Bronx Beat

At some point I was going to go into detail ad nausea about all of the places we considered for the reception/party. If you grow up in the Bronx, when you get married, you used to be contractually obligated to have your wedding at one of a string of catering halls on Shore Road in New Rochelle. I won't name names, you know who you are. We went one afternoon, right after the Botanical Gardens broke my heart (damn you abigail kirsch).

I can't really summarize how each experience was more horrible and not us as the one before. I can ask you to watch this video and imagine these women planning your wedding. Or, even better, their husbands, with pinky rings, offering you "top shelf liquor, your johnny walker, your johnny walker black"



skip to 2:42 when she talks about her husband...it's funny

Budget Friendly*

Yeah...budget friendly and NYC do not go together. Don't get me wrong, they definitely go together for all the lovely couples down at city hall, on the waterfront or small intimate restaurant celebrations, (all of whom I love and bitterly want to be at various times) but for me....well, I have a 254 person guest list. Thank you over-breeding grandparents. Dad's 1 of 12, Mom's 1 of 4. And yes, there are two priests and a spinster in those numbers who didn't produce children.

We discussed cocktail receptions, I brought up a bbq truck, we thought about renting gyms. Turns out a cocktail reception costs as much as sit down because you 'have to provide continuous food for four hours' yeah, we heard that. FH didn't realize how big the list was and denied the bbq truck/surprise picnic wedding. fatal fiscal mistake. And I'd already rented a school gym for my sister's bridal shower 9 years ago, we were poor and had 100 women for a bridal shower. yup. ridiculous.

So we decided to copy a wedding we loved. My cousin and his wife had a church wedding, greeted people at the door, which I LOVE, and afterwards had a mid-day brunch at a restaurant they rented for the day.

So, budget-friendly meant keeping the cost per person at our venue to under $100 per person. How hard could it be to rent out a restaurant for under $100 a head? v. if you are doing Saturday night in or near NYC.

Then I found kvetch.indiebride.com, where there was a whole thread about Bubby's Brides. Bubby's the brunch spot? with the pies? YES. And message board brides raved. We went, met Jojo, found the price to be justunder $100 with food and drink (not including tax and gratuity) and fell in love.

The best part? We live right across the East River from Bubby's and can point out the building to ourselves.

The worst part? We're getting married in the Bronx and having the party in Brooklyn. Think everyone can handle getting a metro card and a map and figure it out? And my parents think they are getting eggs for dinner, but I can't fix that.

And yes, you have now multiplied $100 by 254 and come up with $25,400. I have too. I know. It's a lot. It's our little part to keep the economy alive.

So You Want To Get Married At...New Leaf Cafe

The New Leaf Cafe is the cutest cottage restaurant nestled in Fort Tryon Park, at the highest elevation in Manhattan. It is also almost at the northern most point in Manhattan before you hit the Bronx, which was a plus for us since we're getting married in the Bronx.

photos via New Leaf Cafe Website

It is so GORGEOUS but in a semi-wild kind of way. The closest you would get to having a party in the shire without feeling like you are throwing a medieval themed wedding. Which I've been to. I kid you not.

guests arriving from a ceremony in the park

Pros: really pretty in an understated way (which to me is gorgeous), tree consecutive rooms for good flow, plenty of parking, park nearby with views of the Hudson river and the George Washington Bridge, affordable, friendly people to work with

Cons: the bathroom is the public park's bathroom, which they clean up for you, but at some point, it's still a public bathroom, you are responsible for renting a tent for their patio, and for us, it was too small.

I recommend and picture an afternoon brunch with a little 3 piece jazz band. our crowd is just a little too big.

oh, and it was profiled by nymag a while back, story here.

and one of our favorite photogs, who was unfortunately too much $$ for us, photographed a wedding there, pics here.

So You Want To Get Married At...Lake Isle

Immediately after the tour of the most improbable wedding reception site ever, my sister (MOH) yelled at both me and my betrothed (just trying something other than FH) for looking at possibly the most expensive wedding reception site in all of the Bronx (we'll get to Wave Hill later). She then packed up her car, her child, my betrothed and myself into her car for a whirlwind tour of the catering halls of Westchester County. Our first stop was Lake Isle.

Sidenote: Lake Isle is more a community pool and golf course than country club, but their community happens to be Westchester, one of the wealthiest counties in NY State, if not the whole country.

I have to say, that for someone coming off the high of Abigail Kirsch and her loverly set up at the Botanical Gardens, I was pleasantly surprised by Lake Isle. The catering manager was friendly and nice. More importantly, he was willing to NEGOTIATE when he heard we didn't want everything included in their standard package. Johnny Walker Black means nothing to me, as I'm a beer and wine kind of girl...maybe a mojito, definitely a margarita, if the season/location allows.

The space was ample and recently updated and honestly, again, nice. And that is fine. But we weren't looking for nice, we were looking for a place that would be US. For a little over $100 per person, you can get the cocktail hour, full open bar, apps, salad, main and dessert. This is reasonable for New York and Lake Isle is a nice place. If you want the traditional country club like wedding, but don't have dad's membership to Winged Foot to fall back on, go for it.


Surprising also in this visit was the fact that Autumn wedding dates are the most popular in the North East. I thought it was the summer, with the June bride phenomena and all. Turns out most of my summer weddings have been of teachers who just happen to have the whole summer off after their June weddings.

Came across this nifty website for couples looking for a reception site in Westchester. Anything that strikes your fancy, be it castles, country clubs, mansions, etc.

So You Want to Get Married At...The Bronx Zoo

Asian Gate, via Wikipedia

Because who wouldn't want to get married and have a party amidst all of the wonders of the animal world? I wouldn't suggest for the summer, but we had picked our date (Mid-October) and thought the animal smells wouldn't be that bad. Maybe a whiff here or there.

After searching around for the right person to contact, starting with the Wildlife Conservation Society, patched through to the Central Park Zoo, I finally got in contact with Jacqui Dauphinais, Reservationist, Catering and Events Services (718)741-3836 at the Bronx Zoo. Helpful and full of information. In fact, I'm not sure why we didn't go with the Zoo other than we feel in love with the place we ended up booking.

They have a variety of packages and things you can do, including a cocktail reception, which is what I intended to do in the beginning. A cocktail reception with a cash bar starts at $50 per person with 10 hors devourers, go for their basic bar feature and you will add $27 pp. In fact, I'm really seriously shaking my head wondering why we didn't pursue this. If you do sit down dinner, one nice thing they do offer for a sit down dinner are centerpieces for all the tables. I've never been offered that before.

via Bronx Zoo Website

Elephant House! They no longer house elephants, by the way.

Could do something fun with this print, ala save the dates (if i was doing save the dates)

from allposters.com

Post Script: This post is almost a year old, and while I've fulfilled many requests for information, at this point, my information is dated. Please contact either the Bronx Zoo or Central Park Zoo for more information!