FAQs
Photo by Jean Laurent Gaudy
Flow of the Day
How long will we have the estate for our wedding?
Most events last for six to seven hours. The exact start and end time and the length of your wedding depend on your preferences and the time of year of your wedding. We pride ourselves for the relaxed flows we help create, never causing anyone to feel rushed.
We recommend anchoring your timeline around the ceremony time, as the pine grove offers a ‘golden hour’, which ranges from 3 pm to 5 pm. We suggest inviting your guests to arrive at the estate 30 minutes before the planned ceremony time (they would arrive at the hilltop pavilion where we serve refreshments at that time).
The open bar window, which covers cocktail hour, dinner, and the dance party, has a standard length of four hours but can be extended with a fifth hour.
Once the dance party wraps up, we’d light the optional bonfire, and guests can bring their last drinks there for the day’s finale under the stars.
When do I have access to the get-ready cottage?
On the wedding day, you and your party have access to the get-ready cottage on our property from 10 am until the start of the ceremony. We limit the use of the cottage to a total of twelve people, including your stylists.
The get-ready cottage offers a main room, a styling room with four stations, a dressing room, a restroom, and a lovely outdoor deck.
Is there time for a ceremony rehearsal?
Of course. We plan your ceremony rehearsal on the afternoon before your wedding. We can host your ceremony rehearsal anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm that day. The rehearsal is guided by our coordinator. This is also an excellent opportunity to drop off any personal decor, outfits, etc.
Do you offer options for a rehearsal dinner or farewell brunch?
Roxbury Barn & Estate is unavailable for rehearsal dinner or farewell brunch options. Quite honestly, why unveil it all the day before the big one? You and your guests will spend the weekend in our area, coming from all over, and there are some great local options for rehearsal dinners and farewell brunches that we can tell you about. This way, your wedding weekend will be diverse, and the wedding day at our estate will become a true milestone celebration and not a place revisited multiple times. During your initial visit, we’ll gladly give you some great pointers on all the wonderful options our part of the Catskills offers.
When does the bonfire take place?
One of the unique features of a wedding at Roxbury Barn & Estate is the option of a large-sized bonfire on Spring Hill. The bonfire is lit once the dance party ends and the bar closes, as the finale of the event. We build the bonfire in the days prior to the wedding date, and our staff lights and monitors the bonfire. The bonfire comes with a s’mores table with chocolate, marshmallows, graham crackers, and extra-long s’mores sticks.
The latest time for the bonfire to be lit is 11 pm on weekends and 10 pm on weekdays. The fee for a bonfire is not included in the rental rate. In case a planned bonfire cannot take place due to weather circumstances, there’s of course a refund, as long as the bonfire was not lit.
Photo by Bethany and Dan
Event Services
Is a coordinator included in your services?
Absolutely. All weddings at the estate are coordinated by one of our professional event coordinators.
Hosting events is teamwork, and one of our secret powers is our amazing staff. We would be unable to do what we do without our coordinators, service staff, kitchen team, bartenders, and drivers, who are all cherished for their collaborating talents, commitment, and kindness.
From the start, we offer couples a reliable and extensive vendor list, sample timelines, seating suggestions, and more. Six months before the wedding date, we offer couples access to our online planning platform, where we’ll help create an extensive timeline for the wedding day, and closer to the wedding day collaborate on an online guest list and dinner diagram.
In the months before the big day, the event coordinator will be available to answer questions and host a walk-through by phone, Zoom call, or on-site: three to Five planning meetings are included.
The event coordinator helps in guiding the ceremony rehearsal on the afternoon prior to the wedding day, and during the wedding day handles logistics, adjusts and safeguards the timeline, welcomes the wedding party and any external vendors, helps overcome any last-minute challenges that arise, and makes sure you have the best time.
Should we still hire a planner?
No, we do not work with external planners and we do not allow for external coordination. With the coordination services we offer in-house, and all the tools we share with our couples, a planner is not needed at all. Our in-house coordinator performs all event coordination, starting that process six months before the wedding date.
Do you recommend any local vendors?
Yes, and we’ve named our vendor list the Green List. It’s a very extensive and solid list of quality vendors, and it’s made available to all couples who choose our estate for their wedding.
The Green List focuses on all local quality specialists (photographers, florists, hair and makeup artists, deejays and entertainment, transportation, etc.) and is updated frequently. Our Green List and any other recommendations we make are solely based on quality and experience – we will never offer or receive referral fees or incentives of any kind in exchange for favorable references. Period.
Photo by Sam and Solo Studio
Food & Beverage
May we bring in an outside caterer?
No, Roxbury Barn & Estate is a full-service venue. Our chef and her kitchen team will provide all your food items, from passed hors d’oeuvres, dinner, to the wedding cake and mini-desserts. Chef Leah Detreville creates delicious cuisine that is seasonal, sustainable, locally sourced, and entirely tailored to your preferences. Find all details on our food offerings here.
Do you provide a tasting?
Yes, a food tasting is scheduled after you’ve booked our venue. We don’t offer food ‘packages’, but instead tailor menus for each event. Our chef will first have a conversation with you about your preferences and vision, specific dietary requirements, etc, and based on that conversation she will create a range of menu options and an extensive tasting involving all foods for the day. A lot of care goes into our tastings, which typically involve all food elements of the wedding day: passed hors d’oeuvres, first and second courses, and dessert options, while also offering you the option to taste the wines we’ll serve at your wedding. Based on couples’ feedback, our chef creates a fully personalized wedding menu.
Can we bring in our own alcohol?
We are a liquor-licensed venue following Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) laws and any requirements by the New York State Liquor Authority. We do not allow you to provide your own alcohol. Our bartenders offer handcrafted cocktails, carefully curated wines, craft beers, local hard cider, and complex and tasteful booze-free mixed drinks. Find all of our beverage details here.
Photo by Jean Laurent Gaudy
Lodging & Transportation
Do you provide on-site lodging?
We don’t, but the town of Roxbury and its surrounding villages and hamlets offer an abundance of options when it comes to hotels, inns, and private home rentals for you and all your friends and family.
The Airbnb revolution has dramatically changed lodging in the Catskills in the past years, resulting in many excellent vacation rentals. All couples who book a wedding at our place receive our Lodging List: a comprehensive, detailed list offering insight into the best guest accommodations in Roxbury and its surrounding villages and hamlets (our list currently offers close to 200 lodging options within a 10-mile radius).
We invite couples to copy their selection of the many lodging options in our Lodging List to their wedding website or forward the handy PDF to their guests.
What are the parking and shuttle options?
Guests enter and leave the property through our main entrance on 615 County Road 41, where a parking attendant will welcome you. There’s parking space for approximately 60 cars. Our drivers, in solid 4×4 six-seater carts, pick guests up in the parking area and drive everyone to the hilltop pavilion, where things take off. (And just so you know: our drivers will keep driving any guests anywhere on our property for the rest of the event.)
Alternatively, we suggest arranging transportation of your guests from and to their accommodation through a shuttle service, using 15-passenger shuttle buses and/or minivans. We’ll of course give you recommendations for transportation services in the area. Shuttle buses and vans use the same driveway to the parking area.
Photo by DAG Photo
Booking & Payments
Do you hold dates?
We do not hold dates on a tentative basis. It would simply create a gridlock for all involved. We don’t book sight unseen. We appreciate an in-person meeting before accepting any bookings, so we’ll always invite you for a site visit first. You will have a week from the date the contract is issued to sign the agreement.
What is your booking and payment procedure?
In order to reserve the venue for your event, we require that couples sign a venue contract and pay a non-refundable first payment of $6,000 plus 8% sales tax.
The second and final venue fee payment plus sales tax is due seven months before the event date.
Six months before the wedding date, the wedding coordination fee is due.
Four months before the wedding date, 40% of the estimated food invoice is due.
One month before the wedding date, final guest number guarantee and final food and bar payments are due. The balance for an optional large-size bonfire is also due at this point, as is a damage deposit of $1500.
Why do we need event insurance?
Event insurance for your wedding day is a standard requirement at most venues. Event insurance will help protect your investment and may help cover your costs if you unexpectedly need to cancel or are found responsible for property damage or an injury caused during your wedding. Couples must obtain event insurance for $1,000,000 in liability, listing Roxbury Barn & Estate and its owners as co-insured. Cost of event insurance typically ranges from $150 to $250.
We also require general liability insurance and proof of liability insurance from external vendors, with a general liability policy covering property damage and personal injury caused by the vendor, its employees, or sub-contractors.
Photo by Forever Photo
Weather Plans
What’s the weather like in the Catskills?
Compared to coastal cities such as NYC, humidity in the Catskills tends to be much lower in the summer, because of the high elevation. Evenings tend to cool off nicely, even in July and August.
Here in the high peaks of the Central Catskills, spring and summer start about three weeks later than in downstate New York. By early May spring really kicks in, and everything starts turning lush and green. By mid-May, Roxbury Barn & Estate starts hosting its first events of the year. The second weekend of October concludes our event season: evening temperatures start dropping dramatically later in October, whereas in earlier months evenings tend to be comfortable, and fall foliage also tends to peak in early October in the Central Catskills.
What is your rain plan?
We are prepared for whatever the weather brings our way. And with today’s weather and radar apps, it’s really easy for us to predict a local shower, and help plan around it.
If there’s a chance of rain before the ceremony starts, we’ll temporarily cover up the ceremony setup so chairs stay dry. We do the same with the bonfire. So once the rain passes by, it’ll take us just minutes to get the pine grove ready again for a dry and beautiful outdoor ceremony setup.
If it were to rain continuously during the ceremony, you could have your ceremony in our pavilion on top of Spring Hill. It’s a beautiful roofed structure sitting on a 40-by-30-foot wooden deck, offering stunning mountain vistas. Our roofed dining terrace offers plenty of space for a sit-down dinner for a party of up to 140, with space left for a first dance, speeches, etc.
And the two-floor, climate-controlled carriage barn offers plenty of space for dancing on the main floor, with a classy lounge area on the balustrade upper level.
So personable, talented and kind
“Casper, Danyelle, the whole RB&E Team, and ALL the vendors they recommended were just fantastic.”
Photo by Our Two Hearts