Our Story
The Maples Estate wasn’t built around wedding industry standards. It was built around the life we wanted to live.
For years, we both poured ourselves into work that was meaningful, but demanding. I built a career producing large-scale festivals, concerts, conferences and community events, while Louis built his in project management and operations.
Somewhere along the way, we realized we wanted something different. A slower life, a more creative one rooted in home, hospitality, and genuine connection. For nearly a year we searched for a place that felt right until we found this old farmhouse in Schoharie, New York.
We didn't just see a wedding venue, we saw the possibility of creating a place where people could gather differently. Where weekends weren't rushed, where celebrations felt deeply personal. Where home wasn't just a building, it was a feeling.
It wasn't complete, there wasn't a pavilion, there wasn't even a business. There was simply a farmhouse, beautiful land, and a feeling we couldn't ignore.
Today, you'll find Louis mowing the fields, driving the golf cart, tending the fire, and welcoming guests as they arrive. You'll find me greeting couples, guiding you through the planning process, sharing pieces of our life here, and asking questions that have very little to do with weddings, because those answers shape everything that follows.
We're still doing what we set out to do years ago: creating a place where people have the time and space to truly experience one of the most meaningful weekends of their lives.
The Maples Estate isn't somewhere we show up to work each weekend, it's our home. It's the life we've intentionally built together. The weddings we host are a reflection of the life we've built here, and caring for this place and the people who gather here isn't a job we clock into, it's simply the way we've chosen to live.
Today, my work also extends beyond weddings through Second House, my creative practice spanning event production, experience design, spaces, brands and strategic direction but The Maples Estate is our home and our heart.
Why we do things differently.
Nearly two decades of producing events taught me that the best experiences rarely happen by accident.
Long before The Maples Estate, I was producing concerts, festivals, conferences, and large-scale community events. And while the scale and setting changed from one event to the next, the thing I became most interested in was always the same: how people experience being there.
The flow of a space, the way people are welcomed, when a room feels energized and when it needs room to breathe. How the right food, music, lighting, design, and pacing can completely change the way people connect.
I also learned that what happens behind the scenes matters just as much as what guests see. Thoughtful production creates the freedom for everyone else to stop thinking about logistics and simply experience what's happening around them.
That's the philosophy I brought to The Maples.
We don't begin with a formula for what a wedding should look like. We begin by understanding you. How you spend your time, what you love to eat, what feels like home, the traditions that matter to you and the ones you're ready to leave behind. What you want your guests to experience while they're here.
Then we use everything we've learned from years of producing events, hosting people, and caring for this property to shape those answers into a wedding weekend that feels entirely your own.
Because the goal isn't simply to create something beautiful. It's to create the conditions for something meaningful to happen.
What Guides Us
The Maples Estate has a long history.
Learn more about the historic farmhouse and its inhabitants.
Venue Owners
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Founder, Wedding Planner & Creative Director
Hi, I’m Katie. Before The Maples, my career was built in event production, operations and community development. Over nearly two decades, I've produced concerts, music festivals, conferences and large-scale public events for audiences ranging from intimate gatherings to more than 30,000 people. My work has taken me from performing arts organizations and festivals to six years leading the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District, where I oversaw more than 300 events.
That background taught me how to hold both the creative and operational sides of an experience at once: how something looks and feels, but also how people move through it, how teams work together, what happens when plans change, and what allows guests to simply enjoy being there.
Today, I bring that experience to every wedding at The Maples as your planner and creative director.
Outside of weddings, I'm also a songwriter and musician performing as Bear Grass. I love restoring historic spaces, searching for antiques, and creating environments that feel warm, welcoming, and deeply lived in. The Maples Estate grew out of those same passions. It isn't just where we host weddings, it's the life Louis and I intentionally built together.
If we work together, my hope isn't simply that you'll have a beautiful wedding, it's that you'll leave feeling like you were fully present for every part of it.
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Co-Owner + Estate Operations
Louis is the person who keeps The Maples running, long before a wedding weekend begins.
He oversees the day-to-day care of the estate, from the grounds, buildings, and infrastructure to the constant maintenance that comes with caring for 12.5 acres and a historic 1855 farmhouse. Much of what guests experience when they arrive is the result of work he's been doing quietly behind the scenes for weeks, months, and years.
During wedding weekends, that role shifts naturally into operations and hospitality. You'll find him working alongside vendor teams, managing property logistics, solving the unexpected, helping Grandma get to the ceremony, or driving someone across the estate in the golf cart.
A project manager by trade and natural problem solver, Louis is the person we turn to when something needs to be built, moved, fixed, figured out, or quietly handled before anyone else realizes there's a problem.
He's also often the one tending the campfire at the end of the night, sharing stories with guests, and making people feel immediately at home.
Outside of The Maples, Louis is a musician who plays trumpet, accordion, and just about anything else he can get his hands on. He loves working with his hands, meeting new people, and being part of the community that gathers here.
Meet the Team
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Pearl
Wedding Production Assistant
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Kristin
Wedding Production Assistant
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Maccabee
Greeter & Love Bug
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Pearl is one of those people who makes everyone feel immediately comfortable.
Throughout your wedding weekend, you'll find her just about everywhere: helping bring the spaces together before guests arrive, welcoming friends and family as they pull onto the property, assisting your photographer, answering guest questions, keeping an eye on the flow of the event, and stepping in wherever Katie needs another set of hands.
With a professional background in marketing, communications, branding, PR, and event planning, Pearl brings both organization and an instinct for people to everything she does. She's attentive without hovering, quick to notice when someone needs help, and exceptionally good at making guests feel cared for while quietly supporting everything happening behind the scenes.
When she's not at The Maples, she's likely watercolor painting, quilting, baking, or spending time with her Morgan mare, Velcro, competing and volunteering at local equestrian events.
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Kristin is our design queen.
She has an incredibly strong eye and a natural instinct for the details that make a space feel finished. During wedding weekends, she works closely with Katie to bring the creative direction to life, stepping in wherever another set of skilled hands is needed to make sure the final environment feels polished, intentional, and cohesive.
You'll find her steaming linens, arranging tableware, styling details, adjusting decor, refining place settings, and catching the tiny things most people would never notice but that collectively make a room feel right.
She's also a creative problem solver and an invaluable part of bringing a design from an idea on paper into a fully realized space.
Outside of The Maples, Kristin loves spending time outdoors with her family, reading, sewing, and diving into DIY projects, which means she's rarely far from making something with her hands.
“If only all venues, planners, and event runners were as thorough and easy to work with!”
Chuck, Hot Club of Saratoga
Featured
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Where Do We Stay During Wedding Season?
In our off-grid skoolie. 🚌
Yes, really.
During wedding season, Louis and I live onsite in our converted Blue Bird school bus. For those four days, the farmhouse isn't ours. It's yours. Living just out of sight onsite allows us to give you the privacy of having the estate to yourselves while remaining close enough to quietly care for everything behind the scenes.
Not because we have to, because we genuinely love being here. The Maples Estate isn't somewhere we show up to work each weekend, it's our home and the life we've intentionally built together.
Living onsite means we're close by if we're needed, caring for the property, setting up your events, tending the gardens, welcoming vendors, solving the unexpected, and making sure everything behind the scenes unfolds just as planned.
Most of the time, you won't even notice we're there.
And that's exactly the point.
We'll be setting up, driving the golf cart, lighting the campfire, and making sure your weekend feels effortless, while you spend your time exactly where you should be: with the people you love.
Our skoolie also reflects something that's important to us personally. It's powered by solar, designed for off-grid living, and allows us to reduce our environmental impact while spending the seasons immersed in beauty.
When winter arrives, we move back into the farmhouse, but spring, summer, and fall are spent here, caring for the land, dreaming up new ideas, and preparing for the next group of people who will soon call The Maples Estate home for the weekend.
Ready To Visit?