Our wedding ceremony may not be until Sunday, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate all weekend!
Friday evening, June 4th, 8:00pm
We would be delighted to see any and all of you beginning on Friday, June 4th. That evening, amid frantic last minute preparations, we will celebrate Shabbat at the local temple, Congregation Gates of Heaven. Following, we would love to meet you for celebratory drinks at Pinhead Susan’s.
Saturday afternoon, June 5th, 3:00pm
Saturday afternoon, we will move the celebration to Schenectady’s Central Park, where everyone is invited to an informal cookout! Central Park offers ample recreation activities beyond socializing, eating, and drinking. Take a walk in the Rose Garden. Start a pickup game of softball or tennis (we’ll bring as much equipment as we can, but please bring your own as well!). Play on the playground (we know this applies to many of you who are no longer children). We will supply the food, libations —including beer brewed specially for our wedding!— and music to suit all tastes.
What can I do in my free time?
Below is a map of some Schenectady landmarks and recommended restaurants. Scroll down for a special message from the father of the bride, who has spent his journalistic career championing the restoration and revitalization of the city.
Hello, guests,
Welcome to Schenectady, birthplace of General Electric Co. and wedding place of Laura Clayman and Kyle Matthews. It’s going to be a great weekend!
We have, as you already know, arranged for a couple of events that will take up much of your time — the picnic at 3 p.m Saturday and the main show at 11 a.m. Sunday. But, depending on when you arrive, you will still have a little or a lot of time to see some sights in Schenectady, a city that fell on some very tough times as GE cut back in the 1980s and ’90s, but has been undergoing a renaissance of late — at least its downtown, with new hotels, a six-screen movie theater, fresh facades on many buildings, and lots of new restaurants.
Most of the places worth checking out, for the architecture, ambience, or whatever, are within walking distance, just blocks from one another. Here are some recommendations:
- Proctors: A 1920s vaudeville house that has been beautifully restored and is the artistic and entertainment center of the city, with something going on (whether a movie, concert or traveling Broadway show) about 320 days a year. Complex includes a cool arcade with shops, and a funky coffee house called the Muddy Cup with wi-fi.
- Union College campus: Union was one of the first liberal arts in the country and the first planned college campus. Especially worth seeing is the Nott Memorial, a rare 16-sided stone masonry building with 288 restored stained-glass windows just below a 102-foot-high dome. Atop the dome is an inscription in colored slate from the Talmud proclaiming, in Hebrew, “The day is short, the work is great, the reward is much, the Master is urgent.” (How appropriate for this Jewish wedding weekend). “The Nott” was prominently featured in a scene from the 1970s Robert Redford-Barbra Streisand movie “The Way We Were”). On the edge of campus is Jackson Garden, eight acres of formal gardens and woodlands.
- The Stockade: This neighborhood, which includes the Van Dyck (where the wedding is), was the original footprint of the city. Founded by the Dutch in 1661 as the westernmost outpost of what was later to become the United States.
Stockade refers to the fence around the enclave to keep hostile Indians out. And it worked … until the Indians burned it down in 1690. Most of the homes are charming and distinctive on narrow streets, similar to Georgetown. Neighborhood extends for several blocks north to the Mohawk River, where there is a long, pleasant, quiet, green space called Riverfront Park with nice view of the water. - Jay Street: A pedestrian mall with many shops, including a good local bookstore called the Open Door at one end and a good little creperie called Chez Daisie at the other.
- City Hall: That’s the impressive brick-and-marble building with the gold dome and clock tower on Jay Street, just past the Open Door.
- Villa Italia: Excellent bakery and gelato joint, worth looking at and/or sampling. But if you don’t get there, fear not, because you’ll have plenty of opportunity to taste their sweet offerings at the wedding.
- Bomber’s burritos: The name tells you what is there. Good burritos and margaritas, with industrial-chic decor. Opened last year as part of a mini-chain (there was already a successful one in Albany). Started by a Union College grad.
- Pizza King: Just past the Open Door on Jay Street. Good pizza with about a dozen different toppings, such as fettucini alfredo, eggplant, chicken marsala with broccoli, etc.
- Schenectady Museum: Up the hill, opposite the Holiday Inn. Good science, technology, innovation museum featuring a lot of interesting old GE photographs and artifacts, with some hands-on stuff. Also has a planetarium with shows.
