Dell Collective Hostess Amanda

Meet Your Hostess

Hi there! 

My name is Amanda, and I’m your hostess when you stay with Dell Collective! My husband and I love the area we live, our homes and creating unique stays and experiences for our guests. Nate is a busy farmer, so his day-to-day does not include Dell, however he lends his imaginative ideas and animal expertise on the reg! 

A bit more about me: Beginning at a young age, I have always had a love for all things hospitality! It all started baking pies on Sundays with my mom for the cafe at our family’s auction barn. Homemade crusts & from-scratch recipes that weren’t actually written down anywhere… it took a minute to get them as good as mom’s! 

Post high school, I moved to Florida to intern at a resort at Walt Disney World while going to college for hospitality management. During and post college, I dabbled for a few years doing everything from baking in bakeries, working in restaurants (always working in restaurants!), and landed as a bank teller in Central New York—where Nate’s latest farm venture took us. After nearly two years, I was bored with that, missing the buzz of the hospitality world and decided to take on culinary school in Boston. It was there that I learned that I indeed, did not want to own a restaurant like I had dreamed of! I was able to cook in some incredible kitchens in Cambridge, learned the true meaning of mise en place, and loved every moment of culinary education. 

Following culinary school, I moved back and took a position as a pastry chef at a luxury resort, Mirbeau in Skaneateles, NY. This is where I got my first taste of creative culinary freedom, which was an incredible perk. An opportunity came up to move into less of a culinary role, and more of a catering sales and event planning position – I jumped at the opportunity as I didn’t see myself in a kitchen long term. 

Working in catering for Ithaca Bakery was a wonderful career start for me. It’s where I met my mentor (Shoutout to my guy, Guy (pronounced Gee)!), learned the ins and outs of catering, as well as got my start in the wedding industry. Another farm purchase moved us out to Western NY in 2014, so along with that move came a new position for me at Partyman Catering. I’ve been with Partyman since and have had the most wonderful time learning, exploring and being a part of the wedding industry in the WNY market. It’s at Partyman where I have planned hundreds of weddings, worked at dozens of regional wedding venues and made amazing friends with countless brides. 

Fast forward: Covid happens, I have an unessential job and my airbnb side hustle becomes a little more serious with the addition of more spaces and the infusion of Hygge. I have since stepped back to a reduced capacity at Partyman and have started to focus on the Dell Collective brand. 

The name Dell comes from Nate’s grandparents, Mary & Irv Dell. They were Perry locals and the kindest, most hospitable and giving people I have ever met. To know them was to love them. It’s an honor to carry on the Dell name doing what I know would make them so proud. If grandma was here, she literally would have baked cookies for all of our guests – the puffy cakey kind that always hit different coming out of her cookie tins.

At any Dell property, we aim to give you more than just a bed to lay your head. We want you to walk in, immediately feel at home and soak in the sounds, smells and hygge vibes. What is hygge? It’s that feeling. The feeling when you are with your favorite people, and all feels right in the world. When your favorite bevy tastes better and the spaghetti and meatballs you cook for dinner taste better than they ever have! It’s when you walk outside, soak in the fresh country air and can actually see the stars at night. It’s when you put the garage doors up at the West Barn and Hazel (our pig) immediately says “Hey” in pig lingo and you can hear the birds chirping. It’s the morning sunrises over the lake (Silver Lake Haus) or the fog rises over Letchworth (Rw How Property). It’s an experience that you need to experience. 

When our guests stay, we want them to want for nothing. We overstock our spaces, include all the kitchen things (hello spice cabinet!) and promise an incredible night’s sleep on luxury bedding and super comfy beds and pillows. The warm, cozy vibes suck you in and oftentimes we have guests asking to extend their stay!

Hosting has turned into the perfect meld of all of my worlds- culinary, resort/hotel and weddings! We are able to offer micro weddings on property, private chef meals and a one of a kind experience when it comes to accommodations. Meeting guests from near and far has truly been so wonderful – they come as strangers and leave as friends. Many of our guests become repeat clients and we love nothing more than to see them time and time again, usually as they celebrate milestones or special occasions that we take pride in making extra special. 

I can’t wait to host you!

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