Judy Tallerman, owner of the event venue Senate Garage in Uptown Kingston, paged through photos of what weddings at this “dramatic industrial” space used to look like before the COVID-19 pandemic forced restrictions on the wedding industry.

In a way, Tallerman says she misses the hassles that would come with putting on a full, unrestricted wedding.

“It makes me deeply, deeply sad,” Tallerman said, looking through a photo album at the venue’s bar. “All the things I thought were kind of a pain before now — I would love to have live music back.”

Before mid-March, weddings here would often include bands, a dance floor, and up to 240 people.

But now in order to comply with the restrictions there is no live music, no more than 50 guests allowed, and no dancing.

“Pretty much, you were in your seat the entire time, eating, for the three and a half to four hours,” Senate Garage manager April Tiberio told Spectrum News during a tour of the venue Tuesday.

Tiberio said that of the 30 weddings that were booked here for 2020, just two have happened.

At one of the weddings, a handful of guests stood up and began dancing near their table, prompting Tiberio to take action she did not want to take.

“We had to have the DJ cut off the music,” she said with a laugh and a cringe. “At a wedding, you hear party music playing and your instinct is to get up and start dancing. So yeah, we had to have them cut the music unfortunately.”

Tallerman said the 50 guest limit is something they can live with.

The dancing rule, though, must be adjusted, she said, adding that she recently had a new HVAC system installed for the 8,000-square-foot space.

“At least [let us] be able to celebrate, be able to have some dancing, to have a little room, now that we know what we know about COVID,” Tallerman said.

Jack Sterne, a spokesman for Governor Andrew Cuomo, told Spectrum News Wednesday that weddings are not currently afforded leeway on restrictions because weddings generally pose greater risks than a restaurant setting.

He said that while in restaurants, patrons generally stay at their own tables because they do not know one another. He also said the state has concerns about bottlenecking at bars and restrooms, and the greater chances that people will mingle since the guests are likely to know one another.

“As we have seen in weddings across the country, including in New York, large events dramatically increase the risk of COVID and can easily become superspreader events,” Sterne wrote in an email. “We understand some folks may be unhappy with these rules — but better unhappy than sick, or worse.”