Paige’s Bat Mitzvah at Cipriani 25 Broadway

We photographed Paige’s Bat Mitzvah on January 18 at Cipriani 25 Broadway. The Great Hall at 25 Broadway is a room we know from weddings: marble columns, 65-foot ceilings, the painted vaults that Ezra Winter put up in 1921. A Bat Mitzvah fills it differently. The ceremony is slower, more deliberate. The room turns over completely when the reception begins. We were there for both.

Family Portraits

We started with family portraits before the ceremony. At Cipriani 25 Broadway the lobby and the side corridors off the Great Hall work well for it. The marble and the quieter light make for cleaner portraits than the main hall, and it keeps this part of the day separate from the room before guests arrive.

The Ceremony

The ceremony was held in the Great Hall. Paige read from the Torah at the bimah with the room behind her, and the scale of Cipriani 25 Broadway gave the moment weight without overwhelming it. Family and friends filled the chairs, and for a while the only sound was her voice carrying across the marble.

The Reception

When the ceremony ended the room changed fast. Tables were set, the Moment Factory projection show came up on the ceiling and columns, and the dance floor opened. The hora came early and pulled in everyone: kids, grandparents, the whole room. We moved through it and stayed close to Paige through the candle lighting, which brought the pace back down before the party built back up.

The Room

The Great Hall at Cipriani 25 Broadway does a specific thing at a Bat Mitzvah: it gives the decor room to breathe. Centerpieces that would read as tall at most venues sit small under those vaulted ceilings. The projection mapping from Moment Factory moved color across the columns and vaults all night, and we used it wherever we could. It changes the palette of the room every few minutes and keeps the reception photography from settling into one look.

Planning a Bat Mitzvah at Cipriani 25 Broadway

The room works for a Bat or Bar Mitzvah because of its size and flexibility. The Great Hall can hold the ceremony and flip for the reception, which keeps the timeline clean and removes the transition that sometimes loses momentum. The Moment Factory projection show runs on the venue’s own system; you don’t need to source it separately.

For photography, the ceremony reads best from the sides and the back: shooting straight down the aisle puts the marble columns in frame and shows the scale of the room. For the candle lighting, we position close and follow Paige to each candle station rather than staying fixed.

Work With Us

We photograph Bat and Bar Mitzvahs in New York, with a focus on venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn. If you are planning a mitzvah at Cipriani 25 Broadway or a similar venue and want to talk through coverage, reach out through our contact page.

More from Cipriani 25 Broadway: our guide to wedding photography at this venue. Other Manhattan venues we photograph: Cipriani Wall Street and Gotham Hall.