What does a fairytale evening look like in the countryside? Ivy crawling the stonework of a 17th-century estate, hills blooming with wildflowers and orchards, family style meals where the table’s on the farm.
MICHELIN Guide Inspectors have scoured the rural reaches of the Tri-State area for hotels that could host the perfect weekend wedding retreat. Below, our list rounds up the varied options.
Mayflower Inn & Spa, Auberge Resorts Collection (One MICHELIN Key)
Washington, ConnecticutLitchfield County, Connecticut, in the northwest corner of the state, is rural New England at its most charming, where the historic villages all have stately town greens and forests and farmland trade turns across the rolling terrain. The Mayflower Inn & Spa is its hospitality touchstone, the inspiration for Amy Sherman-Palladino when she dreamt up Gilmore Girls and where Graydon Carter decamped to after his own starry wedding. Among the 58 acres of gardens and woodlands, the Shakespeare Garden, landscaped with boxwood hedges and seasonal flower displays, is the spot for an especially elegant affair.
Inspector Notes: The Mayflower Inn & Spa, in the Litchfield Hills of northwestern Connecticut, is as close as you’ll get to an English country-house hotel experience this side of the Atlantic. Set amid wooded grounds and finely cultivated gardens, this gorgeous old house is a remarkably idyllic slice of country life, just two hours from New York City; and once inside, you’ll find the resemblance even more pronounced: this is a hotel that’s perfectly dedicated to the kind of effortless poshness that the best English country hotels make their specialty.
Troutbeck (One MICHELIN Key)
Amenia, New YorkTroutbeck, along the New York-Connecticut state line two hours outside of Manhattan, feels like a sumptuous club, with tennis courts, a pool, and a collection of historic barns, manors, and cottages built into the woods. There’s no more lovely place for a wedding ceremony in its 250 acres than the estate’s walled garden, built over a century ago to house the world’s largest private collection of clematis, now lush with crawling ivy.
Inspector Notes: Rather than let the place become a museum piece, the new owners opted for a very thorough renovation. But it’s the rare renovation that preserves the historical character while bringing the experience entirely up to date. It’s a fine line to walk, but this is a talented team — its husband-and-wife owners brought in the mother of the groom, Alexandra Champalimaud, to handle the design work, and the result is a hospitality masterpiece.
Hasbrouck House
Stone Ridge, New YorkHasbrouck House, a two-hour drive from the city deep into the Hudson Valley, has been etched into history longer than the U.S., centered around a 1757 Dutch Colonial stone mansion that’s beautifully preserved and outfitted. The 55-acre estate is rambling and romantic, with gardens, a lake, and cherry trees that bloom in the spring. Large weddings are held on an expansive bluestone patio off the property’s main lawn.
Inspector Notes: The 18th-century Dutch Colonial mansion, set on a park-like estate with a private lake in Stone Ridge, about a two-hour drive from the city, was once the country home of a wealthy family. The New York-based Akiva Reich & Co. oversaw its transformation into a luxury boutique hotel, turning the carriage house and stables into elegant guest quarters, installing a chic farm-to-table restaurant, Butterfield, on the ground level of the main house, and modernizing the 100-year-old swimming pool.
The Roundtree, Amagansett
Amagansett, New YorkOf the four cardinal directions in which you can escape New York City, the east, onto Long Island, lends itself least to country living. But if you know where to look, The Hamptons can be downright bucolic. The Roundtree in Amagansett is set a mile in from the shore, with a barn and cottages dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Weddings for up to 250 are held on a lawn under the shade of an august oak tree.
Inspector Notes: There’s more to the Hamptons travel experience than just the glamorous seaside resorts — the Roundtree, Amagansett shows off the pastoral side of island life. From the exterior, the centuries-old structures are beautifully preserved, proud of their history — inside, however, you’re treated to a visually minimalist contemporary-luxe experience, complete with Frette linens, Matouk towels, and Nespresso coffee machines.
INNESS
Accord, New YorkINNESS sets itself apart from the other Hudson Valley retreats on this list with its design, an effortless cool that’s the product of minimalism well-worn. From Taavo Somer, the architect and tastemaker behind the celeb-fave dive Ray’s Bar, the 220-acre resort is for the couple who wants a dose of downtown with their green getaway – farmhouse and cabin rooms are lo-fi luxury, with custom furniture and lighting mixed with vintage finds. The modern pegged wood barn is spacious, with room for 300 and an open-door view out into the Catskills.
Inspector Notes: Chic hotels in the Hudson Valley are no longer an occasional novelty; the 40-room Inness is an example of a thoughtful approach, the work of Taavo Somer, an architect and restaurateur with experience in boutique hospitality. The farmhouse contains 12 soothing, minimalist-luxe rooms, which are joined by a further 28 cabins in a similar utilitarian-chic style. Dinner is served in a communal dining room, with a menu that adapts Mediterranean flavors to Hudson Valley produce; diversions include swimming, tennis, and even a nine-hole golf course by King-Collins, a design partnership with a devoted cult following.
Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery (One MICHELIN Key)
Callicoon, New YorkA wedding at Seminary Hill is set in the 12-acre orchard carved out from the sweeping Delaware River Valley. The cidery and its next-door boutique hotel Boarding House are a world away from New York City (a little over two hours via car), inspired by the simple style of the Shakers and the owners’ descendants, farmers from the hamlet of Callicoon.
Inspector Notes: Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery, on the outskirts of Callicoon, New York, has drawn attention for its modern cidery structure, which takes the traditional barn-style silhouette in a modern and extremely sustainable direction. Just down the road, however, in a pair of houses renovated by local hospitality experts Homestedt, is what brings us to Seminary Hill: the Boarding House, a 17-room boutique hotel in a Shaker-inspired contemporary-classic style. The end result is a lodging that’s perfect for today’s Catskills: rustic and restful without being overtly retro, and certainly not kitschy.
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Wildflower Farms, Auberge Resorts Collection (One MICHELIN Key)
Gardiner, New YorkWildflower Farms is set on 140 acres a short car ride away from the end of Metro-North’s Hudson Line train. Here, dozens of stylish freestanding cabins host guests among flower meadows and a working farm that supplies the in-house locavore restaurant. With a campus so large and stunning, sites for a wedding are plenty. The Marigold Room, with its lofted ceilings and heated all-season porch, holds the biggest party.
Inspector Notes: Auberge was born in Napa Valley, but the brand’s expertise in luxe rural living is adaptable all over the world — from the California wine country to New York’s Hudson Valley. Wildflower Farms, Auberge Resorts Collection finds itself in Gardiner, on a working farm that’s more properly secluded than many Hudson Valley resorts. Alongside its 65 luxurious and surprisingly stylish cabins are the expansive Thistle Spa, and outdoor spaces encompass the whole of this working farm — whose produce, not incidentally, provides some of the ingredients for Clay, a restaurant singularly focused on Hudson Valley flavors and a wine selection that’s truly global.
Beach Plum Farm Cottages (One MICHELIN Key)
West Cape May, New JerseyBeach Plum Farm Cottages are set across 62 acres of a surprisingly verdant stretch of the Jersey Shore, a couple miles from the beach in the grand resort of Cape May. This is a different side of vacationland. The property is a working farm with over 100 kinds of fruits and vegetables grown, plus chickens and Berkshire hogs. At weddings, their sustainably grown produce and meat can feature in a family style or plated menu.
Inspector Notes: Beach Plum Farm occupies 62 bucolic acres of verdant agricultural land. To the working farm have been added five guest houses, some renovated, some new: three barns and a pair of cottages, to be precise. This is another side of Cape May, not just literally but figuratively as well — rather than stroll the boardwalk you’ll ramble across farmland, or borrow a bike (or a golf cart!) for a jaunt to the beach or into town. Indoor fireplaces and outdoor fire pits keep things cozy, and the décor is a lively marriage of classic farmhouse utilitarianism and colorful modernist style.
Hero image: Troutbeck
Thumb image: Rob Charles Photography / Wedding at Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery
