620 Loft and Garden Wedding: Kristin and Matt’s Rooftop Celebration Above Fifth Avenue

As a New York wedding photographer, I have shot a lot of 620 Loft and Garden weddings. It is one of the few rooftops in Manhattan where the skyline does the work for you. St. Patrick’s twin spires sit right there at eye level, Saks is across the way, and the whole of Fifth Avenue hums seven floors below. Most couples let that view carry the day, and it is more than enough.

Kristin and Matt did something I or 620 Loft team had not seen before. They treated the venue as a blank canvas and then actually painted on it, literally, in Kristin’s own hand, across nearly every surface a guest would touch.

Kristin is an artist. That is not a detail you can mention once and move past, because it shaped every hour of this wedding. The escort cards were hand-drawn portraits of each guest. The place cards carried small illustrations: a lobster here, a champagne bottle there, a cherub, a chandelier. The walls of the reception room were covered in her line drawings. Even the signage pointing people toward dessert was in her hand. Photographing it felt less like documenting a wedding and more like walking through an art exhibition that happened to have a dinner in the middle of it.

The couple described what they wanted as stepping into someone’s weird, joyful, overly sentimental dream. I would say they cleared it.

How Kristin and Matt Met

They met working on a video project for a nonprofit, Matt on the production side, Kristin handling creative direction. What followed was coffees, long dinners, a running thread of very funny text messages, and the discovery that they were both the kind of people who notice how things look and cannot stop talking about it once they start.

It did not turn romantic straight away. It took about two years before the two of them sat down to what was unmistakably a date rather than a work dinner. Five years after that, Matt proposed on a walking tour in Korčula, a small island off the Croatian coast, timed to the moment the church bells started. There was a photographer hidden in the crowd for it, whom Kristin spent several minutes assuming was an unusually persistent tourist. By her account the afternoon ended in cheers, tears and Aperol spritzes, which sounds about right.

I mention all of this because it explains the wedding. Two people who are professionally in the business of making things look and feel a certain way, who waited a long time to get here, and who then refused to hand that job to anybody else.

Getting Ready at Lotte New York Palace

They got ready at Lotte New York Palace, about four blocks from the venue. This is a choice I recommend often, and it is worth explaining why. 620 Loft and Garden has no bridal suite. None. It is a raw rooftop space, which is exactly what makes it so flexible, but it also means you need a getting-ready location within a short walk.

The Palace solves this well with their beautiful Towers suites that have a view on 620 Loft while you’re getting ready. And then – the gilded staircase, the arched windows, the long corridors with their patterned carpet all give you an hour of beautiful indoor coverage before you ever leave for your rooftop venue, in a completely different visual register than the wedding itself. Cool interior light, a lot of architecture, and room to breathe.

Kristin’s gown was Netta BenShabu, pearl-studded, with a long train that photographed beautifully on that staircase. LRN Beauty handled hair and makeup. The morning details were already telling you what kind of day this would be: bud vases by East Olivia and Birch in mismatched colors, a stack of hand-drawn escort cards waiting to be set out, and a bouquet in coral, peach, dusty rose and deep burgundy, loose and slightly wild rather than tightly arranged.

The First Look

They did their first look in the colonnade outside the Villard Mansion. Stone columns, deep shade, the city moving past in the background. Matt in a black tuxedo, Kristin’s train spilling across the pavement.

I advocate for a first look at almost every 620 wedding (honestly for ANY wedding), and the reason is scheduling rather than sentiment. The ceremony sits on an open rooftop with a hard start time, and portraits taken afterwards compete directly with cocktail hour and with the light. Doing the first look and most of the portraits beforehand means that by the time you walk down the aisle, the photography obligations are behind you. You get your own cocktail hour back, and you really don’t want to miss your own cocktail hour with that view.

Fifteen Minutes on Fifth Avenue

Between the mansion and the rooftop we took fifteen minutes on the street. This is my favorite kind of coverage in Midtown and the least planned part of the day. Kristin and Matt crossed Fifth Avenue mid-block, her train lifting behind her, a bus and a row of yellow cabs stopped at the light, tourists frankly staring.

You cannot stage this. You can only leave time for it. If you are getting married in this part of Manhattan, ask your planner to build fifteen minutes into the timeline for the street. It will produce frames the rooftop cannot.

The bridal party came out onto the mansion steps for portraits, and here Kristin’s eye showed again. No matching dresses. Blush feathers, a deep red, an emerald green, a coral. It looked like a group of people who had each been asked to show up as themselves.

The Ceremony at 620 Loft and Garden

The ceremony space at 620 is the garden terrace: clipped hedges, topiary, a long reflecting pool, and behind all of it, the cathedral.

Birch Event Design and East Olivia built the florals based on Kristin’s vision, and this is where the whole concept announced itself. Instead of the white and green arrangements this venue usually sees, the aisle was flanked by enormous rainbow installations in blue delphinium, yellow, coral, pink, lavender and deep magenta, climbing several feet into the air on either side of a white runner. Against gray stone and Gothic spires, the effect was startling. It read like a paint palette dropped into a cathedral courtyard.

Small things I noticed: the ceremony programs were set out on navy velvet chairs alongside hand-painted paper fans, because it was late June on an unshaded rooftop and Kristin had thought carefully about her guests being warm. Kristin came down the aisle with her father. They exchanged vows with St. Patrick’s directly behind them, and the recessional went out through a storm of confetti.

Cocktail Hour at 610 Loft and Garden

Cocktail hour moved to 610 Loft and Garden, the sister space one building over, and the mood shifted completely. Pale blue fabric draped overhead, lavender and blush lounge furniture set out across the lawn, and an enormous artist’s palette, a real one several feet across, mounted and covered in flowers.

Peter Callahan Catering handled catering, and the passed food matched the tone: small, bright, slightly playful. Espresso martinis came out in coupes. There was a mock New York Times front page on an easel asking why anyone should have to choose between espresso and a martini.

The escort card display stopped people. Each card carried a drawn portrait of that guest. Watching people find themselves, laugh, and then immediately go hunting for their friends’ cards was one of my favorite stretches of the evening.

Two Rooftops at Once, and What That Actually Takes

Here is the part of this wedding that almost nobody outside the production will notice, and the part I am proudest of. Kristin and Matt used both 620 Loft and Garden and 610 Loft and Garden on the same evening. This was only the first or second time in its history that both rooftops had been run as a single wedding event.

That sounds like a small scheduling note. It is not. Two rooftops in two different buildings means two simultaneous rooms for most of the night, with guests moving between them and moments happening in both at the same time. A single team simply cannot cover that. If you staff it the normal way, you spend the evening choosing which room to lose.

So we did not staff it the normal way. This was a 120 guest wedding, which by New York standards is small, and we put six photographers on it. Close to triple what a wedding this size would usually carry. Two full teams working the two rooftops in parallel, plus aerial coverage positioned at a remote location to shoot both terraces from above, which is how the overhead frames of the ceremony and the lit rooftops at night exist at all.

The result is that nothing had to be sacrificed. The ceremony on the 620 terrace and the setup being finished at 610 were both photographed properly. Cocktail hour was covered while portraits were still running. Guests arriving, the room flip, the band loading in, the light changing on both roofs: all of it recorded, none of it is missing. Not a single thing.

This is how we approach taking care of our clients generally. We staff to what the event actually requires rather than to the guest count, and we talk to planners early enough that the coverage plan is built around the real logistics rather than bolted on afterwards. A wedding using two venues at once needs a photography team designed for two venues at once. That is not an upsell, it is arithmetic.

The Reception

Dinner was indoors, and the room had been turned into something closer to an installation. The walls were covered in Kristin’s line drawings: a chandelier, a bride and groom, a car driving away, a martini wearing a bow, cherubs, a sun with a face, all framed by scalloped borders and lit in blush.

The tables were the loudest part, and I mean that as praise. Every table had its own palette. Coral peonies with orange tapers on one, purple and lavender on another, soft blue and white on a third. Napkins matched, candles matched, and every place card carried its own small drawing.

Bentley Meeker handled lighting, which is the reason any of this photographs the way it does. In a raw room with white walls and no built-in lighting design, uplighting is the entire ballgame. Get it wrong and you have a conference room with flowers in it.

Dessert and Dancing

Then the room turned celestial. There was a cake bar rather than a cake, a display of lambeth-style confections in pinks, greens and blues, piped within an inch of their lives, most of them decorative and several carrying quietly sarcastic messages. Magnolia Bakery handled desserts. Against one wall stood a bank of paint buckets holding flowers, each printed with a line about not containing paint but adding color to your life.

Overhead, a cloud of white hydrangeas with gold star lanterns suspended through it. Navy and gold lighting, star confetti scattered across the floor, moons and constellations drawn up the columns. Hank Lane Music played and the floor did not empty. The last frames I made were of candles and sparklers burning down on the stone steps outside, the rooftop dark, the city still going.

What I’d Tell You About Photographing 620 Loft and Garden

A few practical notes from having photographed here repeatedly.

Light by hour

One thing worth getting straight, because it is commonly assumed the other way around. St. Patrick’s sits on the east side of Fifth Avenue and 620 sits on the west, which is why the cathedral is your backdrop rather than your shade. The sun sets to the west, out over the Hudson, behind the taller Rockefeller Center towers. Those towers are what pull the terrace into open shade as the afternoon goes on, not the cathedral. Midday is the harder call, with the sun high and contrast strong on a roof with very little cover. After sunset the space goes dark quickly and you are entirely dependent on whatever lighting your team brought in.

It is a raw space

No built-in lighting, no bridal suite, and no furniture included in the rental. Catering is handled through the venue’s vendor roster rather than in-house, so confirm early how much latitude you have there. That structure is precisely why the space accommodates a vision like this one, and also why your planner and lighting designer matter more here than they would at a hotel.

Load-in is difficult

Freight elevator access runs through a working office building, with tight timing windows and strict insurance requirements. Every vendor who has worked here knows this. Ask about it early rather than discovering it three weeks out.

Consider whether you want both rooftops

Running 620 and 610 together gives you two completely different environments in one night, and it is a rare thing to be able to do. Go in knowing it multiplies the production: two load-ins, two setups, guest flow between buildings, and a photography and video team sized for two simultaneous locations. Raise it with your planner at the earliest possible stage.

Have a real rain plan

The terrace is partially tented but the ceremony lawn is open to the sky. Decide your call time and, more importantly, who makes the decision, well in advance.

Capacity and cost

Capacity is the one number the venue does publish: 165 for a reception, 120 seated in the loft, 75 seated in the garden. Cost is a different matter, and I would be skeptical of any figure you read online, including any you might read here. Venues at this level do not keep public rate cards, and they do not quote every client identically. What circulates on directory sites is a mix of stale quotes, package pricing and guesswork, and the numbers openly contradict each other. You will find what sounds like the same booking quoted anywhere from around twelve to twenty thousand dollars for the space alone, and elopement slots quoted far below that. Treat all of it as rough order of magnitude rather than fact. What is dependable is the shape of the spend rather than the amount: rental is tiered by day of the week and by how long you hold the space, furniture is a separate line, catering comes through the venue’s vendor roster, and production for a raw rooftop is a real cost rather than a rounding error. The only figure worth planning against is a written quote for your own date and guest count.

Book ten minutes on the terrace

The stretch of railing looking south toward the Empire State Building and One Vanderbilt is the best portrait spot in the building, and it takes ten minutes. Put it in the timeline.

620 Loft and Garden Wedding FAQs

How much does a wedding at 620 Loft and Garden cost?

There is no published rate card, and the venue does not quote every couple identically, so treat any figure you find online with suspicion. Rental for the space alone sits in the five figures, and what moves it most is the day of the week and how many hours you hold the room rather than the season. Beyond rental, budget separately for furniture, which is not included, catering through the venue’s roster, and production, which on a raw rooftop is a real cost rather than a rounding error. The only number worth planning against is a written quote for your own date and guest count.

Where is 620 Loft and Garden?

620 Loft and Garden sits on the seventh floor of 620 Fifth Avenue, part of Rockefeller Center, on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 49th and 50th. It looks directly across at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, with Saks Fifth Avenue alongside it, which is why the cathedral spires appear behind the ceremony in almost every photograph taken there.

Can you use 620 and 610 Loft and Garden together?

Yes. Kristin and Matt held their ceremony on the 620 terrace and moved cocktail hour to 610 next door, in what the venue believes was only the first or second event to run both rooftops as one celebration. It gives you two completely different settings in one evening. It also roughly doubles the production planning and needs a photography team built for two simultaneous locations, so raise it early rather than late.

How many guests does 620 Loft and Garden hold?

165 for a standing reception, 120 seated for dinner in the loft, and 75 seated for a ceremony in the garden. There is no minimum, so the space works for very small weddings and elopements as well. If your list runs past those numbers, 610 Loft and Garden next door can absorb part of the evening.

Does 620 Loft and Garden have a bridal suite?

No. There is no bridal suite and no getting-ready space at all, so you will need a hotel or private room nearby. Kristin and Matt used the Towers at Lotte New York Palace, a four block walk away. Proximity matters more than luxury here, because you want a short walk rather than a car ride through Midtown traffic on a Saturday afternoon.

What does a wedding at 620 Loft and Garden actually look like?

The photographs throughout this post are all from one June wedding there, covering the garden ceremony with the cathedral behind it, cocktail hour on the neighboring rooftop, and dinner and dancing in the loft. Because the space is raw, with no built-in decor or lighting, two weddings at 620 can look nothing like each other. What stays constant is the backdrop: Gothic spires at eye level, Fifth Avenue below, and open sky overhead.

Vendors

Photography: Julian Ribinik Photography · @julianribinikstudios
Photography: Evgenia Ribinik Studios · @evgeniaribinikstudios
Venues: 620 Loft & Garden and 610 Loft & Garden · @620loftgarden
Planning: 5th Avenue Weddings & Events · @5thavenueweddings
Event design and florals: Birch Event Design · @bircheventdesign
Floral installations: East Olivia · @eastolivia
Catering: Peter Callahan · @petercallahan
Desserts: Magnolia Bakery · @magnoliabakery
Music: Hank Lane Music · @hanklanemusic
Lighting: Bentley Meeker · @bentleymeeker
Hair and makeup: LRN Beauty · @lrnbeautynyc
Gown: Netta BenShabu · @nettabenshabu.official
Artwork and illustration: Kristin Simmons · @kristinsimmonsart

Featured on The Knot. Planning a celebration here? See my full 620 Loft and Garden wedding guide.

Planning your own celebration here? Start with my full 620 Loft and Garden wedding guide, browse more of my NYC wedding photography, or see the rest of my favorite luxury wedding venues in NYC. I would love to hear about your day.