Q. Jordan,
I am a tiny tiny Jersey fish trying to plan my wedding to a NYC native and feel a li’l overwhelmed: we’ve got the beautiful love story…but not the NYC budget.
I was wondering if you could suggest some cool event spaces – any suggestions would be great!
Rachele
A. Congratulations on your engagement!
Truth: I don’t know a ton about the cost of event spaces in the city, but I suspect that this is a tough one because…well…it’s the city. Kendrick and I decided to get married at Clay Hill Farm in Ogunquit, Maine (wedding photo here) both because we loved the town and the venue, and also because we didn’t think that there was any way in the world that we were going to be able to afford a Manhattan wedding of the sort I was dreaming of (with, you know…food included). It was wonderful having an entire weekend to spend with our guests and felt very magical and special, but honestly, Maine is way far away, and it was kind of a huge pain for people to get there (people who didn’t have cars had to take a plane or a train + a bus + a taxi or a trolley, yikes).
In retrospect, I would probably have picked somewhere more easily accessible from the city so that people who wanted to come for the weekend could…but so that people who really needed to just attend the wedding and get back to their lives wouldn’t be excluded.
So. All of this is to say that my honest opinion is that if you’re working with a limited budget you might want to consider expanding your search slightly outside the city lines; there are still crazy-expensive castles and hotels and such…but there are also lots of amazing smaller venues competing for your business.
Last weekend, when Kendrick and I ate at the Iron Forge Inn in Warwick, N.Y. (pictured above; it’s about an hour and a half outside of NYC), I thought of your question and took a quick tour of the property, and I have to tell you: if rustic-country is your style, this is a perfect wedding venue. The place is a renovated 1760s farmhouse, so it’s got tons of small, cozy rooms where you could hold different events throughout the evening, a beautiful outdoor space, and an enormous old wooden bar upstairs (in addition to a super-cool Tap Room downstairs). I also had a quick chat with the owners, and they assured me that their weddings are very reasonable, and that they’re all about making it personal and special and giving the couple exactly the kind of day they’re looking for. Just something to think about.
All that said, if you want to get married in the city, do it! I personally don’t have a ton of great suggestions because it’s not something I have a lot of experience with, but I’m sure that there are reasonable, stylish places in the NYC area to get married.
So: I thought I’d post your question here to see if any readers have suggestions for you. …Anyone?
And stay tuned – lots of money-saving wedding tips are coming up in just a moment.
