Real wedding · Skyline Lodge at Highland Forest · Fabius, New York
A Spring Wedding
at Skyline Lodge
Skyline Lodge is the Adirondack-style lodge at the top of Highland Forest, an Onondaga County park in the hills south of Syracuse, with a deck that looks out over southern Onondaga County. We photographed and filmed one wedding here, in mid-May: a ceremony on the deck under a draped arch with the valley behind the couple, a reception inside the lodge beside the stone fireplace, and portraits that ran from the split-rail fence in the afternoon to the deck at sunset. This page is that day, told through seventeen photographs from the couple’s sneak peek and the notes we kept, for couples and planners considering the lodge. It is a real-wedding story, not a venue guide: we have covered one wedding here so far, and we say so.
A county park lodge on a hill
One room with a fireplace,
a deck, and the whole valley.
Skyline Lodge sits inside Highland Forest, the largest of the Onondaga County parks, at 1254 Highland Park Road in Fabius. The building is Adirondack in style, with a wide deck along the view side and a stone fireplace inside. Onondaga County describes it as offering a panoramic view of southern Onondaga County, and that is not an exaggeration: from the deck you look down over fields and treeline with nothing built in the way.
The county’s floor plan lists the whole lodge at up to 150 people inside. It divides with a temporary partition into the Limestone Room, up to 80, and the Kenyon Hollow Room, up to 50, so smaller weddings can reserve one room. Reservations go through Onondaga County Parks, the lodge has an exclusive catering contract, and in winter it doubles as the warming lodge for the park’s skiers, which tells you something about how the fireplace room feels.
A real wedding at Skyline Lodge
The deck, the fireplace
and the last light on the hills.
A mid-May wedding with sixty-one guests. Britney got ready at a rental house a half hour away, so the morning is not part of this set; everything below was made at Highland Forest, from Mike outside the lodge at noon to the last dance. These seventeen frames are from the couple’s sneak peek; their full gallery is still being finished. Tap any photograph to see its full composition.
The film
The same day,
in motion.
Photographs hold the day still. The film is how the deck actually sounded when the vows were read and how the room felt once the lights went down. Britney and Mike’s highlight film runs just under seven minutes and covers the ceremony on the deck, the reception in the lodge and the sunset on the hill.
Planning photography and film
Three things worth
deciding early.
Put the ceremony where the view is, and plan the rain call.
The reason to marry here is the deck: an arch at the railing puts the valley behind you for the vows, the first kiss and the walk back up the aisle, and every one of those frames on this page has the landscape in it. The fallback is the main room with the fireplace, which is warm and photographs well but faces inward. Pick both with the venue and agree who makes the weather call and when. We light for either, so a switch on the morning of changes nothing for us.
Leave a window for sunset, even in May.
The deck faces the open side of the hill, so the sun sets across the view rather than behind the building. On this wedding the sky went red and gold well after dinner, and the last portraits, the lift at the railing and the two of them looking out over the hills, came from a twenty-minute break we had held in the timeline for exactly that. Ask us for the sunset time on your date and we will place the break; your DJ will thank you for the warning.
Know the county policies before you design the room.
Skyline Lodge is a county facility. The exclusive catering contract, the alcohol quantity rules and the no-helium-balloons rule are all written policy, and the partition between the Limestone and Kenyon Hollow rooms decides how the room lays out for dinner and dancing. None of this limits photography, but it shapes the décor and the flow, so read the county’s policy sheet early and tell us the floor plan once it is set. The fireplace wall is the natural backdrop for cake and the first dances.
How this day ran
A mid-afternoon ceremony
and a full evening.
This is the shape of Britney and Mike’s day, from the timeline we built with them. The ceremony was at 2:30 in the afternoon, which is earlier than most, and it gave the day a long, unhurried evening. Your times will move with your ceremony time and your sunset, but the order and the reasons hold.
- 11:00 AMCoverage began with Britney and her bridesmaids at a rental house in LaFayette, about thirty minutes from the park. A second photographer and a second filmmaker joined for the middle of the day, so the two sides of the morning could be covered at once.
- 12:00 PMMike and the groomsmen got ready at the lodge. That put a photographer and a filmmaker on site early, which is where the portraits of Mike outside the lodge and the empty tables came from, before a single guest had arrived.
- 1:30 PMBritney arrived at the venue. No first look, by choice, so the two of them saw each other for the first time at the top of the aisle.
- 2:30 PMCeremony on the deck, under the draped arch, with personal vows. The dip kiss in the aisle on the way out was planned, and it is the frame everyone asks about.
- 3:00 PMCocktail hour, and portraits. Wedding party at the split-rail fence, the couple in the afternoon light, and a set of private vows recorded on their own for the film.
- 4:00 PMEntrances, three first dances, then speeches at 4:30 and dinner at 5:00. After dinner, table visits, the shoe game and cake cutting at the fireplace wall.
- SunsetBack out to the deck for the last portraits while the sky went red over the hills, then in for the floor.
- 8:50 PMLast dance, with coverage wrapping at 9:00.
Skyline Lodge wedding questions
A few things to know.
Where is Skyline Lodge?
Skyline Lodge is inside Highland Forest, an Onondaga County park, at 1254 Highland Park Road, Fabius, New York 13063. It is in the hills south of Syracuse. Reservations run through Onondaga County Parks; confirm directions, parking and arrival arrangements directly with the parks office.
How many guests does Skyline Lodge hold?
The county's floor plan lists the whole lodge at up to 150 people inside, with the Limestone Room alone at up to 80 and the Kenyon Hollow Room alone at up to 50. A temporary partition closes the two rooms off from each other when only one is reserved. The wedding on this page had 61 guests and used the lodge and the deck comfortably.
Can we hold the ceremony outdoors?
The wedding on this page held its ceremony on the deck, under a draped arch, with the valley view behind the couple. The deck is the natural ceremony spot in fair weather and the lodge's main room, with its stone fireplace, is the indoor fallback. Agree the weather call, and the time it gets made, with the venue in advance.
Can we bring our own caterer?
Skyline Lodge and Highland Forest maintain an exclusive catering contract, and the county's policy says all catered events must use the contracted caterer. The same policy allows home-cooked food you bring yourself, provided it is not from another caterer. Confirm the current arrangement, and bar rules, with the parks office when you book.
Is there anything that affects photographs and film here?
Two practical things. The county's policy prohibits helium balloons inside the lodge because they set off the smoke detectors, so plan décor accordingly. And the view faces south and west, which means the deck holds warm light late into the evening in spring and summer: keep twenty minutes free near sunset, because the last frames on this page came from exactly that window.
Planning a wedding at Skyline Lodge?
Tell us your date
and where the ceremony will be.
Share your ceremony plans, your guest count and whether you are looking for photography, film or both. We will confirm availability and help you choose the right coverage. BlackTie Brothers is a national wedding photography and film company with artists in New York, Florida and Hawaii; Fabius and the hills south of Syracuse are a regular drive for our New York team.