Top Ten Affordable Kosher Wedding Venues in Manhattan

Throwing a wedding in Manhattan can be costly, but there are some affordable places (especially when considering the added cost of kosher catering that comes on top of the cost of the venue).  I researched over 30 wedding venues in the Manhattan borough of New York City that allow kosher catering and were noted as being either reasonably priced or highly recommended to find the top ten most affordable kosher wedding venues.  Keep in mind some of these venues are also typically smaller spaces that may not be able to accommodate large parties.

Here are the top ten most affordable kosher wedding venues in the Manhattan borough (listed in alphabetical order):

• 3 West Club
• Broad Street Ballroom
• Columbia Faculty House
• Council on Foreign Relations - the Herald Pratt House
• Manhattan Penthouse
• Metropolitan Pavilion
• Park Avenue Synagogue
• Puck Building
• Studio 450
• The Prince George Ballroom

Pricing details:

If you are looking for more information, please feel free to Comment and I will email you with other details.  Finding the right venue at the right price can be torture, so please do not hesitate to ask for information.

Average Cost of a Kosher Wedding

One of the first tasks I did when planning my kosher wedding was to establish a realistic wedding budget.  Did I mention I planned my wedding during the 2009 Recession?  Cost was an issue, and in order to throw the wedding of my dreams I had to know what I was dealing with and how to cut costs.  While the internet unlocks the door to the world of wedding budget calculators, I did not find one specific to the Orthodox Jewish Wedding audience.  That being said, here is one way for you to establish your kosher wedding budget:

What is the average cost of a kosher wedding?
The average cost of a kosher wedding varies depending on location.  The following link provides a quick way to get estimates for a non-kosher wedding based on zip code:    http://www.costofwedding.com/
For New York City, the average cost of a (non-kosher) wedding is between $22,832 and $38,053.  But what does this mean to the kosher bride and groom, who typically invite significantly more guests than the number of guests invited to the average secular wedding, and who must pay almost twice as much for kosher food than the average cost of non-kosher food provided at a wedding?

It means that those wedding averages must increase significantly to get a realistic kosher wedding budget.  The easiest way to do this is to know which wedding items impact budget costs the most.  The wedding budget percentage breakdown shows that the Reception makes up 48% of the wedding budget, and "reception" is defined as the cost of the venue and catering.  So, a non-kosher wedding in New York that costs $25,000 means that half of that, or approximately $12,500 was spent on the Reception.  Kosher weddings require kosher food, which can cost double the amount paid for non-kosher catering.  So, for this example, a kosher wedding budget needs to add another $12,500 to the $25,000 making the cost of the kosher wedding $37,500 by factoring in the significant price difference in Reception costs.  There are additional Jewish related items in the budget that can also impact the average cost of a kosher wedding such as the average size of an “Orthodox Jewish” wedding. While the national average size of a wedding based on a survey conducted by The Knot in 2009 is 149 guests, the average size of an Orthodox Jewish wedding can be significantly larger. I did not find an available survey to reflect the average size of an Orthodox Jewish wedding, so for the purpose of this blog I will not factor average size differences between the national average and the Orthodox Jewish average.  Therefore, for those of you interested in what the average cost of a kosher wedding is, I took the non-kosher wedding cost averages and doubled the Reception cost to come up with:

• Average Cost of a Kosher Wedding in New York*:  between $33,791 and $56,318
• Average Cost of a Kosher Wedding in the US*:  between $21,735 and $36,224

* These averages do not factor in size of the average Orthodox Jewish Wedding, which can be significantly larger than the national average size of a wedding.

Questions to Ask Wedding Venues about Your Orthodox Jewish Wedding

Not every bride is compelled to find the venue that offers the best deal for the price per person compared to other venues. I can’t relate to those brides. When I started doing research on wedding venues in the Metro- NY/NJ area, my goal was to find the best quality for the right price. Beyond using negotiation tactics to lower costs (to be covered in another blog), you should ask the wedding venue questions that highlight the pro’s and con’s in selecting the venue:

• How many hours are they charging for? Typically, it is around 6 hours, but you can use this as a negotiation tactic by requesting an hour less.

• Does the venue have more than one event going on at the same time? I found this to be a drag if I had to share my wedding space with other brides, and this was a deal-breaker for me.

• Is Valet Parking an added cost? Some wedding venues fail to mention that someone has to pay for the valet service, and this can become an unforeseen expense to either the bride or the guests that may have to shovel out the money.

• Does the wedding venue offer several different rooms that accommodate an Orthodox Jewish Wedding, such as a Tisch area, Bedeken area, Chuppah space, Yichud room, dancing floor that can separate men and women? Surprisingly, wedding venues may not bring up the fact that they do not have a private area / Yichud room for the bride and groom. In fact, two Manhattan wedding venues that I went to checkout could only offer a closet room for the newlywed bride and groom as a Yichud room.

• Does the wedding venue use the same room for the Reception and the Ceremony? Some wedding venues that do not have a lot of space may state that they can accommodate a specific number of guests, like 175 people, yet this can only be done by flipping over the Ceremony area into the Reception area. During the “flip over”, guests may be huddled into a room to find a shmorgishborg. Personally, for the Jewish Orthodox bride such a set up may not make sense since the shmorg would be given right before Dinner. However, the benefit with wedding venues that flip over their space for the shared Reception and Ceremony area are more likely to significantly lower their price if the bride brings this up as a possible deal-breaker.

• Is the wedding venue conveniently located or located near public transportation? If you find a wedding venue that you absolutely love but the only way for guests to get there is to swim or take a boat, then you may want to pass up on the wedding venue or use the inconvenient location as a negotiation strategy in lowering the cost per person.

• What is the percent gratuity on top of the cost per person, and is there another additional percent charge for maitre de services? Right before I was going to sign the dotted line with a wedding venue, they mentioned an additional 5% charge for maitre de services on top of the 18% gratuity and the State tax. While I still ended up signing with this venue anyway, it was only after the wedding venue offered other perks for free to settle my nerves.

• What services are offered by the wedding venue on the day of the wedding? One of the top reasons that I chose my wedding venue was because it came jam-packed with luxury services that included a Valet, Bathroom Attendant, Bridal Attendant, Maitre De / wedding coordinator, 2:1 waiter/table ratio, white-gloved attendants, and non-stop attendance to the needs of guests. They also offered place-setting cards, table numbers, menus per guest and even ice sculptures of any design we desired. I went through so many venues that were much more expensive yet did not offer most of these services.

• What is the wedding venues cancellation policy? G-d forbid there is a need to cancel, but should one arise for some reason then it is better to know the financial damage ahead of time.

• Does the wedding venue offer different ranges in time to hold the wedding, and are they flexible with changing times? One of the easiest ways to reduce costs per person is to have a morning / early day wedding, but there are also Orthodox Jewish-related issues with the timing of the wedding. Evening weddings are typically more expensive. Further, for brides planning to have their Orthodox Jewish Wedding in the winter, they should be conscientious of sunset times and make sure timing of the Tisch and Chuppah does not interfere with when the sun sets. My wedding was in February 2010 and our Rabbi officiating the wedding forced me to change the start time of the wedding from 4pm to 5pm to ensure the Hebrew date of our contractual marriage could not be disputed due to being too close to the time of the sun setting. Luckily, my wedding venue was flexible with changing the times.

• What is the quality of the food and liquor offered by your wedding venue? Another top reason I chose my wedding venue was because they were known for having hands-down outstanding Glatt Kosher food, provide top shelf liquor and a kosher wedding cake with several designs to choose from. Guests are offered seconds on their meals. Most venues will not include all of these accommodations in their costs per person, which means spending more money to get such perks.

Ways to Save Money on Kosher Catering

Not surprising to those with a kosher palette, a strictly kosher catered wedding can triple the price of food per person compared to a non-kosher wedding. But learning the nature of how pricing works for kosher caterers can save you significant amounts of money.  Don’t fall in love with a venue that falls out of your budget when adding the cost of kosher catering. Prepare yourself from the start by answering key questions that can make or break your bank:

• Is there a relationship between the Venue and the Caterer?
• If the answer is yes, then you have a much better chance of negotiating costs on both sides. One tip is to ask a Kosher Caterer to give you a list of Venues that they have catered and would recommend.  Not all venues have kosher-friendly kitchens, making it more laborious conditions for the caterer to work out kashrut logistics.
• Will the Venue provide tables, linens, chairs, stemware and dinnerware?
• If the answer is yes, then the Caterer will only charge for food (plus gratuity and tax).
• If the answer is no, then the price of having either the Caterer or a rental company bring such rental items will hike up the total cost of Venue / Catering considerably.
• Does the Kosher Caterer or Venue offer a significant reduction in price if you guarantee a certain number of guests?
• Asking this question to the Caterer or the Venue has proven to be a successful negotiation tactic in lowering total costs.  Similar to going to Costco and buying something at "family size", the more guests you invite, the lower the total cost per guest.  However, before guaranteeing a certain number of guests, you should know your budget and factor in taxes and gratuity to understand the amount of dollars you can spend per guest (which I will discuss in another blog).
• In order to calculate the actual cost per guest for catering, determine the State Tax, percent gratuity, and extra charges for rabbinic staff that the Caterer will charge.
• The combination of these costs can add considerable amounts of money to the actual cost per guest and should be included when calculating the total amount your budget will allow you to spend per guest.
• Does the Venue offer in-house Kosher catering with an acceptable hechsher?
• If the answer is yes, then the price of a combined Venue / Catering cost will be significantly less than going to a Venue that does not offer in-house Kosher catering. 

For my own Kosher catered wedding, I chose to go with an in-house Kosher catering venue but only after researching over 70 other venues to find the best bang for the buck.