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future brides and grooms! picnic house now open for weddings — Brooklynian

future brides and grooms! picnic house now open for weddings

chaplin'smom
chaplin'smom
edited November -1 in Park Slope
I went to the gorgeous picnic house at prospect park yesterday to look at it for my wedding place (and, of course, it is nothing less than perfect) and was just told that, whereas they had previously thought they would be closed for renovations from dec-april, they now will be open (and, clearly, not renovating...)!

Also, they have lowered the price (i know!) from $4250 (with a $500 refundable secure fee) to $3500 (with a $500 refundable secure fee)... which is a significant amount of moolah particularly in the mountain of wedding planning (at least to financially strapped me.)

So i just wanted to alert all you future betrotheds of the good news!

(and, no i don't work for the park... but felt a bunch of you might both appreciate the knowledge of their being available and, even more, of it being that much more affordable!)

that's it....

Comments

  • veets
    veets
    Yeah and then after you pay for the venue you have to actually pay for a wedding! But, it is just a lovely place for a smallish wedding,no matter what the season. One of my kids was married there 6 years ago in late March. The wedding was planned down to last detail and was absolutely unique.. I have pics to prove it if anyone wants to see. I hope if people are planning a wedding they do check this out.
  • lnelson
    lnelson
    Wow, that's awesome! I didn't even realize you could have a wedding there when I was planning mine (though I've been hoping that real estate prices will get so shockingly low that I can buy the picnic house and live in it someday).
    I'll have to convince someone I know to get married there. Or maybe we'll renew our vows this April...on our one-year anniversary.
    Maybe, maybe not.
  • pastoralia
    pastoralia
    Enjoy sharing restrooms with the park's homeless on your special day.

    If you want to get married in the park- do it at the Boathouse.
  • chaplin'smom
    chaplin'smom
    I thought the park's homeless could only use the downstairs bathrooms and the upstairs one were limited to the picnic house's guests....

    no?
  • veets
    veets
    chaplin'smom wrote: I thought the park's homeless could only use the downstairs bathrooms and the upstairs one were limited to the picnic house's guests....

    no?
    That is the way it is. If you rent the picnic house for an event the homeless will not be in there using the bathroom..or people with homes..or anyone else other than your guests.
  • lnelson
    lnelson
    Do you guys have experience with renting the picnic house and finding this to be the case? I'm just curious; I got married at City Bakery (whose facilities were homeless-free during the event, except for any homeless people I invited) in April. But knowing the difficulty of finding a place to get married in NY that you love and that's not a gazillion dollars to rent, plus is just up the street, I feel bummed for our buddy "Chaplin's mom" here, plus I'm totally surprised. That seems like a crazy way to operate a place that charges thousands of dollars for use.
  • veets
    veets
    My advice is the OP is to ignore Patoralia's advice and contact the Picnic House directly and get the definitve answer to the restroom question.

    Again, though it was afew years back our family wedding had nO visits by the homeless or any other uninvited guests. My feeling is that this is a total non-issue but go to the source to find out the answer.
  • chaplin'smom
    chaplin'smom
    how's this for irony (is it irony just horribly bad timing...) ... so i finally got round to scheduling our date with the picnic house and they are already booked out for it! (the horror... the horror...)

    so ladies and gents... book quickly!
  • veets
    veets
    chaplin'smom wrote: how's this for irony (is it irony just horribly bad timing...) ... so i finally got round to scheduling our date with the picnic house and they are already booked out for it! (the horror... the horror...)

    so ladies and gents... book quickly!
    Gee I am sorry you got closed out of your date. Inspite of comments here the Picnic House is a very popular event place and if you want to have a wedding there book early.

    MY son's wedding was the last weekend in March. They wanted Apr. or May and that was impossible. It turned out to be a cool (not cold )March day and it didn't rain but it sprinkled with that misty, grey feeling that March has. The photographer was terrific and many outside shots in black and white capture the magic of spring just almost here. I can even see doing a winter wedding in this place and a little snow on the ground could be lovely.
  • underhill_mt
    underhill_mt
    Go into a contract for any facility in the Park knowing that while their site fees may seem low compared to other places in our fine borough, you are required to use their exclusive caterers list. Hubs and I booked the Boathouse only to cancel because the lowest quote we got for a cocktail reception was more than $100 a head. That was before the bar was added! No meal, we're talking hors d'oeuvres here.

    If you can afford it, more power to you, but we found the caterer list to be prohibitively expensive.
  • veets
    veets
    Underhill_MT wrote: Go into a contract for any facility in the Park knowing that while their site fees may seem low compared to other places in our fine borough, you are required to use their exclusive caterers list. Hubs and I booked the Boathouse only to cancel because the lowest quote we got for a cocktail reception was more than $100 a head. That was before the bar was added! No meal, we're talking hors d'oeuvres here.

    If you can afford it, more power to you, but we found the caterer list to be prohibitively expensive.
    Good point and that is a real consideration.

    My "other" son is getting married in Clove Lake Park on Staten Island this Sat. Beautiful facility called the Lake House and the whole shebang including ceremony, cocktail hour and dinner is roughly $125 a person.

    Sometimes when you rent a place for a fee and are locked in to their list of caterers it turns out to be more expensive than finding a place where they provide the whole deal... Those are called catering halls and though there is a negative connotation on that (at least in my mind) it can turn out to be a greater value than dealing with a place where you rent the venue and then all the extras that go with it.
  • brooklynpotter
    brooklynpotter
    chaplin'smom, have you priced the space at ethical culture? it looks gorgeous and perfect
  • veets
    veets
    brooklynpotter wrote: chaplin'smom, have you priced the space at ethical culture? it looks gorgeous and perfect
    Ethical Culture usta have this policy (of course it may have changed) and that was NO KITCHEN/COOKING in that venue. So that precluded any caterer bringing in food that even needed to be re-heated there. About 6 years ago friends of our got married there and got around the policy in a brilliant way... They had Inaka come and serve sushi. Everything was kept cold in coolers and there were 3 stations of sushi chefs turning out the food.
    It was a memorable and unique wedding. The ceremony was in the garden. The bride and groom were both Jazz players and they didn't need to hire a band. There were enough fellow musicians to make music all afternoon at acustic levels.

    The outside garden in lovely and the inside space was just fine for a smallish wedding.
  • pastoralia
    pastoralia
    My wife and I looked at the Picnic House years ago and there were homeless and crazy-ass people wandering all over the place. I'm pretty sure even if they were instructed to not show up to use the bathroom they wouldn't pay attention.

    Is it worth the risk on your wedding day? We decided it wasn't and got married at the Boat House which is more off the beaten path (and prettier IMO).

    Also IMO: do you think the Picnic House people are really going to tell you that the park's homeless might be a problem if you asked?
  • chaplin'smom
    chaplin'smom
    underhill_MT:
    where did you end up going to?
    i'd love any recs...

    we looked at the botanical gardens which, though, yes, story book indeed, was a wee bit too 'precious' for our tastes... overwhelmed!
  • roux42
    roux42
    Oh! Please..... I was married in October at the Picnic House and there were no problems with homeless people. There are separate bathrooms downstairs for people hanging out in the park to use, the Picnic House has comepletely separate bathrooms. Part of the house fee includes two security people (who were wonderful) and a manager who was a big help to us before and during the wedding.
  • underhill_mt
    underhill_mt
    chaplin'smom wrote: underhill_MT:
    where did you end up going to?
    i'd love any recs...

    we looked at the botanical gardens which, though, yes, story book indeed, was a wee bit too 'precious' for our tastes... overwhelmed!
    The Brooklyn Historical Society Library. It was amazing. Like blew my mind kind of amazing. We got hitched at the end of April and I seriously wouldn't have changed a thing. I borrowed a supremely gorgeous dress from a friend, used a Brooklyn-based caterer who rocked my world, had a fabulous band that plays 80s with a bluegrass twist, and my hubs surprised me by singing Our House in the middle of the reception. *dreamy sigh* And my grandmother didn't pass out when she saw all my tattoos. It was pretty perfect.

    4 months later and we're almost 3 months into a pregnancy. I guess we didn't waste any time. :wink: But don't worry, that's not a prereq for having an awesome wedding.
  • brooklynpotter
    brooklynpotter
    my brother got married at bubby's last december and it was a blast. and there was a whole lot of pie. we love pie.
  • underhill_mt
    underhill_mt
    Mmm... pie.

    Now I'm hungry. Damnit!
  • veets
    veets
    roux42 wrote: Oh! Please..... I was married in October at the Picnic House and there were no problems with homeless people. There are separate bathrooms downstairs for people hanging out in the park to use, the Picnic House has comepletely separate bathrooms. Part of the house fee includes two security people (who were wonderful) and a manager who was a big help to us before and during the wedding.
    Well as I said... Our family wedding was before the "renovation" of the picnic house and we had no problem with homeless. The bathrooms for your guests in the picnic house space are entered through the main room... they are located in a far corner of the rectangular room. Pretty unlikely ANYONE would enter your party in progress for any reason and certainly not to use a restroom since the public restrooms are in the back of this building and are clearly marked and have NO acess through the event space.

    I walk the dogs in the park through entry to the park that brings me through the left of the picnic house. |We have done this walk 5 times a week for many years at differnt times and there is no "homeless problem" that I see in this area.

    Bottom line... there might be many reasons why a couple would not want to rent the Picnic House for a wedding but it is not because there are vagrants or whoever lurking around the picnic house looking to take a leak in the private bathrooms in the picnic house during your event. If the building is not in use and attended then it is locked so there is no acess to the restrooms in there.

    .Go forth.. be merry and celebrate!
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