Silver Bay YMCA Reviews

My fiance and I knew we wanted to get married on Lake George, but we also knew we didn't want to pay the price for a cookie cutter wedding at the Inn at Erlowest or the Sagamore. We feel in love with SB and knew it would be our venue as soon as we saw it and met the Sales Director, Lindsey. She was clearly super organized, incredibly invested in making our day special. From then on planning was a breeze. It was fantastic to know that our guests could stay right on the property. Lindsey was so on top of any questions and deadlines which made my life much easier. The grounds are gorgeous and there are tons of activities so guests are entertained while you're busy getting ready. The new hotel is beautiful, but there are plenty of great housing options. We did our rehearsal dinner and cocktail hour in the Boat House , it was so cozy (it was chilly enough for a fire in the fireplace which was awesome) and our guests couldn't get over the amazing views. Our reception was in Gullen and was plenty big enough to fit tables and a band. As if we weren't 100% sure SB was perfect, the food was the icing on the cake. IT WAS SO GOOD. Both the rehearsal dinner, appetizers and reception dinner blew everyone away. Our guests were raving about the food (especially the corn bread and Dr. Pepper/Strawberry BBQ pulled pork).The staff was amazing (shout out to the event staff member who was up til past midnight laying out silverware and linens!), the bartenders were great and I cannot speak highly enough about Lindsey. She was an angel I did not deserve on the day of the wedding. She handled all the "back stage" tasks so seamlessly that I basically did nothing but get my hair and make-up done and have minor meltdowns. I could not have gotten through that day without her calming presence and her organizational skills. If you are looking for a Lake George wedding, but don't want to be treated like just another of the 23,894 brides passing through then have your wedding at Silver Bay.

From the very beginning when we went to visit Silver Bay YMCA, our experiences with staff and the venue were amazing. Lindsey, the sales director, went above and beyond to help us create our perfect wedding. Even with the frenzy of construction, they were accommodating and professional to us and all our guests. From little details such as helping us with our floral decor to helping us with our first look and photos, it was perfect. We cannot sing enough praises about the location, staff, and memories made there. We had our rehearsal dinner in the boathouse and the reception/cocktail hour in the gymnasium, and it was amazing. Our only regret is that it went so quickly! Silver Bay will have a special place in our hearts, and we cannot wait to return in the future and tell family about our wonderful experience there.

Guests who attended our wedding kept assuming that it cost a lot of money. We were really lucky to have found such a gorgeous venue for the price of a YMCA. The staff were so friendly and helpful on our big day, and the food was great! The only reason I didn't give them a 5 for flexibility, is because they were booked for our preferred wedding date almost two years in advance, so we had to change it to two weeks later. I really recommend getting married here in the off-season. You really get the star treatment, and you have most of the entire campus to yourselves and your guests.
Erin Grayson was our coordinator, and she was AMAZING. She kept everyone sane, and made sure everything ran smoothly. I could tell that her main priority was to make sure that we all had a great time.
Bruce Tamlyn was our officiant, and he was an absolute dream. We met him only once before we were married, and he gave us a lovely book called The Five Love Languages. Our family and friends remarked over and over again what a deep down nice guy he was, and what a wonderful job of the wedding service he did. He's got a good sense of humour, and truly loves what he does.

My husband and I had our wedding at Silver Bay on September 3, 2016. We could not have asked for a better venue. We had our rehearsal dinner in the boathouse (cocktail and appetizers) and the venue was perfect. After the dinner, we had a bonfire down by the Lake, which was perfect for our guests whom had arrived that night. The food was delicious and the staff were wonderfully accommodating. We had our wedding ceremony in the Helen Hughes Chapel, and it was perfect for the amount of guests we had (100 people). The Chapel is beautiful and intimate. Our reception was in Gullen Hall because the boathouse would not accommodate 100 people, which was fine. The hall was beautifully decorated, and looked gorgeous with the table setups and the layout of the room. The food was outstanding. We chose a BBQ option and our guests are still talking about how wonderful the food was. The staff at Silver Bay were so pleasant and welcoming to our guests. Jennifer was our contact at Silver Bay for our wedding and I have to say how wonderful she was. All the planning, emails, phone calls, and visits and she was always ready to answer our questions. The weekend of our wedding she was beside us the entire time making sure that everything was going according to plan. The day of the wedding she was so organized and was always one step ahead of me to provide me with whatever I needed. The weekend was fantastic, I have no complaints. Jennifer even ordered blue skies and perfect temperatures for us! If you are looking for a venue to have your wedding this is the place to go, you will not be disappointed.

My husband and I got married at the end of June, we had our ceremony in the Helen Hughes chapel and our reception in Gullen Lounge. There are a few on site locations for outdoor ceremonies/receptions but we liked the air conditioning in Gullen Lounge :-) Our rehearsal dinner was also at Silver Bay in the boathouse which was recently redone and had great views of Lake George. Lighting in the chapel might have been difficult but we had a sunny day and added some extra Christmas lights which kept the chapel bright. We enjoyed using the wrap around porch for cocktail hour and we had plenty of space for our 100+ guests in Gullen Lounge. Staff were very accommodating for dietary needs (gluten free, etc.) We really enjoyed the food, especially the bacon wrapped scallops. Beautiful location, the staff was very helpful and available to us. We had a great time and our guests did too!

Silver Bay is an incredible venue for a wedding. Although our experience was unique because they were in a transitional phase, we still felt that the service we received was highly personalized. There were times that we felt we were being charged more than a fair price, but on the day of the event, we realized that we were also paying for a high level of dedication and attention. Things like going to get one our groomsmen who was lost, and getting us a golf cart to use for post-ceremony pictures were done in the blink of an eye. They thought of a lot of things we never would have thought of and were literally able to provide whatever we needed. After the experience, we feel that the Silver Bay staff we worked with are friends.

I'm really struggling with this review so please read the whole review.

As a whole Silver Bay was amazing. BEAUTIFUL property and buildings etc. The food was surprisingly good for a YMCA but there are a few things I wish I had known going in that no one told me.

Most importantly- Please be aware of the rooming situation if you have lots of guests from out of town. All of our guests were traveling to Silver Bay and many of our guests ended up staying in rooms that had two twin size beds. That's right, my adult, married guests were forced to stay in twin sized beds across the room from their spouses.

There really aren't many other hotels in the area, lots of small places with a few rooms here, a cottage there but I wanted to have people in a central location so it was easy for my shuttle service to take us out after the reception ended and bring everyone back. If you are thinking about booking silver bay make sure you talk to them about rooming.

Also, I believe receptions have to end by 10pm which is pretty early.

I rated silver bay a 0 out of 5 for responsiveness but in reality this rating is for John, the event coordinator at Silver Bay who I worked with. He was hired about 6 months before my wedding and he was SO stressful to work with. I'm not sure if it was because was new or because he wasn't the person we worked with from day 1- I don't know what his deal was but he was horrible!

There were several emails that I sent him that I got no responses from. Eventually I learned that I needed to use multiple sized fonts and add color to my emails to get a response ( I do this with the college students I work with...kinda sad to have to do with a professional).

During our first meeting with John at Silver Bay, I asked him for a list of all of the guests staying at The Inn, he said "okay". I waited and then asked if that was something he could get for me that day, or that week, or next week. He responded and told me he could get it then but didn't actually go to get it. It wasn't until I told him I would wait and he could go get it at that moment that he finally did. When he came back the list of names was completely wrong and it took several days to figure out why.

Two weeks before the wedding I drove several hours to meet with him in person to go over details since he didn't respond well to e-mails (I planned this weeding from 6 1/2 hours away). When I got to Silver Bay John wasn't there. He had slept in because he was working late the night before. Ironically, he picked the noon meeting time and date. I had to wait about a half hour for him. Once he got there I went over the list of things I wanted to discuss, he took notes and then I repeatedly asked if there was any other information he needed from me or decisions I had to make as I have never been in or planned a wedding prior to my own. He just kept telling me I was all set and as soon as I left he started e-mailing me with things we should have discussed while I was there.

The day of the wedding came and there were very specific things I asked for that didn't happen or were incorrect. I asked to have 3 golf carts, one for me and my bridal party and two for my guests. There was NO ONE taking my guests to the ceremony and I had to wait about 15min for a driver to take me and my bridal party to the ceremony (the guys ended up walking there but it was raining and I didn't want to get soaked before the ceremony). After the ceremony was done we were forced to wait again but I got annoyed and walked back to the reception in the rain because no one came to get us.

I also asked that my guestbook NOT be put outside of the reception room because I was afraid people wouldn't sign it. Guess where my guest book was and guess how many people didn't sign it... There are just a few examples of how John dropped the ball. The list goes on... and on...

That being said. The rest of the staff there was amazing! There is a man named Doug who works with facilities and catering, I'm not sure his actual title but I met him during one of my trips up and he was setting up for someone else's wedding. Doug took the time to show me variations for room setup that John hadn't gone over with me. He also talked to me about the timeline for setup and what they needed from me. Doug was there the day of the wedding and made sure that my husband and I had dinner and drinks. I wish I had worked with Doug instead of John.

As for value- The price sneaks up on you. You can bring our own alcohol BUT you pay $400/hr to serve it. The price increases to $500/hr if you have 100people or more. However, they did let me make some adjustments to the menu that I expected to be charged for and wasn't we added some items to appetizers including olives and roasted red peppers, we also added some items to the starter salad.

Overall the facility is so beautiful I couldn't pass it up. They also allowed me to bring in home made cookies for dessert since I come from an Italian family and cookie buffets are tradition. This was very important to me. I just wish that I was able to work with someone other than John, he stressed me out every step of the way and I had to rely on my other vendors to get me thru it. (The rest of my vendors were all amazing, check out their reviews.)

I am going to say yes I would recommend Silver Bay but only if you hire an additional wedding planner so that you don't have to depend on them. Other than that it was great. I know I sound kind of bitter but John stressed me out a lot. Of all the places I looked at for venues Silver Bay was by far the most beautiful and the most "us". Given the chance I would get married there again, but with professional help.

We were married at Silver Bay because the venue held a great deal of special meaning to us. We found the staff there to be kind, but the service was absolutely embarrasingly despicable and it ruined our day. The staff was unknoweldeable, unorganized, and unresponsive in every single way imaginable. If we didn't literally follow them around, track them down, and remind them of what they were responsible to do at every turn, we are certain they would have spent most of our day hiding out in the boathouse doing absolutely nothing. Our main contact there was incredibly difficult to get ahold of from the start of the process to the very end - he shouldn't be filling this position. Silver Bay has the potential to be an amazing venue, but it falls incredibly short on nearly every single level. Part of me feels compelled to itemize every single issue that went wrong, but I get so angry just thinking about the ways in which our wedding day was ruined that I'd prefer not to revisit the day.

We chose Silver Bay because of the location, the chapel and the ease of our guests. Problems:
1. Responsiveness. The woman assigned to be my contact for the wedding was very slow to answer emails and phone calls. It would take me calling multiple times over days to get one response.
2. Treatment of Guests. We chose Silver Bay so that our traveling guests (the large majority) could have a vacation weekend. I was very disappointed when multiple guests were told that Silver Bay was "closed" on Sunday, the day after my wedding. Guests who wanted to make a long weekend (the reason we chose Silver Bay) were told they could not. We were told Silver Bay was in full operation until October. I enquired about what could be done about this, and got no response.
There also was a lot of confusion surrounding when activities were open. Guests were told conflicting information around the hours for the boat house. Guests were told that the swimming beach would be open at 2:30, but then were kicked out of the water because they said they did not have a life guard available. Showers at the Inn were cold. My grandmother rented a cabin and the toilet didn't work.
3. Ceremony. Wedding started - no one retrieved the bride for a half hour, so the groom and officiant were standing at the front with music playing for a half hour. The lady who was supposed to get us decided to use this time to set up the slideshow at the wedding.
4. Reception. We purchased alcohol and guests were told it ran out. Then they said the "found" some more. Not sure how this happened. Food was a buffet. They brought out SIX pieces of chicken at a time, and every time it ran out, my mom had to bug them to bring out more. When everyone was done eating, we had to chase staff down again to remove the buffet to start dancing. Vegetarian meals were served a full half hour to 45 minutes before the buffet started.