The Caboose in Hudson is offering three couples fully produced, two-hour weddings including flowers, photography, open bar, seafood towers, and more for $15,000 all-in. Yes, really.
If you've priced out a wedding lately, you already know the prices that have been haunting couples everywhere. Planning a reasonable wedding these days starts at around $30,000 according to industry estimates.
At the Caboose in Hudson, which hosts weddings throughout the year across from the Hudson Riverfront Park, Manager Alexandra Wright-Shomer says she's seeing most weddings ending up costing somewhere between $70,000 and $100,000. What about lovebirds who want to elegantly tie the knot without destroying their, or their parents’, finances?
The I Do Express is Wright-Shomer's answer. Three couples, one day, two hours each, all-in for $15,000. Food, flowers, photography, video, a full open bar, seafood towers, and a cake cutting. Local vendors, no upsells, no spreadsheets. You show up, you get married.
"Everyone loves love," Wright-Shomer said. "And sometimes people want it to be less of a production."
When not conducting operations at the Caboose, she does wedding planning on the side and got married herself a couple of years ago. "Even though I'm constantly chatting with couples about budgets, I too was shocked," she says. "There are a lot of surprises that come up and you're like, ‘Okay, we just have to keep going and keep spending to get to the finish line.’ But not everybody can do that."
Along with being more affordable, the I Do Express is also designed around the elimination of decision fatigue. Every local vendor has been pre-selected. Florals come from two flower farmers turned arrangers: Leslie Bish of Petal to the Metal out of Catskill, and Flower Scout, based in Troy. Music is handled by Dart Collective, a local agency of musicians and DJs. Photography is by Sara Wallach, whose documentary style suits the loose cocktail-party format, with videography by Adam Deen.
The food runs through The Caboose's fully electric, solar-powered kitchen. The building itself is a 200-year-old coal depot reimagined into a 100-percent carbon-neutral event space, under the culinary oversight of the team behind Mr. Cat, the neighboring restaurant. Banquet chef Joseph Lee handles execution. The menu features passed canapes, a seafood tower, a full bar, and a honey cake for the cutting.
"It isn't like your average cater-waiter situation where you're getting to pick one fish, one beef," Wright-Shomer said. "It's definitely much more in line with restaurant-style food and offerings."
The three time slots are staggered with two-hour buffers so couples never cross paths. The morning slot starts at 11am and lends itself to a post-ceremony brunch in town. The final slot runs 7 to 9pm.
Couples may bring their own officiant but there will be someone ordained on site to lead vows as needed. This is the only significant customization available for the ceremony itself; everything else is, as Wright-Shomer puts it, "fully planned and fully executed."
Ben Fain, the artist and entrepreneur behind Kitty's, Grapefruit Wines, The Caboose, The Wick hotel on Cross Street, and most recently the Mr. Cat rebrand of the Kitty’s restaurant next door, thought the concept brilliant when Wright-Shomer brought it to him.
"Weddings can get quite expensive accidentally," he says. "And before you know it, it's very expensive." What sold him, beyond the economics, was the vendor list. "The photographers and the florists that we're dealing with are some of the best in the world. To get to have them involved, where they might be out of reach otherwise, is pretty special."
The program is also aimed squarely at a local audience. Most Caboose bookings come from New York City. I Do Express is explicitly designed for people who want high hospitality without the price tag that usually comes with it. "We're really trying to open this up for people who live locally," Wright-Shomer says.
If demand warrants it, Wright-Shomer says they're already discussing a winter series for couples comfortable with an indoor setting.
Bookings are happening now, and the timeline is tight. Information and inquiries at thecaboosehudson.com/i-do-express.
