A very frequently asked question for me is where to go to eat after a wedding in Central Park. Check out my FAQs page on my website for some of the others I get asked a lot. This one about restaurants is such a difficult question to answer in a huge city such as New York with so many places to choose from with every cuisine you can think of and a vast range of budgets. My couples are all so different, too – they have varying tastes, budgets and group sizes.
In an effort to provide some general advice to get couples thinking, I’ve written my own list of New York restaurant recommendations, and followed that up with a second list of New York restaurant recommendations. After posting those I decided that my previous client’s recommendations may also be helpful, so I wrote a post summarising where all the couples who featured on the blog in 2016 ate after their wedding, then couples from 2015, then those from 2014, and also those from 2013. Below I summarise the couple’s recommendations who featured on the blog in 2017. I intend to cover the next couple of years on the blog soon! I have had to break the posts down year by year, otherwise they would be far too long (for me to write and for you to read!). Not every couple who I work with wants to be interviewed for the blog in fact, most don’t. The list that follows is of the couples whose weddings featured on the blog in 2017, and where they went to eat and celebrate after their wedding.
Hannah and Leigh – May
Hannah and Leigh got married in Cop Cot in May. They brought a group of ten friends and family over from their home in Melbourne, Australia. Their reception was held in a small private dining room at a French restaurant called Claudette in Greenwich Village. They said they loved the food and the service.
Michelle and Ian – July
Michelle and Ian came from their home in the UK with thirty of their friends and family to New York in July to get married in the Ladies’ Pavilion. Their wedding receptions was held on a Spirit Cruises yacht on the Hudson River, a very popular choice. They hired an open top bus from CitySights NY to take the guests from Central Park to Chelsea Harbour to board the yacht, another nice touch that is popular with many of my couples.
Sabrina and Chris – July
Sabrina and Chris are New Yorkers, born and bred. They both grew up in the Bronx. The couple really love to travel so they considered eloping somewhere far away because they knew they wanted a small wedding. But they wanted their parents with them on the day, and they knew they would not be able to travel that far, so they decided to get married in New York, but to only invite their parents and to keep the ceremony location a secret so that they wouldn’t have any family members showing up unannounced! They had a relaxed ceremony in the morning, then they took their parents to nearby restaurant Pomodoro Rosso, on the Upper West Side, a block from Central Park. “It was our first time there and we loved it!” said Sabrina, “the food was delicious.” After the couple had said goodbye to their parents they had a kind of staycation for their wedding night; they stayed at the William Vale Hotel in Brooklyn. Their suite had a wrap around balcony that overlooked the Manhattan skyline. They ate dinner at the Peter Luger Steakhouse, and went for drinks at Brooklyn Winery and Greenpoint Beer & Ale Co.
Kevin and Stacye – July
Kevin and Stacye got married underneath Bethesda Terrace in July. They were on a budget for their wedding, so initially they began planning for the wedding location to be their living room with family and close friends. They had plans to go on a family vacation to New York, and while planning their wedding at home, they began to realize that their budget could go further if they decided to have it while on their vacation. They both have personal and family ties to New York. After their ceremony they had brunch at Sarabeth’s on Central Park South. They managed to capture some photos in the middle of the busy street before they ate a delicious brunch. From there, they took a taxi back to the townhouse to change, then rode the subway to Brooklyn. They stopped to take another fabulous photo, Kevin dipping Stacye on Washington Street, with the Empire State Building and the Manhattan Bridge in the background. They ate lunch at Grimaldi’s and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge into Lower Manhattan, stopping for pictures along the way.
Elinor and Carl – August
Elinor and Carl got married in the Ladies’ Pavilion in Central Park in the summer, but didn’t feature on the blog until January a couple of years later. They stayed at The Strand, which they said was in a great location. They had picked it specifically for its roof top bar with sensational views of the Empire State Building. T hey spent the evening of the wedding, and indeed every evening of the trip in this bar, “it was perfect,” said Elinor. Their wedding dinner was at the ever-popular Loeb Boathouse as the sun started to set over the Lake during their main course, “I can’t think of a better place,” said Elinor.
Jade and Sunil – August
Jade and Sunil got married August in the Conservatory Gardens, underneath the Wisteria Pergola. They had photographs taken all over Central Park, and then in different places in New York City while their guests enjoyed some drinks and snacks back at their hotel Le Parker Meridien, which is on 56th Street. After the photos and when the sun began to set, the couple met everyone at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park for dinner.
Megan and Daniel – August
Megan and Daniel got married in August. They had their wedding ceremony in the Ladies’ Pavilion. On the morning of the wedding, Megan went to Sarabeth’s opposite Central Park for breakfast with her parents and brother to spend some quiet time with her family on a very busy day. After that they walked back to the hotel through Central Park. After the wedding ceremony and group photographs in Central Park, the guests went on to the wedding reception in the Tavern on the Green, while the couple had a few more photographs taken alone. “We had reserved areas both inside the restaurant and outside on the terrace, a three course meal, open bar and a wedding cake from Magnolia Bakery,” Megan said. As the newlyweds arrived they saw that a jazz band were playing on the terrace outside the Tavern, and Megan’s mom asked if they had been booked by the couple. “They hadn’t been booked by us, but it was a lucky coincidence that we got to enjoy them!” said Megan. After the reception in the Tavern, Megan and Daniel got a pedicab back to the Empire Hotel where the group had an area in the rooftop bar reserved.
Kayla and Matt – September
Kayla and Matt brought got married in the Ladies’ Pavilion in September. The wedding party was twenty-four guests in total. After the ceremony and photos in Central Park, they went to the rooftop bar at STK, then walked along the High Line park a little until they got to the Chelsea Pier, where they boarded a cruise ship for a three hour sightseeing and dinner cruise. “The cruise was unbelievable; the food and atmosphere were amazing, we even got to have our first dance and they cleared an area on the deck to do our speeches, all with views of the New York skyline and Statue of Liberty,” said Kayla. “I would highly recommend that to anyone, not just wedding parties” she added.
Zoe and Andrew – September
Zoe and Andrew brought their nearest and dearest over to New York from their home in Bathgate, a town a few miles west of Edinburgh in Scotland, to get married in the Ladies’ Pavilion in September. After the ceremony and photos in Central Park, our photographer took them to Times Square to Brooklyn Bridge, to capture other iconic areas of New York City. We hired a vintage trolley to take the whole party around New York to have their photos taken in these other locations. “We took a cool box in to the trolley with prosecco, beers and juices and my sister had made a wedding music play list on her phone which we were allowed to play on the trolley,” said Zoe. So, while they traveled between photograph destinations they all drank and sang and danced their way around New York. The trolley dropped them at their wedding dinner destination, the Heartland Brewery, underneath the Empire State Building, where they enjoyed a three course meal with unlimited bar for a couple of hours.
Becky and Scott – November
Becky and Scott brought over forty of their family and friends over from Warrington in England for their wedding in the Ladies’ Pavilion this November. After the ceremony and the photographs in Central Park, the group went to Keens Steakhouse to eat in a private room there. “I would definitely recommend the service and the food,” said Becky. That evening they hired a function room in the Gin Mill where they enjoyed food and drinks in to the night.
As ever, I welcome anyone who would like to comment below with their own suggestions of great New York City restaurants – there are so many to choose from, and although there are some firm favorites that last over time we’re always seeing new ones! For more information to help you with planning your own Central Park wedding, visit our website, or “like” us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and follow us on Pinterest where you will find lots of lovely photos and many more inspiring stories of real weddings.