Celebrations Banquet Facility Reviews

Celebrations was an excellent choice for our wedding ceremony and reception. John and Laurie throughout the whole process were reliable, organized, and efficient making the whole experience go smoothly. Celebrations has a lot to offer with the option of in house photography and DJ (and more recently photo-booth) and they also have a bunch of options regarding the food and drink so you can choose what is right for you. We opted out of the DJ and photography, but it was nice to have the option. We did participate in the photo-booth option and we don't regret that decision (all of the guests loved it). But, from the beginning to the very end, working with Celebrations was a wonderful experience. They truly made our day everything we ever imagined and I don't think we could have chosen a more perfect place for us to get married. Landscaping was flawless, food and drink were wonderful, and the staff was great. We would definitely recommend Celebrations to any one!

Jason and I could not have had a better experience at Celebrations. We toured several reception venues for our July 2022 wedding, and were extremely impressed by John and Laurie’s professionalism and wealth of experience. They helped us envision how the space would look and feel during the event, clearly presented food options and extra services, and were very easy to communicate with through the whole process. They worked with us to create a schedule for the evening and their day-of coordination was invaluable. Many friends and family members told us that our wedding was one of the nicest they had been to and that the food in particular was excellent, and John and Laurie certainly played a role in helping everything go so well.

P.S. I was particularly thrilled with the clever sound system that allowed the dance floor to be at a louder, danceable volume while keeping the music low enough to talk over at the tables!

(Photos by Bridget Rochelle Photography)

John and Laurie are very knowledgeable. They are very helpful with picking packages out to the food. How you want the tables set up.Laurie is great at time management. She knows exactly how much time for everything. Highly recommend them.

As soon as we saw celebrations we new it was THE place!!! We were looking for some place we could have an outdoor ceremony with an indoor reception. We were married 10/5/19 The grounds are beautiful (fully decorated with beautiful mums and pumpkins for our special day) for an outdoor ceremony and pictures! John and Laurie are friendly and knowledgeable and make the planning process so easy. They also offer many other services that make the planning process easy which include photography, a photo booth (with awesome picture quality and tons of props!) and DJ services. Venue was perfect, staff were helpful and friendly, food was amazing (still receiving tons of compliments), DJ (Faith) played great music people were up and dancing all night! Photography (Shannon) was perfect, efficient, captured everything we wanted and things we didn’t even think of. I would recommend Celebrations over and over again!!!

We had our wedding reception here this past weekend and we were so happy we did!!

First of all, Laurie was always on the ball and really helped us to plan out everything. She is quick to respond to any questions or issues we had. They also did the majority of decorating for us. They offer so many services including a DJ and photo booth.

Our guests really enjoyed the food and the venue in general. We had so many compliments. The grounds and the patio are gorgeous!!! They have done so much work landscaping.

Finally, the DJ (Faith) was excellent. She took the majority of our requests and actually played them. This was really important to us and we were so happy about that. The other songs she chose were fun as well.

We are so grateful to Laurie and John. Thank you so much for making everything go so smoothly. We didn’t have to worry about anything once we were there, just having fun!! We would not hesitate to recommend this venue.

Thank you so much for everything John & Laurie .
You can tell that they are professional and have experience. The venue is beautiful inside and out . My guest loved the amazing dinner . The photo booth was a hit and the picture quality is so clear . Your staff was so helpful and friendly . If I had to do it all over there is no doubt I would pick celebrations again hands down. What they provide really does help with some of the stress that comes with planning a wedding. Our day was perfect .
Thank you
Mr. & Mrs. Prince

I am so super glad that we chose Celebrations for our reception venue ❤️

John and Laurie made the planning process much easier. Their venue was absolutely stunning and the food was excellent! Many of my guests have been contacting me and telling me how much they LOVED the food, especially the macaroni and cheese.

Would definitely recommend this venue to anyone interested in having any kind of event at this location. 😊

John and Laurie the owners are wedding pros. They handled everything we needed and were a wealth of good advice and experience. The food was truly fantastic, our guests are still talking about the roast beef and the bacon wrapped scallops! We held the ceremony on their stunning grounds and even though we experienced some rain they were extremely flexible and helpful and everything worked out beautifully. The in house DJ was another stand out. She was so responsive, friendly, and helpful and she had our guests packing the dance floor all night! I handmade all of the decorations and centerpieces for my wedding and Laurie and her staff decorated with everything I had made so I didn’t have to worry about it and they honestly did a more beautiful job than I could have done myself. Our day was like a dream come true thanks to Celebrations!

John and Laurie are absolutely amazing at what they do! From the first time we met them all the way through to the big day, they made sure every detail was not only covered but executed perfectly. I told them my vision and details I wanted and they made all of them happen and then some. I couldn't have asked for a better venue and couple to work with to make my dreams come true! They offer almost everything in house and take all the stress off of you. They are very easy to work with and very professional. Venue is absolutely beautiful and perfect. I highly recommend this venue you will not be disappointed and will be blown away by their hard work,dedication and hospitality. They know how to make your special day amazing and then some!

John & Laurie and their staff are simply outstanding! They make the whole wedding planning experience so easy and took so much stress off of myself and now husband. Literally can show up with a dress and cake and everything else is taken care of for you.

Mother of Bride from Wedding on 6/2/18 - John & Laurie are fantastic to work with. They thought of and planned for every detail. They and their staff are so friendly and attentive. The ceremony site outside is so well manicured and picturesque. Reception hall so well layed out and spacious - special private room for Bridal party to get ready in was Awesome! Celebrations is Amazing place for a Wedding.

My wedding was perfect and Laurie and John were exceptional. I visited the place once and planned the entire wedding from across the country and they made it as easy as possible, especially with having most of the services in one place. The food was absolutely amazing as well. I'm the type of person who likes to do certain things myself, like decorations and centerpieces so I can make sure they're just right and they allowed me to do my own thing which was a big relief for me. Even 2 minutes before my groom arrived I was out arranging and rearranging tables and helping with the cake but they were more than ready to help me at any moments notice if I needed it. The ceremony went perfectly and they helped with all of the timing and everything. I didn't have to worry about anything. Excellent communication between their entire staff and as things changed they simply adjusted the schedule without a hitch. Absolutely recommend Celebrations for any occasion.

We are so happy we chose to host our wedding reception at Celebrations. John and Laurie were very friendly and accommodating throughout the whole planning experience. I had some cultural traditions I wanted as part of the celebration, and they helped us make it happen. They were easy to reach and communicate with whenever we had questions or concerns. The space itself was very well decorated, both with Celebrations décor and Laurie helped put around decorations we brought in ourselves. We got countless compliments from our guests about how friendly the staff was, how good everything looked, and how tasty the food was. Definitely get the salmon for dinner and the bacon wrapped scallops! We also planned our wedding long distance, so having an in-house DJ, catering, and a photo booth made everything so easy and stress-free. There is even a wonderful cake baker a few houses down, Darling Cakes, who delivered and set up for free! The DJ was also wonderful, playing good music and keeping the dance floor packed. We highly recommend using Celebrations!!

We cannot say enough great things about Celebrations. The food was fantastic. The staff was responsive and courteous. Every detail was covered - even getting food and drink to the wedding party while pictures were being taken. The staff also stood by with umbrellas during the photo shoot because it looked as if a storm might begin. Our guests were completely impressed with how nice everything was. The wedding space is gorgeous. Beautiful setting. The landscaping is exquisite. Everything is prepared to perfection. We are so happy that we chose Celebrations for our daughter's wedding. The planning meetings are efficient and helpful. No surprises with money - everything is specified. The owners are helpful and very willing to answer questions. We could not be happier. Words our guests used: gorgeous, magical, amazing.

Our wedding was beautiful and perfect thanks to Celebrations! Highly recommended.

I booked and found this venue over a year before my wedding date and the entire time John, Laurie, and the Celebrations staff were communicative, understanding, and flexible. They listened to all of my concerns, and what I wanted. They had no issues making recommendations to me or explaining how things typically worked. Also, when the wedding date was coming near they were incredibly quick to respond to my questions via email- which was really nice.

Furthermore, they set up everything for me; so on the day of the wedding I only had to worry about getting ready! It was really awesome considering I brought a ton of my own decorations that I had made (centerpeices, photo booth props, signs, paper flowers, etc). John and Laurie have so much experience that they even know how to time everything so your guests get the best experience!

All of my guests kept telling me how beautiful the venue was, how friendly the staff was and how great the food was. I seriously cannot recommend this venue enough. The main thing I enjoyed about the venue was that it is PRIVATE. There is no other wedding that you're on top of (say in a hotel, or a venue that does multiple weddings at once) and the venue is large and AFFORDABLE. Other venues were well over my price range once I added in my wants like an open bar, DJ, photo booth, etc.

They have options for you to do a photo booth, photographer, and DJ all in house- meaning they have people there already that have experience!!!! I used all but their photographer (I already had one chosen before I found this venue) and my guests LOVED their photo booth and had so much fun with it. Their DJ, Faith, is also amazing. She is super friendly and definitely knows how to feel the crowd and get them dancing!

If you are even considering doing your wedding in the Binghamton, Syracuse, Whitney Point, Ithaca area I say go check this place out. You will NOT regret it. They gave me such a perfect wedding day and I can't thank them enough.

We had our daughter and son-in-law's wedding reception at Celebrations. We also used their DJ, who was great, and the photo booth which was so much fun, and very reasonably priced. We took pictures outside where it was absolutely beautiful !! Inside, our guests were enjoying appetizers and drinks, then later , we had a wonderful dinner. The food was absolutely delicious. We wanted a place that had good food, and they certainly did. John and Laurie were awesome to work with. They have so many things right there, that they make everything so much easier. The service, food, DJ, presentation, absolutely EVERYTHING was amazing. We had no complaints. We highly recommended Celebrations. If we did it over, we'd have the wedding right there as well.

Our out of state son's and daughter-in-law's wedding was held here in August and was fabulous! They got married on the beautiful & immaculate grounds and the reception here could not have been more perfect! The staff was very helpful, friendly and efficient, the service was perfect, and the food/bar was spectacular. All the food from appetizers, dinner and dessert was beautifully presented, plentiful and delicious. The entire wedding day at Celebrations was a dream come true! Our guests raved about the facility and the reception, many said it was the best wedding they have ever attended. Thank you to all the staff that made it all happen so perfectly!

Five stars do not do justice to the terrific job performed by Laurie, John, and the entire Celebrations staff! Beginning with our very first meeting almost a year before our wedding, my husband and I were so impressed with Laurie’s depth of knowledge about anything and everything having to do with weddings and receptions. Both Laurie and her husband John made it clear that Celebrations was committed to delivering a wedding ceremony and reception that my husband and I wanted. Every question we asked, every email we sent, and every request we made was answered by Laurie or John almost immediately and positively. Celebrations offers a wide array of options and can provide an amazing experience for any budget. Laurie was a tremendous help when it came to accommodating guests with special dietary requirements, making even dramatic changes without hesitation. Along those same lines, when we requested hors d’oeuvres that were not on their menu, they worked with their chefs to create exactly what we wanted, much to our and our guests delight.

My husband and I are from southeastern Pennsylvania and so we were thrilled to find out that Celebrations offered, in addition to catering, a photographer and a DJ. Having these options available to us made planning a destination wedding so much easier and also made our wedding day less stressful. Our photographer knew the best places to take photographs and was so efficient that we were able to enjoy the majority of our cocktail hour. In addition, a few days before our wedding day John told us that this was Celebrations first same-sex wedding ceremony and that he and their photographer Shannon had researched how to photograph same-sex weddings to make sure that we got the best pictures possible. Celebrations’ DJ, Dave, was so easy to work with! He took the list of songs we provided and effortlessly weaved in songs that complimented the overall mood we were trying to create.

After the ceremony our guests were taken back to the reception hall while the wedding party stayed down at the ceremony site to take pictures. Laurie and John sent down a bartender with drinks and then Laurie brought down a full complement of hors d’oeuvres so that we wouldn’t miss out on any part of our day.

My husband and I could not believe how many of our guests told us that this the best wedding they had ever attended and that the food was the best they had ever tasted at any catered event. These comments were coming from guests in their 50s and 60s who have attended dozens of weddings. After dinner had been served John and members of the Celebrations staff went to each table and asked each of our guests how their meals had been and if they needed anything else.

Laurie and John also have extensive experience with the best local florists and bakers, making coordinating flower and cake delivery and setup a breeze. After choosing a florist and baker for our event, it gave us tremendous confidence knowing that they had such positive relationships with the staff at Celebrations.

We cannot give Laurie and John enough credit for creating a wonderful wedding experience for my husband and me. We, and our guests, had a fabulous time and have so many great memories from that evening. Laurie and John are wonderful, knowledgeable people who will make your wedding day the most memorable experience of your lives.

Very organized and quick to respond to questions during the planning process. Everything was beautiful and ran smoothly due to the owners who are right by your side the whole time for anything you may need. Beautiful grounds for an outdoor ceremony and very nice reception hall for a convienent location to party after the ceremony and guests don't have to drive anywhere. The food was amazing as well! This is a one-stop-shop (photography, DJ, linens, catering, and decorations are all taken care of should you choose to use all of their in-house vendors).

The food was amazing... The set up was perfect... Their DJ did a great job... The staff was helpful... The grounds were gorgeous... I don't have one bad thing to say about Celebrations! This was the first place my husband and I looked at am I am so glad we decided to have our picture perfect wedding there! John and Laurie were so helpful and made our wedding day even more enjoyable!

My groom and I can't say enough about the amazing job done by Laurie, John, DJ Faith, and all the Celebrations staff. Planning meetings and our rehearsal went very well - they walked us through everything and helped us plan things we hadn't even thought of. They did an amazing job decorating the facility for our wedding - I especially loved how they added some of their own decorations. It was wonderful not having to stress about set up, take down, or anything else. All of our guests thought the venue was perfect - nice reception hall, beautiful garden. The food was amazing. I also appreciated the bridal dressing room. During the reception, staff organized and packed up all of our things so me and my bridal party could just load it up and leave instead of spending an hour cleaning up. Very professional, great communication with us throughout the event - they obviously know what they're doing and have it down to an art. Thank you!

This past September my wife and I were married in a small outdoor ceremony behind Celebrations Banquet Facility and then moved indoors there to have our reception. First off I’d like to say that we absolutely loved every minute of our wedding day and we have only heard wonderful things from other people.

We booked Celebrations at the end of last year after speaking to them via e-mail, over the phone, and also in person. Before I get too far into this review I would like to respond quickly to some of the other reviews that I have read regarding Celebrations and its owners. Many people have stated in their reviews about rudeness and not being able to have everything “your way.” The issue here first is that you choose a facility like Celebrations because you don’t want to do everything yourself. We live an hour and fifteen minutes away from Celebrations and in no way would have been able to do half of these things ourselves, so yes you do pay a little more for the convenience of not having to do things such as decorations, table place settings, etc… This is also probably why people think Laurie is rude. She isn’t. She is just very straightforward with people and has no problem telling you like it is. The fact is that they have a contract there that is quite specific as to what you can and can’t do and if you can’t do it, then Laurie will tell you. Personally, we liked that attitude because we knew in the end when the time had come for the wedding day, that everything would be the way it should be and that we didn’t have anything to worry about.

Now, on to all the good stuff. Booking Celebrations is easy as long as you have a deposit readily available. Note that you can not sign your contract until you have your deposit. The contract is very straightforward as to what packages consist of and how much all the fees associated with everything is, from adding on a photography package to using a more advanced table centerpiece to something as simple as upgrading the beef quality of an appetizer. Once signed and most of your final wedding decisions are made you sit down with Laurie and discuss what you want the room to look like and what decorations etc… you would like her to use. Then you just make you final payments and get together the last few things they need in the last couple weeks.

On our wedding day we arrived to an absolutely beautifully decorated room. The layout for both the ceremony and reception hall was perfect for our 100 guests. We had ordered a package that consisted of 6 appetizers, buffet dinner, and partial open bar. The appetizers were passed around graciously during the first hour or so after the ceremony and some were even brought down to the ceremony site for us to have during our pictures. The options for appetizers were tremendous and we picked a variety for everyone from chicken wings to baked brie to teriyaki steak medallions. Each and every appetizer was delicious.

Following this we entered the hall and after introductions were sat at a gorgeous well-lit head table. Dinner followed. The buffet style dinner consisted of a carved glazed pork loin, chicken cordon bleu, seafood jambalaya, and mushroom ravioli. I had some of each, except for the jambalaya (as it didn’t look like jambalaya to me and I wasn’t sure what it was at first). The chicken, pork, and ravioli were delicious and if I didn’t have room left for jambalaya anyways. After dinner you didn’t even know Laurie and John were around unless they ran out to say something to the photographer or shoot some photos themselves. They were rarely seen until the end of the night.

We also decided to hire Celebrations photographer. This was another decision we were very pleased with. Not only does the photographer herself run around taking photographs all day and night long, but John was also running around with a camera taking photographs. In the end we received almost 1500 high resolution images from them, 200 of them edited nicely, and some artistic edits as well.

I cannot attest to the abilities of their in-house DJ as we did not use them. We instead hired a live band, The Bob Cooper Band, to play for our ceremony and reception. From what I saw it seemed as if the staff of Celebrations, especially Laurie and John, worked extremely well with Bob Cooper while he emceed everything that went on throughout the day.

In the end we had an absolutely amazing time. Along the way Laurie and John are easily accessible to answer any questions you have regarding pretty much anything that they could help you with and they answer quickly. We would highly recommend Celebrations Banquet Facility for your event or wedding.

We had a beautiful and amazing wedding at celebrations. The decor was classy, the outdoor ceremony was heavenly, the food was to die for, and the DJ was perfect. All in all we couldn't have asked for any place better suited for the perfect outdoor venue and indoor reception. I would like to add that John was amazing, down to earth and really made you feel comfortable. Laurie on the other hand, I don't believe she should be dealing with the customers AT ALL! She was very unprofessional and rude before and during this special event which was uncalled for when it can be a stressful situation to begin with. If it wasn't for her they would have gotten 5 stars. She needs to stay behind the scenes.

The outdoor space is stunning!