Hunter Mountain

My daughter's wedding on September 4, 2021 was perfect in every way. The weather was picture perfect, and the venue, scenery, staff, etc. were outstanding. First let me tell you that I do not know why there are bad reviews about the Lodge because it was clean, rooms were large and staff was top notch. The bridal suite was absolutely stunning and large enough for all the bridesmaids including getting ready the next day with our hair and make up people. They catered to our every need and were so excited for my daughter's big day. Debbie was great through all the Covid stuff. She kept us informed about restrictions etc. Thank goodness, we made it through with the wedding of my daughter's dreams. Everyone loved the chairlift ride to the top, taking pictures and enjoying every last minute of the ceremony. It was breathtaking. The food was excellent, the Hors d'oeuvres were delicious, especially the bruschetta. The prime rib, chicken cordon bleu and the pasta rollatini were delicious. Everyone raved about the food. Service was good, we had a lot of people at the wedding so they were working extra hard. Josephine kept things moving at the reception as did Sari during the ceremony. At the end of the reception, Josephine had everything boxed up and brought up to the lodge where we collected our things and brought them to our cars. That was a big help. The after party at the firepit behind the lodge was so much fun. We roasted marshmallows and ate the food that was left over from the wedding and cocktail hour. We stayed out there until 4am. Thank you so much Debbie, Josephine, Sari and the entire staff at Hunter Mountain for making my daughter's wedding everything she had hoped for.

My husband and I got married at Hunter Mountain on July 3, 2021. We got engaged two years earlier, prior to the pandemic. It was quite a journey to get from there to here, but we had a great experience with Hunter and their amazing staff. This will be a detailed review because reading past reviews really helped me plan my wedding. Overall, I would absolutely recommend Hunter if you are looking for that unique mountain wedding.


Planning Process:

We really fell in love with Hunter when we visited December of 2019. The hotel looked great, and the views from the top sold us. We met with Josephine and her can-do attitude was a huge reason we decided to go with Hunter Mountain as our wedding venue. Then started a long planning process. I was put in touch with Debbie who helps brides plan details for the big day and answers all your questions. It was quite a planning process, as the pandemic hit and suddenly Hunter Mountain closed its doors, and a lot of their staff began working from home. We were unable to visit before our wedding and could not do a food tasting due to covid restrictions. On top of this, Hunter Mountain was also changing into a Vail owned resort, which meant several policies changed, hotel room prices changed, staff changed email addresses and phone numbers changed. With all of this happening, I definitely had concerns at first. However, any time I felt anxious, talking to Debbie always made me feel so much better. She answered all my questions quickly and we scheduled a video chat to help calm some of my nerves. Debbie was so incredible during all the craziness and changes. There were so many changes from when we started planning to the actual wedding, but Debbie kept me in the loop and eased my stress. I am so thankful for Debbie and her calm, kind energy during the planning period. A week before the wedding I was put in touch with Josephine again, and she immediately went to work as my week-of and day-of-coordinator. She finalized all the details, called all my vendors, and met with me a couple days before the wedding to drop off decorations at the CopperTree and talk details. I’ll talk more about Josephine later, but she truly was the most helpful, generous, hard working, and determined person the day of my wedding. I don’t think I would have gotten through everything without her.


Weekend of:

Weather looked bleak for our wedding. I was stressing all week, calling Josephine in tears, debating what to do. We both wanted the summit wedding we dreamed of and were just holding out hope for clear skies. We had a rehearsal and dinner on Friday before the wedding. Josephine ran the rehearsal in the lobby of the hotel. The lobby was already cleared out and set up for a ceremony, which was perfect for a rain plan for Saturday as well as to practice the rehearsal. We had a nice buffet dinner in VanWinkles due to rain, but had a great time celebrating as family started to arrive to the hotel. The staff at VanWinkles, particularly the bar, were so incredible all weekend. My family ended up staying in the Penthouse suite, which was two floors. It had a huge kitchen and living room area which is where all the girls got ready for the wedding. It also had two bedrooms, three bathrooms, jacuzzi tub, fireplace, and big balcony over the pool. The guys had a 3-bedroom suite to get ready in, which also had a big living area, kitchen, balcony, fireplace, and jacuzzi tub. The rooms were great. We just had one issue, where the ceiling began leaking in our penthouse bedroom. We notified the front desk and maintenance staff took a look and tried to fix. It leaked the day of the wedding too, however it really wasn’t a big problem as we were getting ready. Josephine offered to have us switch rooms, and we were compensated some money for the inconvenience. I was very pleased with how fast Hunter tried to remedy the issue. The first night we all jumped into the pool outside and hot tubs and had so much fun! The day of the wedding we kept an eye on the weather, and it finally looked like it was clearing up! We all got ready, and had the first look at the back of the hotel on the patio next to the pool and behind the restaurant. It was a beautiful location and we got some great photos there. It still wasn’t raining, so Josephine got all my friends and family up the mountain! She knew how important the mountain top ceremony was to me, and she made it happen! I had a lot of concerns about the chair lift especially because a lot of our guests had fear of heights, including my husband. However Hunter got them all up the mountain smoothly, and everyone understood once they saw the view from the top. My family and myself were the last ones up the mountain. Josephine got a van to drive us to the chairlift, and then up we went. My DJ brought a portable sound system that he brought up the lift, and he played music for the ceremony. We had an absolutely breathtaking and beautiful ceremony. Everyone was talking about how perfect the location was and how beautiful it was. After the ceremony and the photos we took at the top, it was time to go down the mountain again. However, my husband, who hates chairlifts, was really feeling nervous about the ride down. Josephine managed to get a van (which already left the top of the mountain) to come back up and get us and bring us down. She stayed with us at the top of the mountain as it started to drizzle and rode down in the van with us. When we got down to the CopperTree, Josephine brought me to the back and she bustled my dress, helped fix my lipstick, and even got on her hands and knees and used a shout stain wipe to clean the dirt stains on the bottom of my dress! Later, when my dress bustle completely broke off, Josephine made a brand new bustle using safety pins. Anytime I needed her anytime during the night, she was there to help me. Josephine is like a super woman. She does a million jobs, and she does them flawlessly. She and her staff decorated the CopperTree so beautifully, and even better than how I envisioned it. She made sure to even pack up our reception food, and a piece of our wedding cake (which I was so grateful for because I didn’t get to eat a piece during the reception) and hand-delivered the food to our hotel room. She also packed up all our decorations after the wedding and made sure we got them the next day. At the end of the reception, she got us a van to take us back to the hotel, and she helped set up our after party in the back patio. We saw her working in her office way into the AM hours that whole weekend—I don’t know how she does it all! Josephine, we are so thankful for your help the whole wedding. You made all our dreams come true, and were our biggest helper and supporter the whole time.


Venue:

The food was delicious, and the staff was so incredible. My family loved working with the staff and getting to know them all weekend. Everyone was so helpful and kind. We had four options for our meals, which Debbie recommended since we could not do a tasting due to covid. We picked the beef tenderloin, wasabi encrusted salmon, chicken francaise, and mushroom ravioli. We did the standard open bar and appetizers. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal and the drinks from the bar. Everyone also loved the balcony behind the CopperTree and the views from there. We ended up doing a sparkler send off right behind the CopperTree, and then made our way over to VanWinkles for the after party. We ordered food for that, which was demolished by my family. We ordered pizzas, grilled cheese, sliders, and had smores. The grilled cheese were SO good and a huge hit. My friends and family had fun gathered around the firepit and kept the night going long. The next day was July 4th, and we held a farewell breakfast in VanWinkles. We had a breakfast buffet, with standard menu items. Breakfast was delicious, especially the French toast! It was a great way to say goodbye to all our guests and to recover from the partying the night before. We then went into town and watched fireworks for the fourth. It was the most perfect weekend!
In all, I couldn’t recommend Hunter Mountain more! All my dreams came true, and my wedding was even better than I could have imagined. They did a great job, especially considering my wedding was their first big wedding (that allowed a rehearsal, after party, and welcome breakfast) after the pandemic. The staff, from Debbie, to Andrea (the hotel room master!), Josephine, and everyone at the Kaatskill Mountain Club, VanWinkles, and CopperTree were all superb. Fantastic service all weekend—we felt so special! Thank you Hunter Mountain for our dream wedding. Hunter will forever be a special place in our heart!

My now husband and I booked Hunter Mountain as our venue in January 2020, before covid-19. Throughout the stressful process of trying to decide to postpone or not Debbie and Josephine were both extremely responsive and helped ease our worries. We ultimately decided to move forward with our May 29th wedding (Memorial Day Weekend). Mother Nature was not in our favor and it was raining all morning and cold. We told Josephine no matter what we wanted to make it up to the summit and she delivered! It was 20 degrees and misting during our ceremony but it was still perfect! All the staff ranging from chair lift operators, to the bartenders were all fantastic. Our guests raved about the food and said it was the best prime rib they have ever had. Josephine, the day of coordinator was FANTASTIC. Any problems that arose (such as our DJ breaking down on his way to the ceremony) were handled by her and he didn't even know there were issues. The day was magical and our guests are raving about going up the chair lift (even though it was freezing) and the beautiful scenery that Hunter Mountain provides. When looking at venues our number one goal was to have somewhere that guests did not need to be transported anywhere. Guests were able to walk from their hotel rooms to the chair lift and the reception started at the bottom of the chair lift. We can't wait to go back for future anniversaries!