How Jillian and Rich brought live music to one of the Hudson Valley’s most beloved farm venues – and made every moment count from cocktail hour to last dance.
Date: August 16, 2024 | Venue: Red Maple Vineyard, West Park, NY
There are venues that look beautiful in photos, and then there are venues that feel like a discovery – places where the land does something to you the moment you arrive. Red Maple Vineyard in West Park, New York is the second kind. Set on 143 acres of Hudson Valley farmland, the property wraps a renovated 1800s cow barn in vineyards, floral gardens, and sweeping views of the historic Hudson River. When Jillian and Rich chose it for their August 16th wedding, they weren’t just picking a backdrop. They were setting a tone.
And The Barnstorm was there to match it.
Event at a Glance
- Date: Friday, August 16, 2024
- Venue: Red Maple Vineyard, West Park, NY
- Coordinator: Bailey Giammatteo (@baileygiammatteo)
- Cocktail Hour: Barnstorm Jazz Trio
- Reception: 9-Piece Barnstorm Band
- First Dance: “Sweet Symphony” – Joy Oladokun & Chris Stapleton
- Father/Daughter: “Landslide” – Fleetwood Mac
- Mother/Son: “Your Song” – Elton John
The Setting: A Hudson Valley Gem
Red Maple Vineyard is a storybook venue with sweeping Hudson Valley views, gorgeous grounds, and the advantage of one wedding per day. The farm-to-table philosophy runs through everything – from the fresh, local ingredients on the menu to the natural materials and textures of the space itself. For an August wedding, the light alone is worth the drive up the Hudson. The late summer sun settles slowly over the vineyard rows and river-facing lawn in a way that turns even a simple gathering into something cinematic.
Rustic, elegant, and the perfect mix of indoors and outdoors, the property offers river views, vineyards, gardens, and a beautiful reception space. The Barnstorm production team worked with a 20′ x 12′ performance footprint – no raised stage, just an open floor with haze rolling through the air – which gave the room an immediacy that elevated setups can’t always deliver. The band was right there with the guests. In the room, not on top of it.
Cocktail Hour: Jazz Trio on the Vineyard Grounds
Guests arrived at 5pm to an open property and the sound of The Barnstorm Jazz Trio drifting through the warm August air. For cocktail hour, a trio format is the right call – musical without being demanding, sophisticated without drowning conversation. Maui held down keys and bass while a snare and cymbal kit kept the rhythm easy and unhurried. It’s the kind of sound that makes a glass of estate wine taste better.
The ceremony followed at 5:30pm, and at 6pm the trio picked back up for cocktail hour proper – a full hour of live jazz as guests mingled on the grounds, the Hudson Valley doing exactly what it does best in August. Red Maple Vineyard sits tucked in the heart of the Hudson Valley, surrounded by vines, tall grass, and the kind of light that photographers dream about. Jordan Jankun, a Hudson Valley-based photographer known for capturing the energy of a wedding day, was on hand to document all of it.
The Reception: A 9-Piece Band That Meant Business
At 7:10pm, guests moved into the reception space and the 9-piece Barnstorm band stepped up. From introductions through to the 11pm close, the night moved through a carefully designed arc – formal moments giving way to dance sets, dance sets building toward a full-floor finish.
The special dances anchored the emotional center of the evening. Jillian and Rich’s first dance was “Sweet Symphony” by Joy Oladokun and Chris Stapleton – a lush, layered arrangement performed as a duet with Brooks and Steph sharing the lead. It’s a song that builds, and the band let it build. Guests were invited to join the floor partway through, which meant by the final chorus the room was already alive.
John, the father of the bride, then took Jillian out for “Landslide” – Steph’s vocal, the Fleetwood Mac version done right. A genuinely moving moment in any room, but particularly at a vineyard as the sun dropped behind the tree line. Rich and his mother Leslie closed the formal dances with Elton John’s “Your Song,” Brooks singing warmly to a room that was already feeling it.
Then the party started.
Two Hours of Dancing and a Vintage Photo Bus
After toasts from Matrons of Honor Julia and Jenna and Best Man Liam, Dance Set 3 launched at 9pm and ran straight through to 11pm. Two hours. No pauses. No filler. The Barnstorm with haze in the air and a crowd that had been primed through an entire evening of live music and farm-to-table food.
If you’ve never heard a live band in a renovated barn, the acoustics do something special. The ceiling height, the wood, the windows open to a warm August night – it gives a live band depth and presence that no speaker system can replicate.
And when guests needed a break from the dance floor? The Metro Photo Bus – a perfectly renovated 1971 Volkswagen Transporter Bus transformed into a mobile photo booth – was waiting outside. Metro Photo Bus is a vintage VW and camper photo booth serving weddings, parties, and corporate events across New Jersey, NY, and PA – and at a Hudson Valley vineyard wedding, nothing fits the vibe quite like a retro VW bus parked among the maple trees.
What Made This Night Work
The combination of a jazz trio for cocktails and a full band for the reception is one of the most effective formats in live wedding music. The trio creates a mood without dominating the room. When the full band steps in for the reception, it lands differently because the room has already been primed. Guests aren’t encountering live music for the first time at 7pm – they’ve been inside it since they arrived.
Coordinator Bailey Giammatteo kept the evening’s flow seamless, managing a timeline that moved from outdoor ceremony to cocktail hour to a full reception program without a hitch. The Red Maple team is praised for their knowledge of how to host a flawless celebration – and that on-site expertise, paired with a tight vendor team, meant that every element of the night landed exactly as intended.
Jillian and Rich chose a venue that feels alive. They matched it with a band that was.
Vendor Team
📍 Venue: Red Maple Vineyard (@redmaplevineyard)
🎸 Band: The Barnstorm (@thebarnstorm)
📝 Coordinator: @baileygiammatteo
📷 Photography: Jordan Jankun Photography (@jordanjankunphotography)
🚌 Photo Booth: Metro Photo Bus (@metrophotobus)
🌼 Florals: @stemsflowerdesign
💄 Makeup: @makeupbyjenxiixii
💇🏻♀️ Hair: @bridesbysette
Photos by Justin Aharoni (@jaharoni)
