Saugerties Steamboat Company

Dilem­ma: you want a water­front wed­ding and a barn wed­ding too.  As barns aren’t all that often built smack up against a water­way, there’s lit­tle chance of hav­ing your cake and eat­ing it too.  Or is there?  The Sauger­ties Steam­boat Com­pa­ny pro­vides a solu­tion for your surf and turf wed­ding dreams.

Before we get to this new venue, which is a sis­ter prop­er­ty of Sauger­ties’ Dia­mond Mills Hotel (also a wed­ding venue), a his­to­ry les­son is in order.  In the ear­ly 1700’s, Ger­man immi­grants set up sawmills along the Eso­pus creek near its con­flu­ence with the Hud­son Riv­er to pro­vide lum­ber to the British navy.  After the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War, the sawmills became paper mills and the lum­ber camp grew into a vil­lage first known as Ulster, but soon after renamed Sauger­ties (mean­ing “the lit­tle sawyer” in Dutch).  Thou­sands of min­ers and brick mak­ers soon fol­lowed, sup­ply­ing blue­stone and brick for con­struc­tion in New York City.  A ship­ping indus­try devel­oped along the Eso­pus Creek to move all these mate­ri­als and pas­sen­gers up and down the Hud­son Riv­er.  By 1830, a dock was built on the creek to ser­vice pas­sen­ger steam­boats, an indus­try which thrived for 100 years.  By the 1930’s, with steam­boats going out of style, the site was tak­en over by a local busi­ness­man named Cor­nelius Lynch.  Lynch’s Mari­na was com­prised of two large build­ings which were sold to Dia­mond Mills’ own­er Thomas Struzzieri in 2015.

 

 

Since then, the mari­na has been devel­oped into a com­mer­cial cen­ter meant to wel­come vis­i­tors to Sauger­ties com­ing by boat, and as a restau­rant and events facil­i­ty with a creek­side prom­e­nade.  One of the two his­tor­i­cal­ly land­marked build­ings is now com­plete with two floors of event space which can accom­mo­date up to 100 guests.

 

 

 

The build­ing is ful­ly air-con­di­tioned and heat­ed in the win­ter­time, yet offers the same rus­tic ambiance as a barn: a wide open floor, farm­house sup­port beams, warm light­ing …

 

 

… except that it has out­door seat­ing look­ing right out onto boats and dock.

 

 

Lau­rie Higgen­both­am of Dia­mond Mills tells us that brides can opt to make their dra­mat­ic arrival by boat if they wish, and full week­end pack­ages can include kayak­ing and pad­dle board­ing activ­i­ties incor­po­rat­ed into rehearsal din­ners or farewell brunch­es.

 

 

Cer­e­monies can also be held out on the grassy bank beside the Eso­pus Creek.

 

 

Should your guest list exceed 100 peo­ple, addi­tion­al seat­ing can be pro­vid­ed in an option­al tent, or in the sec­ond build­ing of the mari­na expect­ed to be ful­ly ren­o­vat­ed by 2018 or 2019.  

 

 

Site fees for out­door cer­e­monies and addi­tion­al seat­ing apply and are deter­mined based on sea­son.

 

 

An on-site wed­ding coor­di­na­tor is avail­able to help cou­ples with their plan­ning.  Unlike most barn venues, the Sauger­ties Steam­boat com­pa­ny pro­vides all linens, tables, seat­ing, plates and glass­ware. Themed linen col­ors are avail­able at an addi­tion­al charge.  Cus­tomized menus are also avail­able.

 

 

Food is catered in from the Dia­mond Mills hotel, which is just down the Eso­pus Creek, or cooked onsite in this mobile kitchen truck:

 

 

Since the prop­er­ty is con­nect­ed to the Dia­mond Mills Hotel, wed­ding guests can eas­i­ly book rooms there for a week­end stay.  Lau­rie warns that the rooms do fill up fast for events, but the hotel is also hap­py to steer over­flow guests to near­by lodg­ing.

Anoth­er nice fea­ture that we like about the Sauger­ties Steam­boat Com­pa­ny is that full week­end wed­ding pack­ages can mix and match sites with­in the Dia­mond Mills prop­er­ties.  “Some peo­ple may opt to have their rehearsal din­ner at the Steam­boat Com­pa­ny, their recep­tion at Dia­mond Mills, and a farewell brunch at Dia­mond Mills tav­ern,” says Lau­rie.  “Peo­ple like the dif­fer­ent sites for dif­fer­ent rea­sons and when you plan a week­end event like this, you get a taste of each of them.”

 

 

Imagining your wedding or event at Saugerties Steamboat Company?

Down­load images from this arti­cle on our Sauger­ties Steam­boat Com­pa­ny Web Album made espe­cial­ly for your smart­phone. Use it for ref­er­ence and share with those help­ing you plan.

Additional Information:

Learn more about Sauger­ties Steam­boat Com­pa­ny vis­it http://www.saugertiessteamboatco.com/.

To dis­cuss your Sauger­ties Steam­boat Com­pa­ny wed­ding with Due­tim­age Hud­son Val­ley Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­phers, call (845) 905‑6323 or vis­it: http://www.duetimage.com/contact.