Whether you’re going to be showing up early in sweats to do your own floral arranging or you want a seamless, stress-free wedding package where you don’t have to lift a finger, our readers concur: Red Maple Vineyard is a fabulous place to tie the knot.
“It’s definitely a magical spot,” says Shay Stone, who came home from wandering the globe to help her parents transform the West Park winery, a one-time dairy farm operated by the Christian Brothers, into a boutique wedding venue. “It’s a breathtaking spot in the first place, and we’ve renovated and transformed it.”
Stone’s parents, Gary and Liz, met as students at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. “They started their own catering company when I was five, so I grew up around events and hospitality,” she recalls. “As they got into doing weddings, they were looking to expand. They found this lovely old dairy-farm-turned-winery where a guy named Lou had been growing Chardonnay grapes for 20 years and breathed new life into the land.”
The family replanted the vineyard and added a three-acre vegetable garden, which supplies much of the produce for catered onsite events. “We source as much as we can from right here on the property, from side dishes to the eggs for the wedding cakes,” Stone says. “This year we’re launching our wine and cider. We’re excited to see what people think!” The cider is made onsite with apples from neighboring Maynard Farms. And maple sap from the property’s trees is made into craft beer at Kingston’s Great Life Brewing and then served at events. Full circle.
The ideal wedding is about so much more than the sum of its parts, and the hospitality at Red Maple Vineyard is all sincerity, sweetness, and warmth, letting couples feel fully at home on their special day. “We’re all about giving people the freedom to create,” says Stone. “We’ve got the venue, the catering, the rentals and the talent to make it all seamless for you. It’s a labor of love, and it shows in every way.”
Future couples will enjoy a new reception center designed to “bring the outdoors in,” along with the venue’s commitment to zero food waste and their superb Hudson Valley rustic-chic backdrops. “Our whole philosophy, from gardening to hospitality, is regenerative,” says Stone. “It’s all about positive creative energy. We’re so grateful to our team and our couples and glad to be part of this community.”
