Weddingbee Blog

Ah, the quest for the perfect venue – more than any other vendor, this search generated much stress, consternation, guest list honing and cell-phone watching. Add to this the fact that in New York City, some venues can book up to 18 months in advance, and the pressure was on.

The mans and I were looking for several specific things:

1. We needed a venue that would accommodate our guest list.
We very quickly discovered that our medium-sized guest list of 100 people was that “not so sweet” spot of not quite big enough, but too big to be small.

Quite a few venues were ruled out because we would be paying for 40 to 50 people who we knew would not be there. Finding a venue that would work with our medium-ish guest list proved to be paramount as well as one of our greatest challenges.

2. While we were flexible about exact dates, we were looking to get married in Spring/Summer 2010.
Spring and summer are beautiful times in New York City! As you can imagine, we weren’t the only couple to think that way. More pressure = deep breaths from the Hamster.

3. We preferred a venue that would allow for some “greenery” pictures.
The urban oasis that it is, New York City can occasionally generate some picture-taking challenges. We definitely wanted a good mix of urban pictures (subway!) with some greenery (trees!).

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Now on to the short list:

Tribeca Rooftop

Lofty!
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Tribeca Rooftop offered the chic urban loft atmosphere without all the chic urban loft headache – the venue had its own in-house caterers, tables and chairs, linens and pretty much everything taken care of. I had heard great things about both the food and the service.

Unfortunately for us, we were way under the minimum. The coordinator was willing to consider bending the rules for us slightly if we would have our wedding on a Friday or Sunday in February, March or April. Not exactly what we had in mind, but we weren’t ruling it out just yet. Were we willing to push up our wedding date by a few months and have a Friday reception? … Undecided.

Waldorf=Astoria
Our next candidate was the Waldorf=Astoria.

By the way, did you know that the dash between the words “Waldorf” and “Astoria” was an equal sign? (Or rather, a “double hyphen,” as I was kindly told. Potato, Potahto.) Anyhoo.

Outside of the W=A. Could use a power wash, IMO.
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The Grand Ballroom
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If we wanted the classic New York hotel wedding, this would be a great place to do it. We met with the catering sales manager, who gave us a tour of the space and walked us through a sample proposal. The menu choices looked scrumptious (always a plus in my book!), and they had dates available in Spring/Summer 2010! The only issue again? Our medium-ish guest list. Sad hamster.

Undeterred, we set out for our third potential venue:

Central Park Boathouse

All dressed up for a wedding

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The SATC girls brunched here. Sally commiserated with her gal pals here in When Harry Met Sally. The Central Park boathouse was our next stop. The location is perfect – we could have our city shots as well as pictures all over the park. The events manager mentioned several “extras” – such as renting out a few rowboats for guests during the reception—fun! The space was a hit with both my parents and the mans.

The one issue I had was the fact that our guests would be very much mingled with the restaurant patrons in the case of rain. Was this a deal breaker? Probably not… but something to keep in mind.

Three venues, no real prospects. Little did we know that the next and final venue would be The One…

The Pierre Hotel

The One!

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The Pierre Hotel, located right across from Central Park, recently underwent a major renovation – in fact, it hadn’t yet officially re-opened when we visited it. However, the banquets director gave us a tour of the different reception and ceremony spaces, walked us through a sample menu, and answered all of our questions. The space was absolutely beautiful – classic and elegant!

Set up for a ceremony

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Rotunda - for pre-ceremony beverages.

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As a real bonus – the ballroom we would be using was the perfect for the size of our guest list (check!). Add to that the fact that they had availability in Spring 2010 (check!) and they were located right on Central Park (check!) – and the Pierre seemed to be a shoe-in.

The real clincher came when the director mentioned that the cake would be designed by Sylvia Weinstock. Ummm, she was totally the reason why I started baking 15 years ago! I tried to hide my extreme excitement, but I don’t think I was too successful. Yes!!! We had found The One! **happy hamster dance!**

In my next venue post – helpful questions to ask venues during your search!

How did you know your venue was The One for you?