Tamara and Jared's Wedding

Lodging in the area is getting harder and harder to come by, so please make your reservations as soon as possible! We made a few calls to find out what is still available in the area and have listed some of these below. Please also check this much more extensive list if these places have since become booked.

The Weekend's Events

Friday, May 26th
Coffee and Dessert at
Joyce and Bob Nicol's home
31 Lauren Court, Woodstock, NY
8:30 PM

Saturday, May 27th
Wedding and Reception at
Clermont State Historic Site
3:00 PM
(After the wedding we will be heading to Santa Fe in Tivoli or Foster's Coach House in Rhinebeck.)

Sunday, May 28th
Cook-out Open House at
Joyce and Bob Nicol's home
31 Lauren Court, Woodstock, NY
3:00 PM

Some Available Lodging

The Grand Dutchess
7571 Old Post Road
Red Hook, NY 12571
Phone: (845) 758-5818

• 11 mi (18 min) from Clermont
• 16 mi (29 min) from Woodstock
• website says they have available rooms

Joslen Motor Lodge
320 Joslen Blvd
Hudson, NY 12534
Phone: (518) 828-7046

• 12 mi (22 min) from Clermont
• 30 mi (49 min) from Woodstock
• 14 rooms available, different prices for different rooms (1 double $70, 2 doubles $95, queen $85, king $95); these prices seem to be updated from what is showing on their website

Hudson City B & B
326 Allen Street
Hudson, NY 12534
Phone: (518) 822-8044

• 11 mi (16 min) from Clermont
• 28 mi (43 min) from Woodstock
• 3 or 4 rooms available, range between $150-175

Quality Inn - Kingston
114 Route 28
Kingston, NY 12401
Phone: (845) 339-3900

• 22 mi (34 min) from Clermont
• 9 mi (17 min) from Woodstock
• 44 rooms left, half smoking, 2 adults $140+tax, 1 adult $130+tax

Ramada Inn - Newburgh
1289 Route 300
Newburgh, NY 12550
Phone: (845) 564-4500

• 55 mi (1 hr) from Clermont
• 42 mi (51 min) from Woodstock
• rooms available for Friday and Saturday nights; $149 per night

Comfort Inn - Newburgh
5 Lakeside Rd
Newburgh, NY 12550
Phone: (845) 567-0567

• 58 mi (1 hr) from Clermont
• 45 mi (56 min) from Woodstock
• rooms available for Saturday night; $166 per night

And finally, here is a list of lodging in the Hudson Valley that may be helpful. Tamara's parents suggest the following locations that are not necessarily close but are reasonably nearby: Bearsville, Boiceville, Gardiner, High Falls, Highland, Lake Hill, Mount Tremper, New Paltz, Shokan, Stone Ridge, West Shokan, and Woodstock. Nearby counties includes Dutchess (where Rhinebeck is located), Columbia (where Clermont is) and Greene.

Accommodations | | Permalink |

Friday night

Dessert and coffee at the Nicol house will be casual.

Saturday afternoon and evening

The wedding will be somewhat formal. This means that most men will wear suits and women will wear cocktail dresses. Since the wedding spans from afternoon until evening, you may want to wear something that will be light and comfortable in the afternoon sun but realize that it may be cool in the evening.

The ceremony and reception will be outside in a grassy area. We are told that the dirt is always fairly firm (and it seems so from when we have visited), but women may want to think twice about what kind of heel to wear.

Sunday afternoon

The cookout at the Nicol house will be casual. We will be sitting outside on the decks, and those who are interested can play lawn games in the yard or walk down to the pond. There are also game opportunities in the basement such as ping pong, foosball, air hockey and bumper pool. So dress to be comfortable and as active as you want to be.

What if it rains?

If it rains on Saturday, we will move the ceremony and the reception under a large tent (where we already plan to eat dinner and dance anyway). The tent we have reserved will have walls that can be put in place in case it's both rainy and windy, so that we will be dry and warm inside. Of course, you will have to get from your car to the tent, so an umbrella is advised.

If it rains on Sunday, we will move the cooking and the guests inside.

If you have any questions, please let us know!

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The greatest gift that you can give is to share your presence with us at our wedding if you are able to come. We realize that many of you will be traveling considerable distance to be with us, and we really appreciate your effort to come. Be assured that your presence at the wedding will be considered gift enough! We have also enjoyed receiving the kind thoughts and words sent by those of you who cannot come, and we will miss you!

But some of you have asked where we are registered, so here are links to our online registries:

Bed Bath and Beyond

Crate and Barrel

Felicite

In addition, since traveling far and wide is our favorite thing to do despite our limited budget, we have set up a fund for our honeymoon to the World Cup in Germany this summer. Monetary gifts would help us with that as well as toward our upcoming move to Philadelphia.

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at the wedding!

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In addition to the wedding on Saturday, we have a couple of other get-togethers for those of you who will be in the area for the whole weekend. Weddings go by quickly, so we hope these additional gatherings will give us more time to spend with all of you.

Friday, May 26th, 8:30 PM
Coffee and Dessert at
Joyce and Bob Nicol’s home
31 Lauren Court in Woodstock

Saturday, May 27th, 3:00 PM
Wedding and Reception at
Clermont Historic Site

Sunday, May 28th, 3:00 PM
Cook-out Open House at
Joyce and Bob Nicol’s home
31 Lauren Court in Woodstock

(Directions will be included in the invitation.)

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Our wedding and its location will put you in the middle of a holiday weekend and in the middle of a beautiful part of New York State, the Hudson Valley. If you have the time to spend exploring the area before and after the wedding, there are a wide variety of things to do and interesting places to visit.

The wedding site (Clermont) is itself one of many historic mansions in the Hudson Valley that were built in the 18th and 19th centuries by individuals who were instrumental in New York State and US history. Near Clermont are Red Hook, Rhinebeck and Hyde Park, wonderful towns and small cities that have interesting shops and good restaurants.

On the other side of the river, Tamara's parents live in Woodstock, a town that stays true to its history as a progressively off-beat quirky art colony. If you like to hike, the Woodstock side of the river has excellent trails that offer spectacular views. On both sides of the Hudson are vineyards with tasting rooms

If you want to head toward New York City, you will be just 90 miles north of it with the Thruway, Taconic Parkway or rail transportation to take you there.

Here are some helpful websites that will give you details and many other ideas:

The Husdon River Valley: Travel and Tourism

Hudson Valley Network

Travel the Hudson Valley

Also, please feel free to contact Tamara's parents, the resident experts, if you have further questions!

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Update: Most of the hotels listed below are now full! Please see our updated list of recommended lodging.

Reminder: A much more extensive list of lodging in the area is here, but we have not been able to personally visit all of them. If you have questions about a particular place, please ask and we'll see what we can find out. We continue to urge you to make your reservations as soon as possible. It is a holiday weekend, so places are quickly becoming booked!

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Although we're still working out the details of the wedding day schedule, we do have some information that might be useful to those of you who are still working out your travel plans and accommodations.

Saturday (events in Germantown and Rhinebeck)

The wedding ceremony will be held in the afternoon, followed immediately by a cocktail reception and dinner, followed by dancing in the evening.

After the wedding ends, we will direct people who are interested in going out to Foster's Coach House in the town of Rhinebeck just a few miles south of the wedding site.

Sunday (events in Woodstock)

Sunday afternoon Tamara’s parents and we will host an open house at their home in Woodstock which will give us some additional time to mingle, enjoy some activities, and have a barbeque. So please feel welcome to join us if you are still in town.

We hope that this information will help you to decide where to make your hotel reservations. If you would like to be close to the wedding site and anticipate going out in Rhinebeck after the wedding, the most convenient accomodations will be around Rhinebeck. If you think you'll stay for the whole weekend, then you might be interested in accomodations closer to Woodstock. (But don't worry - either way, you won't be more than 1/2 hr away from the activities.)

My parents have recently checked out a few of the hotels close to Rhinebeck and there are two b&bs that they recommend for groups of people who would like to stay together in the same place. They also continue to recommend the Howard Johnson in Saugerties, and have several rooms blocked at a discounted rate.

The Gaslight Inn
8049 Albany Post Rd
Red Hook, NY 12571
845-758-1571
11 minutes (6.6 miles) from the wedding site
14 minutes (7.9 miles) from downtown Rhinebeck

Update: We are waiting to hear back from the owners of the Gaslight Inn about availability and rates for the weekend. Hopefully we'll find this out in the next week.

T's parents' description: "No one was around but we did look in the window of one room. It seemed simple, neat and probably clean. The whole place on the outside was well kept. I called when we got home and the message says that they are closed for the winter and to call back in mid April. It seems that there are perhaps 15 rooms. The location is very good for partying after the wedding as the location is close to Rhinebeck center and to Clermont. Do have your friends follow up when the proprietors get back to town, because it could accommodate quite a few people assuming they have the dates available." (According to this site, prices range from $55 to $90, but since it's a holiday weekend, they are likely to be higher.)

Stone Church Road Bed & Breakfast
339 Stone Church Road
Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845-758-2427
18 minutes (11.9 miles) from the wedding site
9 minutes (4.2 miles) from downtown Rhinebeck

T's parents' description: "The website pictures represent it well. The rooms are big enough but not spacious. The two lower priced rooms share a bath. The other two rooms have private baths. This is indeed a B&B made out of a house, but the house has been redesigned so that guests enter the front door and can go up to the rooms without entering the private area of the house. A nice feature is what they call the common room, which is built over the garage and so is quite spacious. If four couples know each other, this room is a good placed to gather when there is time to spare, as the bedrooms are not overly large. This is the place for the breakfast. The woman we spoke with (Marsha) was very nice. We think you should find four couples to book this right away." (Room rates are $95 for a room with a shared bath; $115 for a private bath (plus state and local tax) on weekend nights May 1 to November 30. A rollaway bed for a third person is $15 per night. Accommodates up to 8 people in four rooms, each with a queen sized bed.)

Howard Johnson
2764 Route 32
I-87 exit 20 & Rt 32
Saugerties, NY, 12477 US
845-246-9511
35 minutes (22.5 miles) from the wedding site
30 minutes (17.5 miles) from downtown Rhinebeck

We have blocked 20 rooms until April 25th at discounted rates of $89-99. Reference Nicol Wedding to obtain special rates.

Quality Inn Kingston
114 Route 28
Kingston, NY, 12401
Phone: (845) 339-3900
25 minutes from the wedding site (17.9 miles)
20 minutes from downtown Rhinebeck (12.9 miles)

They only have a handful of rooms, all with two double beds, (up to 4 adults) for $140 a night (according to hotels.com).

We also encourage you to make your reservations in coordination with each other. Feel free to leave comments below or email us if you are looking for people to coordinate with.

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Airports

The two closest airports to the wedding site are Albany Int'l Airport (ALB) and Stewart Int'l Airport (SWF). Albany International Airport is about one hour north of the wedding site, whereas Stewart is about an hour south of the wedding site. If you're interested in coming in from New York City, both JFK and La Guardia are about two hours away.

Rental cars from Albany Int'l Airport

If you're flying into town, we suggest renting a car to get around as many of the sites in the area (including the wedding) are inaccessible by public transportation. We're currently looking into mass transportation options to/from specific hotels to the wedding site. In the meantime, if you want to rent a car from Albany Int'l Airport, www.hotwire.com currently has excellent deals for rental cars on Memorial Day weekend. On a rental from Friday, May 26th to Monday, May 29th, Hotwire has (w/unlimited mileage) economy cars for $19.99/day, compact cars for $21.95/day, and mid-sized and standard cars for $23.95/day.

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A list of local accommodations is available here, and has also been e-mailed to you individually. (If you did not get the list and cannot view it on the web, please let us know.)

Joyce and Bob (T's parents) would like to stress that accommodations are scarce due to other local events scheduled for the same weekend. Please, please, please make your arrangements as soon as possible!

If you are unable to find lodging in the area, please let us know and we will look into lodging that is slightly farther away.

Accommodations | Questions and Comments (1) | Permalink |

What is a blog? Why didn't you just put up a normal webpage?

A blog contains information that is posted in reverse chronlogical order, so that whenever you view the site the most recent information is at the top of the page. We have decided to use blog software to design this site because it offers lots of nice features, such as categories, commenting, and RSS. Let me explain.

Each time we post new information to the site, it will be tagged with a category label, such as "Accommodations". To see everything we've ever posted about Accommodations, simply click on the link on the right sidebar and all relevant posts will be displayed for you. (This post was categorized as "Miscellaneous". See it marked below and also listed on the sidebar to the right?)

If you have a question or comment, just click "Questions and Comments" below the post to leave your note. Your comment will be displayed on the blog for others to see and for us to respond to. We'll respond by email to you as well as on the blog. That way if others have the same question as you, they can just read our dialogue instead of having to ask the question again.

(When you leave a comment, you will be asked to leave your name and e-mail. You don't have to leave your full name if you don't want to - just "Bob" is sufficient! And don't worry, your e-mail will not be displayed on the website, but will only be sent to us privately so that we can respond to you. Of course, if you have a question that you don't want to post publicly, please email us directly.)

If you want to receive notification whenever the site is updated, please let us know and we will add you to our email notification list. We'll send you an email whenever the site is updated along with a link directing you to whatever is new. Alternatively, if you have an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the atom.xml or index.xml feeds.

Overall, we hope that navigating the site will be self-evident, with a few nice features thrown in for those people who know what to do with them. If you find any of this confusing, please just ask us for help! We'll be happy to call you or send you whatever you need by email.

Miscellaneous | Questions and Comments (2) | Permalink |