Waterford Banquet caters throughout the Capital District and surrounding communities, but handles weddings and special events at The Saratoga Elks.
As far as the food is concerned, Waterford Banquets offers some really good prices and some great wedding favorites on their menu options. I believe their Prime Rib, which I would classify as medium-sized cut of beef, is somewhere around $23 a head, which really isn’t bad! Check out their website above for the menus options – or click here.
The Saratoga Elks, conveniently located near Northway Exit 15, has a bright and modern look with great lighting. It features a bar and a suitable wooden dance floor. There is great access to hall with a nearby back door, making things easy for decoration purposes.
Lodge Facilities
250 plus guests banquet hall with spacious seating
Great bar/lounge area with seating for up to 100
Located in historic Saratoga Springs, near all activities
Patio and Gazebo area for beautiful ceremony
A decent-sized banquet room to fit 175 plus guests…
Overall, I would suggest that the hall is a great size; not too small and not too big. It seems ideal for weddings between 125-200 guests.
I would rate them about 8 stars out of 10, only subtracting a little for an unusable disco ball (people wanted me to turn it on as the DJ, but it didn’t work) and a few minor eye sores, like the Elks Logo sign in the banquet hall and what I believe was a bingo board on the wall covered by curtains.
(EDITOR NOTE: Since this blog in 2011, the disco ball is back in working order!)
Franklin Plaza of Troy, NY is located right across the street from Dinosaur BBQThe Franklin Plaza Banquet Hall is a great place to have a wedding, prom, or other high-end event demanding class.
I work as a DJ and often an event planner, so I am used to managing every detail of big events myself. If you choose to book the Franklin Plaza, hopefully you will agree that they do think about everything, as they did for the recent prom that I did there in June.
One thing I wanted to highlight now, is that they have their own in-house dance lights now at the Plaza. The hall manager, Greg Cushman, told me that they put their custom light show up only a few months ago, and spared no expense in components and installation. The LED lights with programmable DMX technology are a great extra bonus for booking the hall, with no charge to the customer and they are up high in the corners of the dance floor, out of sight.
I would give the place 4 and a half stars out of 5, subtracting only a half a star for the homeless guy that I think spit on my car in the parking lot, because I didn’t have time to listen to his sob story setting up. (If you see him, shoot me an email so I can knock the last two teeth out of his head.)
I am a wedding DJ and so is my wife. Here is the story about our very different wedding, and how we were able to have our ceremony outside, even after we were told it wouldn’t happen. This story is a testament to faith, never losing hope, good karma, and keeping around plenty of plastic coins…
“Too Bad There Are No Pirates On Venus”
I once read a classic award-winning piece by sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury called “All Summer in a Day.” The setting of this story is a futuristic space colony on the planet Venus, where the rain never stops. By the end, the reader is heartbroken for a young girl trapped in a closet, who missed the only day of sunshine the planet had seen in seven years.
Fast forward to the year 2011. The setting is the night of our wedding rehearsal at Birch Hill Catering Hall in Schodack, New York, on the planet Earth, where it had been raining without break for many weeks. The bridal party was there, helping us decorate, abuzz at the forecast predicting 75 degrees and sunny for our wedding day, tomorrow. However, despite the perfect timing, the event planner explained we would still be trapped inside for our ceremony.
Actually, she wasn’t really our planner. She was number two. The first event planner we were originally assigned to by the hall had taken another job last minute. It was her replacement, “Number Two,” who had to tell the teary-eyed bride that she had to have her outside dream ceremony, inside, during the first day of sunshine in months.
We walked around the grounds to look at all the potential sites for the ceremony, and Number Two was right. The grass was a mess. Mud and puddles are no friends of high heels and chair legs. Normally, we would have had access to a number of beautiful backdrops provided by nature at this location, but because of the wetness, the ground was not an option. But there was concrete…
At Birch Hill, there are two event rooms fit for wedding reception; one smaller room in the front with a large concrete patio outside and our huge room with a narrow patio outside. We couldn’t effectively use our room’s deck for an outdoor ceremony, because it was too narrow and right near the highway.
Just when we thought all hope was lost, Number Two offered us a moment of hope.
The planner took us back outside and showed us the front room’s patio. She suggested that we should just use that, because the party booked during our timeslot in the front room was not using it. “We can just put up a curtain by the window and everything should be fine,” she said.
Why the hell didn’t you just show us this before, I thought. The patio place was perfect and perhaps better than any of the other sites on their grounds!
We could picture it easily. It was still set up from a wedding that braved misty elements, a few days before. The area was surrounded in greenery, had a classy arch way for the vow exchange in the front, and nice white chairs all in rows. The trellis was even still decorated with fresh red roses.
We were ecstatic, that is, until, of course, Number Two came back and changed her mind. “Whoops, sorry about offering that. I didn’t have the power to do that.”
The power? But you are Number Two, I thought.
“The owner says that he doesn’t want us to use that patio because the ceremony still might distract the first communion party,” she explained.
That was understandable, seeing how we would be dressed, but offering something then retracting only made the bride more upset. Plus, they said they had drop curtains they could put up outside to hide us.
I shifted gears to defense mode. Who the hell is the owner?! I immediately wanted to power-bomb the invisible Wizard of Birch Hill, who was hiding somewhere behind his curtain.
I went back into the room to see some of bridal party was there helping us decorate for our theme wedding. Then I noticed the Birch Hill staff setting up rows of ugly tan chairs that made it look like a funeral wake was being prepared in the corner.
Maria looked depressed and sat on one of the seats, as if waiting to pay her respects to the deceased. Seeing Maria upset on the eve of her wedding was not cool in my book when there was an empty space that would work just well.
My friends knew I was ticked, and tried to talk me out of finding the owner.
I went and found the owner, anyhow.
I argued with him. “We didn’t pay $500 to have our on-site ceremony inside in what looks like a wake, when it’s going to be nice out and there is a place we can use.”
“My hands are tied,” he said. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you use that site. It belongs to another party that time, whether they choose to use it or not.”
“But your planner said they can just put up divider curtains and that they have done it before.”
The owner didn’t budge.
We were trapped again in a closet on Venus.
The next day, I rode over with my groomsmen to the hall to do some last minute pirate decorating. Did somebody say pirates?
As I might have failed to mention before, we were having a big budget, realistic pirate theme wedding. We called it, “Ken & Maria’s Pirate Wedding Extravaganza.” The concept came out of the fact that, both being wedding DJs, we wanted our wedding to look different so we could remember it.
We had twenty pirate flags, a canon, a parrot, a boat, treasure chests everywhere loaded with massive crystal jewels, coins and beads, and even real swords. We did not use any cheesy cartoony decorations that you would see at a kid’s birthday party.
Everything looked so great that I figured it would be best to try not to worry about the ceremony which would only be 15-20 minutes of the day. I can’t lie though. I still wondered if there was a way for us to secure the patio that the hall initially offered to us for the ceremony.
We jumped back into decorating. None of the flags were up yet and the centerpieces were not completely finished. A delegated a few odd jobs and we got to work. My best man, or should I say, my First Mate, Marty “The Party,” helped me put the last minute touches on the head table’s treasure chest centerpiece when the flowers arrived.
“So, Marty. You are a successful lawyer,” I said.
“And?”
“What do you think about talking to someone in the other room about borrowing their patio?”
“You are still on that?” Marty laughed. “I’ll ask if you like.”
“Would you?”
“Sure. What do we have to lose?”
The two of us grabbed up our mechanical talking parrot and brought him out to the hallway.
As we set up our entrance way, we saw some little eyes in the front of the hall. In lieu of tuxedos, we had rented professional Broadway play pirate costumes with all the trimmings, so odd looks were appropriate. A few of the kids from the front room that had the cool deck had ventured out of their room for a peek. One of the kids whispered something to a friend, before they disappeared back to their party.
“I’ll go ask in a few minutes,” Marty laughed. “Let me finish this up.” Then he disappeared, too. He was in search of some more gemstones to place around our seating cards.
A minute later, the void was filled. Sweet Pete Waters, another one of my groomsmen, came out into the hall. I told him that the kids were amused at us and that maybe we could win them over. Before he could say anything, a few more of the first communion kids came running out the door. They looked even more excited to check out the “legendary pirates of Birch Hill hallway.”
“Look a different one now!”
Game on.
Sweet Pete Waters and Captain Casanova put on a funny pirate decorating show, in front of our room, throwing gold coins around and hamming it up. One brave first communion boy moved towards us for a better look, so I extended out a symbolic peace offering, in hopes that they may let us dock on their land. (Maybe I should have called it a “piece” offering; a piece of eight that is.
“Arghhhh, don’t be afraid boy. Here’s a gold coin for you, my scurvy dog friend.”
The kid grabbed it and ran.
Pete laughed and whispered. “So, are you going to bribe them with plastic money, now?”
I hadn’t thought of it that way, but, “why not?” As Marty had said, I had “nothing to lose.” In a karma frame of mind, if we were nice to the kids and maybe something nice will happen to us, in return, right? And in a barter mindset, we had a pirate gimmick that their party might really enjoy, and they had an extra patio our party might want to pirate. It was a win-win, either way.
After handing the young boy a fake gold coin from our seemingly endless decoration supply, I saw our outside ceremony materialize in my mind’s eye. I started thinking about how to ask for it. I knew I had to craft the request to use their patio in such a way that they would help us fight for us to use it.
Having planted a golden seed, I hung in the hall a minute to see the kids’ reactions instead of going back with Pete to decorate the big room, and diddled around with the seating cards. (The seating cards were just fine, mind you. My lack of supervision was an investment in achieving the outdoor ceremony that Maria had dreamed about since she was young.)
I pictured how beautiful my bride would be in her traditional wedding dress, outside among the trees and open air. You see, to keep up with the feel of a wedding, she was not going to be in pirate attire. She chose to still dress the part of a bride. She still wanted to walk the aisle and look like a beautiful princess. That way it still felt like a wedding and not just a big party with a bunch of pirates running around. Little did she know, while she was getting her hair and make up done with her bridesmaids, the outside dream was no longer out of the realm of possibility.
Then, a magical thing happened. The first communion girl’s father came running out with two of his children. “Hey mister pirate,” he said with a smile. “Can my daughter have a picture with you?”
I smiled and said, “Aye.” I took a few shots with kiddies and gave them a couple of fake diamonds.
“Thank you, Mister Pirate!” he said, rushing back to the party to show the others the picture he had just taken.
I rushed back into my room myself, and bustled up my motley crew. “Listen guys, I think we are going to get that ceremony after all. Follow my lead.”
Four of us, all in full pirate gear, marched back into the hallway. It was only moments before the same father came back out. “Hey Pirates, would you mind coming in and meeting the other kids for us?”
“Sure mate. It would be me pleasure,” I said in my best Jack Sparrow impersonation.
It was a riot. We all marched into the first communion party singing “Fifteen Men on a Deadman’s chest, just as we had practiced it a few hours ago for a camera in our limo on the way to the wedding hall.
The guests ate it up and cheered!
We all marched in singing a pirate song to pose with the kids.
Then, we posed with all of the kids like characters at Walt Disney World. We even had the first communion girl pose holding a sword in one of the shots.
We handed out a few more little goodies from out centerpiece treasure chests and everyone had a good laugh. Before leaving, we led them all together to sing along in chorus with us, “Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum.”
We really did put on a great show.
“Congratulations on your first communion,” I said. “But we have to go get to decorating the ship for our own party, now.”
“Thanks soooo much guys!” the father said, as we began to leave. “What party are you here for? Is there like a vendor party in the back?”
Finally, my window of opportunity opened. I knew that I had to be careful how I responded, so my secret agenda didn’t come off like begging.
“No, no, matey. We are having a pirate theme wedding in the back. About to get married real soon to a real nice wench, I am.”
The father laughed hysterically. “Well congratulations to you, then! Perfect day for it too!”
Bingo, I thought.
“Aye. That it is, lad, that it is.” I paused. “Too bad we can’t have it outside though,” I said dropping the character a little for sympathy.
“Well, why not?”
I pointed out the window, conveniently where their room’s patio was. “The ground out there is too wet and there is no site available for us to have the ceremony where the chairs won’t sink in.”
The father paused for a second and I watched the invisible light bulb turn on above his head. “Hey, why don’t you use that space right out there?”
Dramatic pause.
“We would love to, but the hall won’t let us,” I replied.
“Why not?”
“That was the original plan, but the owner said it might distract you,” I said. “We understand.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. As much as we want it outside, we don’t want a bunch of pirates to take the spotlight away from your daughter at the same time.”
“No, it wouldn’t! They love you guys!” He said.
“Well, if you don’t mind…”
“I insist!” At that the man followed us out into the hall. “What can I do to help?”
“Maybe tell the planners upstairs?” I suggested.
“Done.” The man disappeared. I ran into the backroom and helped one of my crew hang up one of the last Jolly Roger flags.
Five minutes later, one of the waitresses ran in with a big smile. “Congratulations, you got your outside wedding!”
A few of the staff came in and quickly removed the chairs from the makeshift funeral parlor. They actually did a great job, rushing to make it happen, as we had less than a half hour before show time.
In the corner of our reception hall, I snatched up my DJ friend Jason, who just started setting up his DJ gear for the ceremony music.
I ran out the door with Jason, his brother and their friend all in pirate gear, as well. We rushed down the hall and around the front to get them situated with their ceremony DJ set up and to do some touch ups on the patio we had just pirated for our ceremony. (Jason’s brother actually did a great job getting the trellis into nice condition. Once they were set, I ran around the front to head back into the hall.)
The First Communion Party Loved the Pirates!
I stopped and posed for a few more pictures with the first communion partiers and thanked the father one more time. “You don’t know it, but that is one of the best wedding presents anyone could have given us.”
The father smiled, “no problem.” I shook his hand, feeling triumphant and a little guilty. He turned out to be a real good guy. “We are happy we could help.”
Hacksaw Jim Duggan Appeared to be The Mystery Guest Groomsman
At this point, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the special emcee for our pirate reception came up the walkway, laughing at the scene of all the pirates. Not having a whole lot of time to really greet him, I posed for a picture with him and ran back to the front room to retrieve his costume and pirate flag from our other www.TheDJserivce.com family member, DJ/JD. (Having four wedding DJs in the house made things a heck of a lot cheaper for entertainment.)
“Now, you are one of us, too!” I said, returning and handing the gear over to the WWE Hall Of Fame wrestler.
“Oh, I love this hat,” Hacksaw said, putting it on and moving up off of the curb. In the distance and over his massive shoulder, I could see Maria’s limousine pulling up, so I moved out of sight.
Less than fifteen minutes later, we were all smiles. Our outside ceremony layout was a success.
Our friend Todd, was dressed in full pirate regalia, as well. He had been ordained online and wrote us the best pirate ceremony that anyone could ask for. He was about to perform a ceremony that no one would ever forget, in complete character.
The music hit. My groomsmen came down the aisle to a gothic battle song called, “Carmina O Fortuna” and just before it ended, I came up last with a great, “Arggg!!!” The crowd responded with the same war cry.
Soon after that, the music switched over to the traditional bridesmaid music, “Air of The G,” and was soon followed by The Mendelssohn Wedding March from Midsummer Night’s Dream, or what some call, “Here Comes The Bride.”
Maria looked beautiful in her gown, which was modern, but had a tinge of Victorian flavor to it. The thing that was even more beautiful was that she was all smiles. Her outdoor ceremony came together with only about 20 minutes, just before the guests had arrived.
I have since learned that Maria had no idea that her ceremony was to be outside until about ten minutes before they actually led her to walk down the aisle. She said she had to keep from crying.
We are very thankful that we were able to have the ceremony outside and were not trapped inside on such a beautiful day. After weeks and weeks of planning in the rain, everything came off perfectly and everything came off without a hitch.
As for that little girl locked in a closet in a space colony on the only day of sunshine in seven years, my heart goes out to her. All I can say is, “Too bad there are no pirates on Venus.”
ALBANY NY WEDDING DJ WORKSHEET IS A MUST – TOP 4 REASONS
Whenever planning an big event with many people in charge of different aspects, you really should map everything out on paper so expectations are clearly understood. When hiring a wedding professional DJ, photographer, or caterer, always ask for their own custom worksheet. This will help, overall, in the communication department, and lead to the planning of your successful event.
Albany NY Skyline in yellow – DJ Kenny Casanova
Though there are many disc jockey and photographer planning forms out there on the internet, most wedding professionals provide their own custom document to help you prepared for wedding day activities and at the same time, get organized for themselves. Using a wedding professional’s own worksheet will help you better understand how they see a traditional wedding (and many non-traditional ones) will unfold. It also helps you communicate to the DJ what they need to know in a simple recognizable format, collecting everything onto a few familiar pages for the vendor.
Albany, NY Wedding DJ Kenny Casanova’s worksheet helps you get prepared for your wedding day activities. Our wedding DJ worksheet, as well as a photographer worksheet, will help you make sure that you do not forget anything on the hectic, special day when you get married. There are FOUR aspects that you will want to keep in mind when filling out your worksheet:
1) ATMOSPHERE – Some people want classy and elegant. Others are hoping to have an all out party celebration. Some people want somewhere in between. Checking off on the sheet and key songs/activities, plus the overall tone you are looking for will help us to better understand what you are looking for.
2) MUSIC PLAYLIST – Anything goes as far as options are concerned, so getting some ideas out onto paper will help customize the feel you are looking for. It is your special day so you decide how you want to plan the music for it. You can either create an involved hands-on playlist, or leave it up to us. While you do not need to write every song down that you would like to hear, writing down 10-20 might give the DJ a better idea of what you are looking for.
3) DO NOT PLAY LIST – Make sure to write down the songs you absolutely do not wish to hear, so that there are no surprises. We hate playing The Chicken Dance, for example, and would not play it, unless you asked. However, some DJ’s love it! If you didn’t put this song down on your plan sheet as a “DO NOT PLAY,” you may end up thinking your DJ clucked everything up, watching grandma flapping her wings. You can control this! 🙂
4) ACTIVITY OPTIONS – There are so many activities that you can engage in. Our worksheet has many of them listed and you can simply cross off or circle the ones you like.
If you would like to check out our latest worksheet draft, email me a request at ken@theDJservice.com and we will send it right over!
With so many old first dance songs out there, it is easy to grab up one people have heard before and seen used at a wedding somewhere. Therefore, if you really want to stand out, you really should consider it important to choose a first dance song that is both important and different.
I’m don’t know you’ve heard this one yet, but there’s a super new track option out there that you may want to look at. As a Wedding song option, and an alternative ceremony song, some people are starting to look at this new tune that is climbing the charts.
Runner Runner‘s new song, “I Can’t Hardly Wait,” is about a groom who is anxious to finally get married to his bride. The lead singer, Ryan Ogren, has explained in interviews and on stage before performing this song live that he wrote this song for his own fiancé, and their wedding.
Runner Runner, a punk band from California, is finding great success from this ballad, an unusually different sound for their norm. The band’s name originated from their love of poker. The card term ‘runner runner’ means to beat the odds and pull a winning hand in the very last possible moment.
My wife and I took a gamble and chose to wait and see what was out there before we selected this unfamiliar song for our first dance. We picked it only a week after it hit the charts. From the reaction, it looks like by holding out until the last possible minute, we too picked a winner.
Here are the lyrics for “I Can’t Wait” Lyrics, by Ryan Ogren
The way you curse while we are in traffic, A million flavors of your chapstick,
The way you keep my heart captive… The Journey concert in A.Z., Do you remember we sang faithfully?
I’ve still got that old hotel room key… This is the way I feel.
Cause I can’t wait for you, to be my wife, To live this life, together.
And I won’t let you go, I need you to know, that you are my heart, forever.
And on, and on, and on…
The way you like to sing my songs,
you always know when something’s wrong.
The way you say you miss me when I’m gone.
The things you do that show you care,
you are always down for truth or dare.
Freeze this moment, let me stop and stare.
Nothing before was real. This is the way I feel
And I can’t wait for you, to be my wife, to live this life together.
And I won’t let you go, I need you to know, that you are my heart, forever.
And on and on and on… And we’ll go on and on and on
For better or for worse, no matter how it hurts
You’ve got me to hold you hand.
I promise you the world, in your wedding dress
We’ll dance till no one’s left.
Don’t wanna blink my eyes. I Don’t wanna miss a thing
I can’t wait for you, to be my wife.
To live this life together.
And I won’t let you go, and I need you to know
That you are my heart, forever.
And on and on and on… And we’ll go on and on and on.
Petersburg Memorial Hall; a decent place for a wedding with a budget, about 30 minutes from Troy.
LOOKING FOR AN ALTERNATIVE WEDDING HALL IN YOUR AREA?
If you are looking for a nice event hall for a small-to-medium sized wedding that allows outside catering, you probably know that your choices are limited. Many places today, have in-house catering, as this is a big money maker for the venues.
If you live in the Troy area, or nearby, and are working with a budget as many of us are, Petersburg might work for you.
LOCATION – “Petersburg, NY? Where the heck is that?” It’s funny. I’ve been a disc jockey for a number of years now and never heard of Petersburg Memorial Hall before, either.
I live in Wynantskill, off of Pawling. This is between Troy and Albany and I asked the same question. After I initially talked with the bride and groom about providing music for their special day, I had to run a Google map search to familiarize myself with a town that was less than 25 minutes away from me. (In case you are like me and are wondering, Petersburg is the next town down Grafton State Park.)
The reception I DJ’ed for was at a cute little place called “Petersburg Memorial Hall,” located conveniently on 71 Main Street. The venue is located right before the Petersburg Town Library. The hall provides plenty of parking and does work out to be a great little place for a great little wedding to take place.
AFFORDABILITY – Someone looking for a smaller wedding with the potential to meet affordability restraints can benefit considering this venue. While many halls in and around the Capital District that house wedding receptions also provide their own dinning packages, at the Memorial Hall, this is not the case. Here, you can book any catering service that you like and also make provisions to set up your own bar. This means an incredible amount of savings, as these two expenses are quite often the largest for any wedding.
SPECIFICS – The Memorial Hall can seat 80-100 people fairly comfortably. It has two side access doors to allow easy access for vendors and also any decorating purposes you may have. It has plenty of chairs and tables and a decent linen selection resource, along with seat covers. The hall also has very high ceilings and also a great little stage with draw curtains that could easily be used for your DJ or even a small live band.
There are a few little facility points to note. There is a decent kitchen, but it is not very large. It is probably, however, suitable for your outside caterer to make due with for what the hall can comfortably occupy. Also, it is import to note that there is only one shared bathroom. It is, however, handicap accessible, I believe.
On a technology note, the town of Petersburg is out in a rural area. It does not provide any Sprint cell phone coverage, but it does have Verizon cell phone coverage. Internet access is also provided to the hall through a wi-fi hub in the town library, nearby.
I would give it a three out of four stars for a good affordable wedding venue/hall option.
