Cipriani Wedding Venues in New York

Cipriani runs four event spaces in New York and couples routinely tour more than one before deciding, which is where most of the confusion starts. They are not variations on a theme. They differ by a factor of roughly thirty in capacity, they look nothing like each other, and the right answer is usually decided by your guest count before taste comes into it at all.

Cipriani Wall Street holds more people than anywhere else

Fifty-five Wall Street opened in the early 1840s as the Merchants’ Exchange, later housed the New York Stock Exchange and the United States Custom House, and then served as headquarters for National City Bank. The Grand Ballroom seats 1,700 or holds 2,000 standing under a seventy foot coffered dome, which is a scale nothing else in the city matches. The original bank vault doors are still downstairs and they are the best frame in the building.

The building also has smaller options: the Mezzanine at 220 seated under thirty foot ceilings, and the Stillman Room at 60. Full detail is on the Cipriani Wall Street page.

Cipriani 25 Broadway is the warmer room

Twenty-five Broadway is the old Cunard Building, and its Great Hall sits under painted and gilded vaulted ceilings rather than a single dome. It reads lower, warmer and more ornate than Wall Street, and it photographs that way: more colour in the ceiling, more reflected light on faces. If Wall Street feels like a monument, this feels like a room. Detail is on the Cipriani 25 Broadway page.

Cipriani 42nd Street is the easiest to fill

Across from Grand Central, 42nd Street is the smallest of the three ballrooms and the one that suits a normal-sized wedding without any work. Tall arched windows run down one side, the stone takes uplighting well, and a guest list of two hundred feels like a full room here rather than a sparse one. It is also the simplest for guests to reach, which matters more than couples expect when half the list is travelling.

Casa Cipriani is the one I have not photographed a wedding in

Casa Cipriani sits in the old Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street, at the southern tip of Manhattan, and it is a members’ club with event spaces and water views rather than a ballroom in the same sense as the other three. It is the most intimate of the four and the only one where the outlook does any of the work.

I have not photographed a wedding there, so there are no pictures of it on this page and I would rather say that than fill the space with somebody else’s. If you are weighing it against the others, the honest summary is that Casa is chosen for the setting and the privacy, Wall Street for the scale, 25 Broadway for the ceiling, and 42nd Street for the practicality.

What the four have in common

Whichever room you pick, the model is the same and it is worth understanding before you tour. Cipriani caters its own events rather than bringing in an outside caterer, so the food is not a separate vendor you choose and negotiate: it comes with the room. That removes a decision most couples spend weeks on, and it removes a lever most couples use to control the bill.

The service style is the other constant. Dinner is plated and staffed heavily, which means the room moves on a schedule and the schedule is tighter than at a venue where you set the pace. For photographs that matters: speeches, courses and the first dance land closer together than you might expect, so build portrait time before dinner rather than assuming there will be a gap in the middle of it.

What a Cipriani wedding costs

I am a photographer rather than the venue, so I will not invent a number. Cipriani caters its own events, so food and beverage is the largest line and it is quoted per guest. Each room carries a minimum spend rather than a flat rental, and that minimum moves with the month and the day of the week, so the same room on a Friday in January and a Saturday in October are not comparable. Lighting is a genuine line item in the larger rooms because they need it.

Ask for a written proposal against your real date and guest count with service charge and tax broken out, and compare on the total rather than the per-person figure, because the per-person figure hides the minimum.

Questions couples ask about Cipriani weddings

How many Cipriani wedding venues are there in New York?

Four: Cipriani Wall Street, Cipriani 25 Broadway, Cipriani 42nd Street and Casa Cipriani at 10 South Street.

Which Cipriani venue is the biggest?

Cipriani Wall Street by a wide margin. Its Grand Ballroom seats up to 1,700 or holds 2,000 standing under a seventy foot dome.

What is the difference between Cipriani Wall Street and Cipriani 42nd Street?

Scale and feel. Wall Street is a former bank with a seventy foot domed ceiling and capacity for well over a thousand. 42nd Street is much smaller, sits opposite Grand Central, and suits a couple of hundred guests comfortably.

Which Cipriani venue suits a smaller wedding?

Cipriani 42nd Street, or the Mezzanine and Stillman Room inside Cipriani Wall Street, which seat 220 and 60. The Grand Ballroom will feel empty below a few hundred guests.

What does a Cipriani wedding cost?

Cipriani caters its own events, so food and beverage per guest is the largest line, and each room carries a minimum spend rather than a flat rental that changes with the date. Ask for a written proposal with service charge and tax broken out and compare on the total.