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Setting
your sites
Brooklyn’s
alternative wedding venues make for an event your guests will
actually remember
By
Erin Marie Daly
for The Brooklyn
Papers
Sometimes it’s hard to be unique — especially when
planning your wedding. If the thought of hosting your big
event in a catering hall like everybody else makes you cringe,
consider Brooklyn’s bevy of off-the-beaten path venues
that, with a little imagination, are wedding sites waiting
to happen.
For hopeless romantics, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden provides
the ultimate dreamy setting for a picturesque wedding amidst
flowers, the faint buzzing of cicadas and — yes, in Brooklyn
— butterflies. Spanning 52 acres in the heart of the
borough, the Botanic Garden offers three spaces for weddings,
each uniquely beautiful in its own way. And there’s a
karmic perk: the Botanic Garden is a nonprofit cultural institution,
so all the money poured into your special event will benefit
not only you and your guests, but a worthy cause.
Appreciate the Old World charm and recall the elegant simplicity
of the Italianate Osborne Garden, the largest of the three
sites, and the most formal. The sprawling 30,000-square-foot
expanse of lawn provides ample room for larger parties, headed
by a gray stone fountain and lined by cone-shaped evergreens.
This garden’s singular beauty lies in the subtlety of
its varying shades of green, carefully perfected by horticulturists
and maintained throughout the seasons.
In the springtime, azaleas and rhododendrons add brilliant
reds to the color scheme, while purple wisteria hangs from
the stone columns bordering the lawn.
And it’s not just for weddings — lovers should consider
the Osborne Garden’s “whispering benches” for
proposals.
Those with a penchant for tranquility will find the perfect
wedding venue in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, a quiet
enclosure designed to mirror nature. A serene pond is surrounded
by winding walkways and stepping stones, while a wooden tea
house overlooks the water. Squat, pruned shrubbery lines the
path to a hill bordering the pond, where a mini amphitheater
provides the ideal setting for an intimate ceremony with breathtaking
views.
Spring brings pink cherry blossoms; by autumn, those blossoms
give way to auburn leaves. (In fact, it’s recommended
that those planning spring and summer weddings book well in
advance.)
For an old-fashioned, romantic wedding, the Cranford Rose
Garden provides 5,000 fragrant, elegant rosebushes and a raised,
white, latticed pavilion.
“The best month for weddings in this garden is June,”
Sofiya Cabalquinto, public affairs coordinator for the Brooklyn
Botanic Garden, told GO Brooklyn. “The roses are spectacular
then, and the garden looks like it was made for hosting a
wedding.” The blooms line a rectangular space perfect
for guests to lazily stroll, surrounded by colors and scents,
and the gazebo-style pavilion, washed in sunshine and laced
by climbing rose vines, provides a charming ceremony space.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Palm House, a sprawling
Victorian-style conservatory with ceiling-to-floor windows,
offers catered receptions (up to 400 people for cocktail receptions
and up to 300 people for dinner and dancing) through its in-house
catering company, Charles, Sally & Charles.
Daytime catering fees for Charles, Sally & Charles range
from $110-$120 per person; evening catering fees range from
$140-$160 per person (excluding tax and gratuity).
Daytime location fees for any event in the Palm House are
$2,000, Monday-Friday, and $2,500 on weekends and holidays.
Evening location fees are $3,000 Monday-Friday and $4,000
weekends and holidays. The rental fee for the gardens is $350
for up to 50 people; $5 for each additional person, with a
60-person limit.
Additional fees: photography fee (includes security guard)
of $250 for up to 20 people; $5 additional fee per person
with no limit; no charge for children under 16.
Play ball!
If all this romance is too much for you, there are plenty
of wedding venues on the lighter side — this is Brooklyn,
after all. Do you and your beloved love baseball? How about
getting hitched at the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones? Opened
in 2001, Keyspan Park offers the perfect mixture of kitsch
and cute for two sports fans in love, and this Coney Island
stadium can accommodate parties large and small.
Hardcore fans can rent the Party Deck during the season (mid-June
through mid-September), with panoramic views of the Atlantic
Ocean and the Manhattan skyline in the distance, and Astroland
Amusement Park looming over left field and the boardwalk to
the right. The space includes picnic tables and two rows of
balcony seating, and there’s plenty of room to mix and
mingle.
Or opt for the Luxury Suites, where guests can kick back in
a climate-controlled lounge or enjoy two rows of outdoor balcony
seating. For bigger crowds, the entire facility can be rented
— on non-game days — complete with tents set up
on the field. Events can also be held in the Brooklyn Baseball
Gallery, the park’s museum dedicated to the history of
baseball in Brooklyn, surrounded by memorabilia and exhibits.
“We can easily accommodate parties of up to 500,”
said Steve Cohen, Keyspan Park manager and Cyclones general
manager. Just make sure your guests bring sunscreen and windbreakers;
the stadium gets its fair share of sunshine and ocean breezes.
The Party Deck holds up to 100 people and costs $2,500 per
night, which includes 100 tickets, group recognition on the
ballpark’s video scoreboard, a variety of specialized
menus provided by Aramark (food and beverage costs not included
in rental fee), and waiter service. The Luxury Suites cost
$1,000-$1,500 per night and include 18 tickets, group scoreboard
recognition, a variety of specialized menus (food and beverage
costs not included in rental fee) and waiter service.
Events held in the Brooklyn Baseball Gallery are $250 for
the first hour and $150 for each additional hour. Or opt for
the $750 flat rate (includes 90-minute pre-game party and
40 box seats), or $600 flat rate (includes 90-minute pre-game
party and 40 bleacher seats). Additional seats can be purchased
at regular ticket rates; food and beverages are not included
in the rental fees.
Field rental with tent setup varies depending on how elaborate
the event is, according to general manager Steve Cohen.
For more information about catering possibilities or restrictions,
contact the Aramark Sales Office at Keyspan Park at (718)
266-7741.
Be a star
Culture-minded couples should consider hosting their wedding
in King’s County’s most illustrious performing arts
center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), where custom-made
weddings are treated as technically as a Broadway show.
“For us, everything is a production,” said Mario
LaMothe, assistant general manager of BAM. “And your
wedding is a production, too.”
The seating capacity for non-theatrical events at BAM’s
Lepercq Space is 150, but up to 400 people can be accommodated
with standing room. However, most wedding parties here cap
out at around 180 people; beyond that, said LaMothe, space
for a dance floor is limited.
This Fort Greene institution’s restaurant and banquet
facility includes theatrical lighting, sound and video systems
and is located above BAM’s grand lobby, where most couples
opt to have their ceremony. Receptions are catered by BAM’s
in-house catering company, Great Performances, in the second
floor’s BAMcafe. But weddings can also take place in
BAM’s dance studios, stages and other public spaces,
according to LaMothe.
“We work in production, so we pay attention to your event,”
said LaMothe. “We advise you, but we give the detail-oriented
person a chance to have their say, and every detail is met.”
Brooklynites on a budget also benefit from hosting their weddings
here; BAM offers a whopping 50 percent discount on the rental
fee to Brooklyn residents. (This discount does not apply to
the cost of labor, which is provided in-house by BAM and prospective
renters should take note that the space is offered as-is,
with the labor comprising the bulk of the expenses.) Another
perk: if the festivities end early, BAM will refund the fee
for unused booked time.
“We budget to the hour,” advised LaMothe. “We
don’t pad our charges.” And like the Botanic Garden,
BAM is a nonprofit organization, so couples can feel good
about giving back to the performing arts world while indulging
themselves and their guests.
The rental fee is $1,500 per day for non-residents; $750 per
day for Brooklyn residents. Additional fees: in-house labor
fee (varies, ranging from $2,200 to $5,000, according to LaMothe).
Catering must be provided by Great Performances; call (212)
727-2424 or visit www.greatperformances.com for more information.
Prices start at $125 per person, which includes menu, bar,
and labor but does not include the cost of decor or equipment.
BAM, 30 Lafayette
Ave. at St. Felix Street in Fort Greene. For more information,
contact the rentals office at (718) 636-4198 or e-mail rentals@
bam.org or visit www.bam.org.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1000 Washington Ave. at Montgomery
Street in Prospect Heights. For wedding ceremonies only (not
full-catered affairs), contact the Registration Office at
(718) 623-7220 or visit www.bbg.org
for more information. For full wedding packages, including
seated ceremonies, contact the Palm House at (718) 398-2400
or visit www.palmhouse.com.
Keyspan Park, 1904 Surf Ave. at West 19th Street in Coney
Island. For more information, contact Liz Lombardi at (718)
449-8497 or visit www.brooklyncyclones.com.
September
17, 2005 edition |. Read
more about Brooklyn Weddings
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