When Sarah Tracey and Jim Glaub bought Black Walnut Farm, turning it into a wedding and events venue was not part of the plan. The Saugerties property—a 1747 stone house paired with an 1891 barn—was meant to be a personal upstate refuge, maybe a rental someday. Then came the pandemic, a friend’s text, and a leap that, in retrospect, feels inevitable.
“We didn’t realize it at the time,” Glaub says, “but running weddings is kind of in our DNA.”
That DNA is unusually well suited to the work. Glaub has spent decades working marketing Broadway shows; Tracey brings deep hospitality chops, including 15 years in Michelin-star restaurants and a background as a sommelier and mixologist. What emerged at Black Walnut Farm is a venue that treats weddings less like a tightly scheduled transaction and more like a carefully staged, deeply personal production.
Newlyweds make their way down the aisle through a wooded ceremony site at Black Walnut Farm, where celebrations lean into the landscape and the moment—personal, unscripted, and fully their own.
The heart of the property is the restored 1891 barn, a space that balances historic texture with modern comfort and flexibility. It’s a room that can hold elegance without stiffness—and creativity without chaos. Around it, 34 acres of gardens, meadows, and wooded paths offer couples multiple settings to shape their weekend, whether that means a formal ceremony, a fire-lit welcome party, or an impromptu gathering that wasn’t on the timeline.
That sense of time—unrushed, expansive—is central to the Black Walnut experience. Rather than a six-hour, in-and-out affair, couples are invited to take over the farm for a full weekend.
“You have time to really enjoy your family and friends,” Tracey says. “Nothing’s rushed. The best moments aren’t the ones that are planned—they happen in between.”
That breathing room allows for events that reflect the personalities of the people hosting them. Over the past few seasons, that’s meant circus-burlesque cocktail hours, fire dancers, multicultural celebrations, and a strong showing of queer weddings that defy any single template. “Every wedding is different,” Glaub says. “It’s never cookie-cutter.”
Personalization runs deep here, often in unexpected ways. Tracey hosts hands-on mixology sessions with couples months before their wedding, helping them design signature cocktails that will be served on the big day. Each event gets its own custom flag flying on the property’s flagpole. And because the land is dotted with more than 100 black walnut trees, every couple has one planted in their honor, complete with a plaque they can return to visit over the years.
There’s also a sustainable ethos at work. A “something borrowed” collection—table runners, candleholders, signage—keeps useful materials in circulation and out of landfills, reinforcing the sense that Black Walnut Farm is as thoughtful as it is celebratory.
Food, meanwhile, remains fully open-ended. Couples bring in the caterers that fit their vision, from wood-fired pizza to elaborate farm-to-table feasts. The bar, however, is distinctly in-house. Tracey grows herbs and botanicals on the farm, makes her own vermouth, syrups, and bitters, and highlights Hudson Valley breweries, wineries, and distilleries—often giving out-of-town guests their first taste of the region.
And then there’s Miss Lily, the resident barn cat and undisputed guest-services manager. “She’s our boss,” Glaub says. During weddings, she’s known to make a cameo appearance for a celebratory sip of milk from a martini glass—an unscripted moment that reliably steals the show.
At Black Walnut Farm, those moments are the point. The setting provides the structure, but what lingers is the feeling that something genuinely shared—and carefully cared for—has taken place.
Produced by the Chronogram Media Branded Content Team.
