
Published August 28th, 2026 by Chef's Event Center

Couples choose a venue for the reception and then discover something they did not plan for: the photos. Where your portraits happen shapes an hour of your day, an hour of your photographer's schedule, and most of what you will actually look at in ten years.
Here is a walk through the photo locations on our 10 acres in Spencerport, and how couples use them.
Want to walk it with your photographer? Call (585) 352-3300 or contact us to arrange a visit.
The practical advantage first. At a lot of Rochester area venues, portraits mean loading a wedding party into cars and driving to a park. That is 20 minutes each way plus parking, and it comes directly out of your cocktail hour.
Here, every location is on the property. Your photographer moves from the gardens to the gazebo to the pond to the deck without anyone getting in a vehicle, which means more frames and a timeline that does not slip. See the grounds.
The most used spot on the property, and for good reason. It works as a ceremony backdrop, as a frame for the two of you afterward, and as shelter if there is a passing shower. Late afternoon light behind it is what most photographers go for.
Color and structure, and they change through the season, which means a May wedding and a September wedding photographed in the same spot look nothing alike. Good for wedding party groupings and for the quieter portraits of just the two of you.
Water gives a photographer reflection and depth, and the pond is where a lot of the wider, more cinematic frames come from. It is also a natural place to escape to for ten minutes when the day gets loud.
Where cocktail hour tends to live, which makes it the best place for candid photography: people laughing with drinks, grandparents sitting together, the group shots that happen on their own. The levels give a photographer elevation without a ladder.
Three walls of windows in the banquet hall mean the room photographs well in daylight, which matters for detail shots of the tables before guests arrive. After dark it becomes a different room, and a good DJ and lighting setup does most of that work.
"The venue was stunning, the food was amazing and the staff were exceptional." - Evelyn Sandberg
Book a tour and see it in daylight. Schedule here.
Two practical notes that make more difference than location choice.
Know your sunset. In Upstate New York, a June wedding has usable light until well after nine. A late October wedding is dark by six. That single fact should shape your ceremony start time, and photographers will tell you the same thing.
Decide on a first look. Doing portraits before the ceremony frees your cocktail hour and takes pressure off the whole afternoon. Skipping it is a valid choice, it just means building a longer window after the ceremony rather than hoping.
Rain does not cancel photos, it changes them. Covered space, the gazebo, the hall's window light, and umbrellas produce some of the best images photographers get. Our ceremony contingency moves indoors and we reset the room during cocktail hour, so a wet forecast changes the pictures without changing the plan.
Worth saying, because it directly affects your photos. Because we book a single event at a time, there is no other wedding party in your background, no strangers walking through your frames, and no waiting your turn at the gazebo. The whole property is yours for the day.
More on our weddings and receptions page, or come see it. Bring your photographer.
Get in touch or call (585) 352-3300.
September 15, 2026
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1875 North Union Street
Spencerport, NY 14559
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