRASTICALLY different from each other! Especially for a girl who just underwent laser eye surgery 2 weeks ago and can't see perfectly at night!![]()
![]()
My friend was THE most laid back bride I have EVER seen SOOOOO not nervous at all. (I will not be that laid back... I promise you that). In fact... she and her new husband decided they wanted to hang out alone together on the picnic table before they walked into the reception, so they sent word in for the guests to start eating dinner so they could spend some time alone together just a few feet from the porch, where we could all see them, but they were alone - just watching us and smiling. It was sweet.![]()
.
The food... it was buffet style. Chicken (I didn't have it)... AWESOME Hawaiian Mahi Mahi with pineapple... and then behind the big buffet, there was a BIG barbecue grill, the size of the table, with lots of steaks grilling up! That's what I liked about the wedding... a big combination of a formal wedding and a relaxing BBQ! They had a bar out here, so we were able to have our cocktails during the reception. The service was IMPECCABLE... every time I had an empty plate or cup... someone noticed it and took it away. If this place was closer, I would have had my wedding her. Seriously... if you haven't peeked at the pics, look... the place is beautiful!
When the couple came in, they sat with their parents and siblings at a table (not their own table). They waited about 1-2 hours into the wedding to have their first dance, which my friend's sister sang. The DJ was a friend of their family, so it was very informal (no MC). The music was not my style, so I didn't do too much dancing (way too much hip hop for me... but my feet were lava like anyway).
The cake was a Swedish recipe (the groom is Swedish... my friend is Egyptian)... very pretty. It was pretty good. And they had some other cakes as desserts, but I refrained.![]()
.
Another nice touch was that anyone who wanted to was invited up to the microphone to say a few words about the bride and/or groom. I got up to talk about my friendship with the bride... made a few people cry, so I guess I said the right things!![]()
.
We had a very nice time! We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard about 20 minutes from Mount Mohonk (no way would we pay $400-$700/night for the Mohonk Mountainhouse!), so we had a nice weekend!.
We had a REALLY nice time... what a great place for a wedding. My feet are KILLING me from all the walking!
The wedding was in the parlor room... my friend is B'ahai, so it was not a traditional wedding ceremony, but it had some elements of a traditional ceremony. There was no bridal party. No clergy... just an officiant to oversee things, but pretty much the bride and groom ran the show. They had a guitar player/piano player who sang beautiful music, which was a big part of the ceremony. The bride's sister also sang (I've known her for years and never realized she could sing that well... she was awesome! I may ask her to sing at my wedding!).
Then we had a cocktail hour - minus cocktails (it's illegal to drink in that particular area because of old puritan law or something), but it was very nice! Crabcakes, lambchops, shrimp, spinach something or another, this tomato thing that was awesome... and everyhing else we tried, but didn't like. My FH tried something he thought was chicken, but it was patte... poor guy looked like Tom Hanks in BIG when he started wiping his tongue with his napkin!
Each table had a glass bowl with different colored floating roses in them, and candles. This may have been ill advised, but comical. Each guest had to match what color rose was drawn on his/her table card to the color rose floating in the bowl, but some of the colors matched too closely. Our peach rose matched the pink one too closely, and we ended up at the wrong table! It was funny. So, table numbers, yes. Table names... yes. Table colors.... ummmm not unless the colors are DRASTICALLY different from each other! Especially for a girl who just underwent laser eye surgery 2 weeks ago and can't see perfectly at night!
My friend was THE most laid back bride I have EVER seen SOOOOO not nervous at all. (I will not be that laid back... I promise you that). In fact... she and her new husband decided they wanted to hang out alone together on the picnic table before they walked into the reception, so they sent word in for the guests to start eating dinner so they could spend some time alone together just a few feet from the porch, where we could all see them, but they were alone - just watching us and smiling. It was sweet.
The food... it was buffet style. Chicken (I didn't have it)... AWESOME Hawaiian Mahi Mahi with pineapple... and then behind the big buffet, there was a BIG barbecue grill, the size of the table, with lots of steaks grilling up! That's what I liked about the wedding... a big combination of a formal wedding and a relaxing BBQ! They had a bar out here, so we were able to have our cocktails during the reception. The service was IMPECCABLE... every time I had an empty plate or cup... someone noticed it and took it away. If this place was closer, I would have had my wedding her. Seriously... if you haven't peeked at the pics, look... the place is beautiful!
When the couple came in, they sat with their parents and siblings at a table (not their own table). They waited about 1-2 hours into the wedding to have their first dance, which my friend's sister sang. The DJ was a friend of their family, so it was very informal (no MC). The music was not my style, so I didn't do too much dancing (way too much hip hop for me... but my feet were lava like anyway).
The cake was a Swedish recipe (the groom is Swedish... my friend is Egyptian)... very pretty. It was pretty good. And they had some other cakes as desserts, but I refrained.
Another nice touch was that anyone who wanted to was invited up to the microphone to say a few words about the bride and/or groom. I got up to talk about my friendship with the bride... made a few people cry, so I guess I said the right things!
We had a very nice time! We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard about 20 minutes from Mount Mohonk (no way would we pay $400-$700/night for the Mohonk Mountainhouse!), so we had a nice weekend!.
