Onteora Mountain House

September 10 Wedding

2011-10-27T15:41:00.001-04:00

Photo by Kelly Kollar

Our September wedding enjoyed a wonderfully clear night. (Photos courtesy of
Jonathan Young Photography)

To see more photos from this wedding click HERE.

We've been discovered - Again!

2011-08-25T11:44:00.000-04:00

The trendy wedding website Style Me Pretty has just featured one of our recent weddings.

We can't take any credit for that. It was the photographer, our good friend Ulysses, who did the leg work. To see the whole spread go HERE.

If it's in print it must be true...

2011-07-23T14:25:00.000-04:00

The latest issue of the Knot is on the stands with it's banner headline: "18 PERFECT REAL WEDDINGS."

We are happy to say that one of those weddings was ours. We can't remember if it was perfect. But we do remember it as being real.

Take a Spin on the Dance Floor

2011-07-16T11:51:00.000-04:00

An old friend of Onteora's, photographer Mark Fink, brought his high-tech 360-degree camera to one of our recent weddings and captured this shot.

But wait! There's more! You can view the whole picture in a moving panorama by going to:

http://www.360cities.net/image/onteora-house-wedding-reception-dancing-hudson-valley#276.00,23.70,70.0

You can even see the ceiling and the dancers' feet, if you're of a mind to.

NEW WALKTHROUGH POSTED

2011-04-22T13:38:00.000-04:00

Twenty years in the making, we have finally published our long promised " Wedding Walkthrough." It's a detailed description of how weddings happen here at Onteora, crammed with more pictures. See the link above or click here.

Check out our coverage on Grey Likes Weddings

2011-04-22T13:31:00.000-04:00

One of last season's weddings is now featured on this popular wedding website. Take a look.

Availability Up Date

2010-12-29T13:07:00.001-05:00

Between Christmas and New Year's, a lot of people seem to, shall we say, overindulge. And as a result, they get engaged.

If you are one of these happy people, and are just diving into the mad rush to find a wedding location, we are happy to report that Saturday slots in both June and August have just opened up. (Amazingly, at Onteroa August is an even more popular than the traditional June.)

Click on the Wedding Calendar link at the top of the page to learn more. And have some black coffee.

Winter is Here

2010-12-29T13:00:00.000-05:00

The great blizzard of 2010 has come and gone. It was not as bad here as I hear it was along the coast, in the Big Apple and other big metropolitan areas. Just 6 inches of snow and high winds that have whirled that snow into mounds up to 3 feet.

It's days like today that I remember overtime someone calls and asks, "why don't you do winter weddings?"

Another Photo Shoot

2010-11-19T10:42:00.002-05:00

People are always asking "Where is the cocktail hour held?" This picture by Erik Ekroth answers that question beautifully.( Except of course when it's raining and everyone takes shelter in the house)

He also captured this shot of the pavilion during a mid summer night's festivities. You can see more of his Onteora Work Here

An Ode to November

2010-11-12T16:50:00.000-05:00

The leaves are falling fast and the empty branches and cluttered forest floor always brings back this old poem:

November

by Thomas Hood

No sun--no moon!
No morn--no noon!
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--
No sky--no earthly view--
No distance looking blue--

No mail--no post--
No news from any foreign coast--
No park--no ring--no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!

Bob Speaks: Of Thermostats and Dining Tables

2010-11-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

In 1953 the legendary industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss was asked by the Honeywell Company to redesign one of their most popular and humble products - a thermostat.

I am sure that, no matter what your age, you have run across it: round, and dull-gold and you turn it left or right to set the temperature you want. It took a year to design and hundreds of test models. Just because Mr. Dreyfuss wanted it round.

Years later I met someone who had worked in Dreyfuss's office. He told me, "Whenever we were to re-design something that happened to be originally square, he wanted to make it round. And whenever we were handed something that was round, we were ordered to make it square."

I am convinced that this same perverse philosophy of design is at work every time a visiting bride says, "I really want to have rectangular tables. Don't you have any?"

This obsession to be different for the sake of being different, is no doubt thanks to the nagging of the Wicked Witch of Katona (you know, the one who owns a magazine and way too many other things). Of course, the irony is, as soon as everyone succumbs to her hypnotic suggestion, rectangles won't be "different" anymore, and the World's Foremost Authority will declare round tables the "in" thing once more.

But let us rise above the trendiness, and ask ourselves: where are rectangular tables the norm? Prison dining halls (See Jimmy Cagney in White Heat as he jumps all over them; in Army messes (remember Mash?); and - most recently - Harry Potter's Hogwarts. All the epitome of the regimented, militaristic, mass-production dining experience.

And should I point out the fact that rectangular seating arrangements are the death of human interaction at the table? Who can you relate to except the two or three people you are closest to? King Arthur was on to something.

And should we add that half the guests will have to crick their necks to see the speeches and antics on the dance floor? Or that they will be forced to walk 30 feet out of their way to get to the buffet?

That venerable Honeywell thermostat should live on - I like it. It's a perfect example of form and function. But I can only hope that this mania for rectangular tables will eventually pass, and we will return to civilized, and somewhat elegant dining floor plans.

But that dishwater-blonde crone from Katona may have to croak first.

Sasha Steals The Show

2010-10-31T13:58:00.000-04:00

For pictures of the wedding that Sasha was not in, Check out photographer Jeffrey Mosier Blog.

A June wedding in subtle shades

2010-10-27T10:36:00.000-04:00

Sometimes colors don't have to come out and shake your hand to be effective. Like this photo by Kimberley Coccagnia of a June wedding here.

See more of her fine-toned work here.

Bob Speaks...

2010-10-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

The Anthropology of Weddings

Social anthropologists lump weddings into the category of "rites of passage." Like baptisms, funerals, graduations, and - alas - circumcisions.

All these varied rituals, they say, are designed to "signal both to the individual and the community that a member has undergone a 'change in status' and he/she is supposed to feel different, and be treated differently, after the ritual is observed.

Claude Levi Strauss, the great French anthropologist, said that all rites of passage have one thing in common: they produce in the subject "sweat and wonder." It probably sounded better in French.

So the little Aborigine boy sweats over being eaten by the big monster hiding in the forest, while the bride sweats about "will I fit into this gown?" or "will it rain?"

And at the funeral, the grieving widow wonders if she will ever be able to cook for just one from now on, while the bride' s father wonders "will I ever pay off the bill?"

Are all these thoughts bad? Not at all! If it weren't for that residual dose of "sweat and wonder", weddings just wouldn't do their job as rituals.

Years ago we had a wedding where the couple and most of the attendees spoke nothing but Korean. A local priest conducted the ceremony in complete English. I went to him afterwards and said "Well?"

His reply: "I think they feel married."

So it wasn't the words said. I'm sure, in essence, it was the sweat and wonder.

More later. Stay tuned.

October Wedding

2010-10-22T21:17:00.000-04:00

Recent October Wedding, Courtesy of Ulysses Photography Click Here for More Pictures

Fall Foliage at Onteora

2010-10-21T18:43:00.000-04:00

Fall Foliage off the Pavilion Deck

Fire Valley

Leaves off Ceremony Deck

Waiting for the Next Bride

2010-10-05T11:59:00.000-04:00