The State Room

 

There are cer­tain venues where the per­son­al­i­ties of their own­ers are tight­ly inter­wo­ven with the wed­ding expe­ri­ences they offer.  The State Room in Albany is one of them, with own­er Tom Nic­chi play­ing a large role in every event,  from cook­ing to host­ing to chauf­feur­ing “cool down” rides in vin­tage cars.

“I tell all my brides, I’m your father for the day,” Tom likes to say.  And The State Room is a venue that seems to go out of its way to pro­vide a per­son­al touch on a street where a num­ber of down­town wed­ding venues have sprung up in recent years, all in the refur­bished inte­ri­ors of his­toric bank buildings.

 

 

The State Room’s sto­ry begins some­time in the late 1970s when Tom left his job as a spe­cial edu­ca­tion teacher in New York City to work in the ban­quet busi­ness.  He soon moved upstate with his wife, a native of the Cap­i­tal region, and opened The State Room at its orig­i­nal loca­tion at the old De Witt Clin­ton Hotel on Eagle Street in Albany.  The venue was a suc­cess, but the DeWitt Clin­ton Hotel began a painful process of rede­vel­op­ment which saw The State Room involved in a legal bat­tle to pre­serve its long-term lease.

 

 

In the midst of the strug­gle, Tom recalls walk­ing down State Street one day and notic­ing that the ground floor of the his­toric City & Coun­ty State Bank — Albany’s first sky­scraper — was avail­able for adven­tur­ous entre­pre­neurs who could han­dle the cost of exten­sive ren­o­va­tions.  “I saw it and said this is it, this is our new home,” says Tom.

 

 

The new loca­tion pre­serves many of the his­toric details of the site’s for­mer bank­ing oper­a­tions, such as a hand-paint­ed can­vas ceil­ing and Corinthi­an columns with 24 karat gold inlays.  Almost all the mar­ble that was once a part of the site’s bank­ing oper­a­tions has been re-pur­posed, such as bath­room van­i­ties made from mar­ble bank teller countertops.

 

 

“I spent a lot more than antic­i­pat­ed on bring­ing this place back to its orig­i­nal beau­ty,” says Tom, “You’d nev­er know that the last ten­ant was a Fedex/Kinko’s facil­i­ty and that they had a drop ceil­ing in here.”  The impres­sive­ly restored 6,000 square foot space can accom­mo­date up to 250 guests for cer­e­monies and recep­tions in a grand ball­room that can be illu­mi­nat­ed to any col­or match­ing your wed­ding theme.

Up front there is an oak bar which evokes a classy Albany water­ing hole atmos­phere from a bygone era.

 

 

In the rear of the ball­room is an old-fash­ioned dessert bar, where ice cream, pas­tries, cap­puc­ci­nos, and espres­sos are served.  Pub food like slid­ers and ruebens are also served here as recep­tions wind down.

 

 

Locat­ed behind the dessert bar is anoth­er fun fea­ture of The State Room — an old bank vault where wed­ding par­ties can “hide out” before mak­ing their first appear­ance.  “It’s a place where the groom and his grooms­men usu­al­ly like to have a pri­vate drink togeth­er,” Tom tells us.

 

 

The vault is a sort of Fortress of Soli­tude for wed­ding par­ties, a place where they can secure­ly stash there per­son­al belong­ings, charge their cell­phones, and take self­ies.  Cig­ar rolling sta­tions, car­i­ca­ture sta­tions, and even a tat­too sta­tion are ways that cou­ples have per­son­al­ized the space.

 

 

For brides seek­ing more pri­va­cy, The State Room offers a get­ting ready room upstairs in the one­time bank pres­i­den­t’s office.  The room has a large one-way mir­ror which pro­vides the bride with a bird’s eye view of the ballroom.

 

 

 

 

There is also anoth­er room on this lev­el which can be uti­lized for cock­tail hours or small­er events.

 

 

 

“The food is impor­tant and after I greet every­body, I head to the kitchen to over­see all the cook­ing,” says Tom.  The State Room offers a num­ber of pack­ages rang­ing from $119.95 to $169.95 per guest with an open bar as of this writ­ing.  Liquors, wines, and beers can be stocked at the cou­ple’s request to per­son­al­ize their bev­er­age offer­ings. They also get to choose one of the light or dark drafts that are on tap for the week­end, and sig­na­ture drinks can be cre­at­ed on request.

 

 

For Tom, every wed­ding day begins with pick­ing up cou­ples at their hotel room (a part of every State Room wed­ding pack­age) and trans­port­ing them to the venue in one of his vin­tage sedans.  Tom main­tains a fleet of about 71 antique cars, includ­ing a 1930’s Rolls Royce that appeared in “The God­fa­ther”; Tom’s  uncle, actor John Mar­ti­no, played gang­ster Paulie Gat­to in that film.

 

 

Tom will stay with the cou­ple from that point on, tak­ing them to loca­tions around Albany for por­traits, keep­ing track of time, mak­ing sure that all pho­tos are done while keep­ing the bride and groom hydrat­ed and nour­ished.  “If you need a gra­nola bar, you’ll get gra­nola bar.  If you need some tis­sues, you’ll get some tis­sues,” says Tom.  As the guests begin to arrive, Tom turns the cou­ple over to his gen­er­al man­ag­er then heads into the kitchen where he over­sees the cook­ing for the rest of the night.

After cut­ting the cake, Tom will pack a pic­nic bas­ket for the bride and groom then swap out his antique sedan for a vin­tage con­vert­ible.  Thus the 45-minute “cool down” ride begins, with Tom tak­ing his cou­ples on a night­time cruise around Albany.  “There’s a lot of great archi­tec­ture around Albany and I love for cou­ples to get one last great pic­ture at those loca­tions,” says Tom.  “As none of my antique cars are for show, it gives me a chance to dri­ve them and have peo­ple enjoy them.  It’s fun, fun, fun.”

 

 

“I’ve been in this busi­ness for over 40 years and I plan to keep on work­ing,” says Tom.  “My goal is to always give cou­ples more than they expect.”

 

 

Imagining your wedding or event at The State Room?

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

Additional Information:

To learn more about The State Room vis­it http://thestateroomalbany.com/.

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