Cipriani Wall Street wedding – Mariam and Ali

Mariam and Ali were married at Cipriani Wall Street, and theirs remains one of the most elaborate weddings I have photographed in that room. A Pakistani and Afghani celebration in blush and gold, with botanical displays that ran the length of the hall and Cirque du Soleil performers working above the floor on silks.

Mariam wore a custom Pnina Tornai gown and a pair of Louboutins, and carried a brooch bouquet of pearls and crystals rather than flowers. Ali looked like someone who had been waiting a long time for the day and was glad it had arrived.

The brooch bouquet is worth pausing on. It is built from pearls and crystals rather than stems, so it does not wilt, it does not need water, and it photographs completely differently from flowers: it catches light instead of absorbing it, and it throws small highlights across everything held near it. It also survives the whole day intact, which a real bouquet in September rarely does.

The room

Cipriani Wall Street is the old Merchants’ Exchange at 55 Wall Street. It has been the New York Stock Exchange, the United States Custom House and the headquarters of National City Bank, and it still carries all of that. The main hall sits under a coffered Wedgwood dome roughly 70 feet above the floor, ringed by Corinthian columns. There is more about the building on my Cipriani Wall Street venue guide.

The lower floors went up in the early 1840s as the Merchants’ Exchange, and McKim, Mead and White raised it to its present height between 1907 and 1910. What that means practically is that the proportions were designed to make people feel small, because it was built to hold the business of a city rather than a party. That is why a wedding here reads the way it does. You are not decorating a ballroom, you are borrowing a piece of civic architecture for a night.

Two things follow from a ceiling that high, and both shape the day. The room reads as enormous in photographs only when there are people beside the columns to measure it against. And the hall’s own light never reaches the tables, because it has 70 feet to fall before it gets there. Lighting is a real line on the budget at this venue rather than a finishing touch.

Mariam and Ali used the dome as a screen. Their monogram was projected across the coffers, which turns the single most expensive architectural feature in the building into part of the decor at no cost.

The vault

The circular steel vault door downstairs is the detail nobody expects and everybody photographs. It is a working piece of the building’s history as a bank, and it gives you a portrait location that exists nowhere else in New York.

The library

Off the main hall there is a small wood-panelled room lined with books. It is the opposite of the ballroom in every way: low, warm, dark, and quiet enough to hear each other. At a wedding of this size it is the one place the couple can be alone for ten minutes, and it gives you a set of portraits that look like they were made in a different building entirely. Ask to see it on the tour, because it is easy to miss.

The ceremony

The stage was built around a white sofa under a canopy of blossom, with the florals carried down onto the floor either side. Guests came up to the couple through the evening rather than the couple processing to them, which changes where a photographer needs to stand and how much of the room stays in frame.

The flowers, and the performers

The floral work was the largest element of the design: gilded urns between the columns, tall arrangements on every table, and a wall of gold and white blossom for the couple to receive guests against. It was matched by Cirque du Soleil performers on red silks, working in the space between the tables and the dome, which is the one part of that room nobody else uses.

Dinner and the sweets

The hall was set with gold chiavari chairs and round tables between the columns. The cake was ivory and gold on a bed of flowers, and it shared the evening with trays of sweets carried through the room, which is the part of a Pakistani or Afghani wedding that guests tend to remember longest.

Vendors

Venue: Cipriani Wall Street
Gown: Pnina Tornai
Shoes: Christian Louboutin
Entertainment: Cirque du Soleil performers

What I would ask before booking it

Three things, in order. What lighting is included and what has to be brought in, because the answer changes the budget more than any other line item here. How the floor will be set for your guest count, since the same hall feels generous at 300 and cavernous at 120. And whether you can use the vault and the library, because those two spaces are the reason to choose this venue over any other room of similar scale in the city.

If you are weighing it against the other rooms downtown, my list of ten New York venues covers how it compares.

Questions couples ask about Cipriani Wall Street

How many guests does it hold? It is one of the largest ballrooms in the city and is built for scale. Under about 150 guests the room can feel like you have borrowed something too big for you. Ask the venue for the seated figure against your own layout, because the number moves with how the floor is set.

Do we need to bring in lighting? Yes, and budget for it properly. The dome is 70 feet up and the room does not light your guests on its own. This is the single thing I would tell anyone considering the venue.

Is there outdoor space? No. Cipriani Wall Street is a banking hall. Everything happens indoors, which also means weather is never a factor.

Which Cipriani is this? Cipriani runs several rooms in New York and they are not variations on each other. This is 55 Wall Street. Cipriani 25 Broadway is the old Cunard booking hall and a different proposition entirely.

Do you photograph South Asian weddings? Yes, regularly, including multi-day celebrations. Tell me the structure of your days and I will tell you honestly what coverage it needs.