The Coolest Wedding I’ll Never Have

On Friday, Mike and I stopped by our local bodega for beer and on a whim, I bought a lottery ticket for Mega Millions, which was up to $300+ million that night. On the block and a half walk back, I wondered aloud where we should get married if won.

Here’s a couple of ideas…

I probably wouldn’t go nuts and do the ‘June at the Plaza’ route or the New York Public Library ($40,000 just to rent that place, without food or drink!) or anything like that if our wedding budget suddenly increased. What I would consider is something decidedly more modest- two Brooklyn venues that actually aren’t that far off from our budget. In fact, if we were willing to cut back the guest list a little, we could probably pull these places off.

First one: Galapagos in Dumbo. This place used to be in Williamsburg (their old building is now Public Assembly) then they renovated their current location and moved in 2008. They have multimedia artists in residence, rotating exhibits, performances and events (like the Busker's Ball, at which talented street musicians perform a concert, and Nerd Night, which is speed dating for geeks/smart people), and most famously, Saturday evening’s Floating Cabaret- in which  the cabaret is performed floating above the 1600 square foot indoor lake.

They have pretty reasonable drink packages, with a variety of caterers you can bring in. The prices are staggered for days of the week and time of day- you can even have a more ‘casual’ wedding that concludes with the floating cabaret performance.

Next- the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in Fort Greene. We see movies here a lot- it’s close to our apartment, and is only a couple blocks from the park in which Mike proposed. We love this place. They have movies as well as theatre, and shows in the Café space- which is also where you can hold your wedding. Those cool lights on the outside of the building? It’s right inside, next to them!

Pics pics

You can hang out here on Friday and Saturday nights for happy hour before the performances start at 9:00. BAM’s mission is to be the preeminent progressive performing and cinema arts center of the 21^st Century and most people agree they’re on their way- BAM Cinematek is regularly lauded, as are the performances. Alan Rickman and Geoffrey Rush both performed there this year. It’s one of our all time favorite places in Brooklyn. They are exclusive with one caterer. And god bless both both of these venues; they spell out their wedding packages right on their websites. I know other brides planning weddings will relate to what a rarity and blessing this is!

In the end, we’re not comfortable cutting the guest list, nor spending even a few thousand more than the absolute ceiling we set for ourselves, so these places will exist only in my dreams. Well, actually even better- in my every day life! That’s a perk of living in NYC. One person’s dream is another person’s happy hour- and sometimes, they’re the same person.