SARATOGA LIVINGThe City. The Culture. The Life.

Zac Denham and Clark Gale like to have a good time, and they always knew they wanted that vibe showcased at their wedding. Already longtime fans of Saratoga, experiencing the Caroline Street festivities on Thanksgiving Eve for the first time gave the New York City dwellers an idea. 

“We loved it,” Denham says, and a few months later they were back at The Adelphi. “We were talking about it and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to get married here? When we check out, let’s just ask.’ And we did. We weren’t even engaged yet.”

Fast forward more than a year to Gale’s proposal on Denham’s January 28, 2019 birthday, and then right past their original wedding date of October 4, 2020 (although they did throw a little party then, too, COVID notwithstanding); and straight to October 2, 2021, when a well-heeled crowd descended on The Adelphi for the happy couple’s welcome party. The band kicked everything off with rousing French jazz music, as guests snacked on tea party fare such as deviled eggs with caviar, tea sandwiches and petit fours almost too pretty to eat. Tea sommeliers poured sophisticated selections, and of course, there was enough bubbly on hand for the entire town of Saratoga to toast the couple. Then there were the outfits. 

“Everyone understood the assignment,” laughs Gale about his well-dressed guests. “We wanted the perfect garden party as the pre-party, with a Kentucky Derby flair.”

The fabulous event was all them. The music was a nod to Denham’s Louisiana roots; Gale, on the other hand hails from Messena near the Canadian border, and had been coming to Saratoga since he was a kid. Both work in the restaurant business,  so when it came to planning the tea party (and the sit-down reception dinner the next evening), they were very hands-on, not stopping until it was exactly what they wanted.

“Our guests are chefs and restaurant investors, and we were work in F&B, so it had to be right,” Gale says. “We were very involved. We had two tastings for the pre-party alone, and the wines were just right. It was a beautiful collaboration.”

Because of Gale’s upstate roots, the couple had always spent time in Saratoga, but when COVID-19 hit, it became their sanctuary of sorts, where restrictions were less strict than at home in NYC. “Thank god,” says Denman, “for Saratoga,” where they could sit at a bar and have a drink, and spend more time outside with their dogs, Max and Marvin.

Now they’ve taken all of their rich experience from their high-level jobs consulting on other restaurant openings and have chosen Downtown Saratoga as home to their very first establishment that’s all their own—Bocage, a boutique (you guessed it) champagne bar that will serve tea and light bites such as caviar, oysters and tea sandwiches. It’s set to open soon on Phila Street.

“Our end game is to be living here as quickly as possible,” Denham says. “We’re still based in the city but are looking for a second home here now. It’s city-adjacent, and there are good schools for when we have kids.”

Sounds like these newlyweds have a lot to clink together two champagne flutes for. Cheers.    

Twenty-one years ago, New Jersey native Gina Ventura’s parents discovered The Sagamore when they received an American Express ad in the mail. They were able to use their credit card points toward a stay there, so they packed up the fam and made the trek north to Bolton Landing. “We fell in love with it,” Gina says of the landmark lakeside resort. “We tried to go every summer. We’d rent a boat and go fishing, we’d eat in town and we always just had the best time.” But on vacation, 9-year-old Gina was thinking about more than cannon-balling into the Queen of American Lakes: “Ever since I got there I was like, “Oh, mhm—this is where I want to get married.” 

And so, when Gina met her hubby-to-be, Rob Triebsch, a decade later, she made her master wedding plan known. “It was always kind of a joke,” she says. “I said to him, ‘You know, my whole wedding’s planned—I just need to find the groom.’” When Rob went on his first Ventura family vacation to The Sagamore, he finally got it. Says Gina: “He was like, ‘Yeah. Totally understand. This is amazing.’”

Rob ended up popping the question in August 2020 at—where else?—The Sagamore, and the two-decades-in-the-making wedding took place in October 2021. “Every time we drove up to Lake George, we would roll down the window,” Gina says of her childhood vacations, “and my mom would say ‘The blues are so blue and the greens are so green, aren’t they?’ And we’d all be like, ‘Yes, Mom.’ She would say it every time and not know that she always said it. So it became a thing.” Needless to say, the Triebsch-Ventura wedding palette was bluest blues and greenest greens. And the puppy Rob gave Gina as a wedding present? They haven’t picked her out yet but they already know her name: Georgie.