Someone Else’s Wedding: Alder Manor
It’s been a while since my heart has swelled with so much jealousy- but stumbling across images of Alder Manor this weekend, I experienced a Grinch-like enlargement of the old ticker.
Alder Manor is an abandoned, run-down, early 20th century mansion in Yonkers, NY. And it’s perfect. Do you see that empty indoor pool in the first picture??
For everyone who’s going for a haunted Gatsby/Blank Space/Downton vibe- I don’t think it gets better than Alder Manor. I’m not a HUGE fan of mansion weddings- but dilapidated manors are, like, the ultimate.
How did I not find it before? I guess I didn’t think to search for abandoned mansions in the tri-state, but lesson learned. Lesson. Learned.
Oh, you know, just tossing flower petals near the backyard ruins. NBD.
I want to know what books are in that library.
Mr. Carson’s ghost will great you at the front door.
The website for Alder Manor is almost comically minimal- just a contact page, a smattering of links to photos of weddings at the mansion, and a single sample menu. Online sleuthing yields very mixed results on pricing. NYMag’s Wedding Guide (my go-to for price estimates on vendors in the area) states that there’s no rental fee, and that catering starts at $120/head. If that’s true, Alder Manor could be very much in the realm of “reasonable” in terms of budget (assuming rentals, drinks, etc are included in that number). Some brides in wedding forums stated that the $120 starting price was in addition to an $8,000 site fee- which, for me at least, takes you back into “aspirational” territory.
So who knows. But damn, it’s cool.
Photos:
1 & 2: Dan O’Day (found on 100 Layer Cake)
3 & 4: Jillian Bisinger
5 & 6: New York Social Diary
Holy. Shit. That place is AMAZING!!!!
I spoke to them several times earlier this winter about having my wedding there after visiting over Christmas–I loved everything about it. What was a $4,000 site fee in November became a–no joke–$20,000 site fee two months later. Very sketchy and yes, agreed, totally unaffordable.
Holy smokes, really??? Thanks for the update- very, very interesting. I wish I could say it surprises me- but after spending the past year researching all these venues and learning the shenanigans of the wedding industry, well, a $16,000 mark-up doesn’t seem that out of the ordinary anymore.
I hope your search yields or already has yielded you something even better! We’ll just have to love Alder Manor from afar.
Yes, I got married here may 2014. It really was our dream wedding, but after we signed our contract it went up for sale in june 2013. We were so stressed out because we didn’t know if the sale would void our contract. The sale was finalized I think around a two week period surrounding our wedding. It was beautiful. Our venue fee was $4k.
Thanks for the info! Seems like you got in at the right time- I’ve seen some other posts on message boards and threads (in addition to the other comments here) that the price has drastically increased. It also looks like they’re doing a lot of renovations right now- personally, I think that takes away a little of the charm, but I’m sure it will still be beautiful! I’m sure your wedding was gorgeous!