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Wedding Day
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Menu Choices | Themed Weddings | Incorporating Tradition | A Grand History | Contact “Before you start visiting venues, think about what you want for your wedding,” says Alice Halkias, who with her husband Michael owns and operates The Grand Prospect Hall. “How do you imagine your wedding? Are you looking for something modern or something Old World and elegant? Do you want a themed event, perhaps in a Renaissance or Cinderella setting, or an upbeat masked ball? Or do you want an ethnic or religious theme?
“You also must determine beforehand how many people you will have,” says Michael. “Then you can begin thinking about other aspects of your location. Are you looking for gardens, an outdoor ceremony, or an outdoor wedding itself? If any part of your wedding will be out of doors, remember to make sure there is an alternate space in case of rain,” he adds. “When you visit a venue,” he continues, “you’ll be discussing the menu. Do you want it formal or informal? Do you want a sit-down dinner with a Viennese dessert hour? For your cocktail hour, do you want a buffet, light Manhattan passed hors d’oeuvres, hearty Italian hors d’oeuvres, or both styles?” Menu Choices
To select your menu, they suggest starting with the basics and adding to that. “We have four different menu packages,” says Michael. “If you want certain ethnic dishes, we incorporate them. If you like sushi, we include it in a sushi or lobster station. Other stations you might choose for your cocktail hour include ones for Italian, Russian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, or other ethnic dishes, wok or pasta stations, and carving stations for lamb, ham, beef, or other items. “When brides and grooms see pictures of weddings we’ve done they pick up more ideas. We do beautiful vegetable and fruit carvings, for example, and for cocktail hour we always do both cold and hot buffet stations.” back to top Themed Weddings “For example,” says Michael, “after your ceremony, while your guests are waiting to see you for the first time as husband and wife, we can entertain them with a special performance.”
Entertaining and welcoming your guests is a specialty at this venue, which often has a harp player or strolling violinists during the cocktail hour. “We have several violinists, and they make a wedding more grand,” says Alice, who notes that they position the violinists on the grand staircase, welcoming guests as they first enter. “We also have a troupe of beautiful young women and men wearing elegant Victorian costumes who greet your guests.” To decorate your venue, they recommend working with florists who know the facility and know how to work with its particular spaces. “Our facility is so grand, for example, that you don’t have to spend an enormous amount on flowers, lighting, or other decorations. We also have our own spectacular club lights to add drama and excitement and to enhance the space.” Many brides and grooms are also inspired by weddings done in the past, and when they see pictures of events at The Grand Prospect Hall, they may choose a Renaissance or Cinderella theme. “If you want that type of theme, here’s what we can do,” says an enthusiastic Michael. “We can place trumpeters outside who play as your guests arrive. We can put violinists on the staircase and during your cocktail hour we have a lot of greeters going around entertaining your guests. “After everyone enters the ballroom and sits down, I have the trumpeters play a grand opening before the big announcement by a Beefeater: ‘And now ladies and gentlemen, the hosts of your party, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, welcome you and invite you to enjoy the entertainment.’ “Then I might have ballerinas perform a period piece right in the center of the dance floor. As the bridal couple enters the room, the ballerinas then bow to the newlyweds. “Then we have a flower girl go over to the groom to give him the glass slipper so he can exchange his bride’s slipper with the other, if that’s their theme. The bride and groom then dance the first dance. So it’s all very unique, and very entertaining for everyone!” “We can use thrones for the bride and groom to sit on so they feel like a king and queen,” adds Alice. “We’ve also done a French revue, which was almost a full vaudeville production,” says Michael. “The dancing troupe of five dancers changed costumes for their different acts, and we also had an acrobat and other entertainers. It was a show for the guests. Everyone watched and applauded!” “Ballroom dancers” is another theme. “I had a couple who loved to ballroom dance,” says Alice, “and I helped them create a wedding theme around that. “The bridal couple and their friends made a grand entrance. No outside performers were involved. The bride, the groom, and their friends were the performers! After their entrance, they all started dancing with their guests. “We’ve given classes for ballroom dancing and we can make arrangements for brides, grooms, and bridal parties to take lessons here too.” Alice and Michael enjoy working with their brides and grooms to stage these once-in-a-lifetime theatrical weddings. back to top Incorporating Tradition
“The Indian wedding is a a two-hour ceremony with elaborate costumes. The tables are adorned with red silk and the groom arrives on a white horse or in a horse and buggy. He’s accompanied by drummers waiting outside, and then we bring the groom all the way into the Grand Ballroom with a troupe of trumpet players and drums.” The space is so large that it allows brides and grooms to incorporate all aspects of their traditions. “When we host Orthodox Jewish events, for example, we separate the dance floor with the mahitza.” back to top A Grand History
Through the first half of the century it was a bustling center of activity. In 1908, for example, presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan spoke to a crowd which overflowed onto the street, and in 1914, The Women’s Suffrage Party met at the hall to kick off its national campaign. The great attraction was always the Grand Ballroom, and it was used for dancing, movies, vaudeville shows, boxing matches, and cabaret. During Prohibition Al Capone was a regular, in the Depression there were Works Progress Administration (WPA) theater productions, and the Swing Era welcomed people every Saturday night for marathon dances. Today, when you enter The Grand Prospect Hall you are transported back to that bygone era of elegance, high style, and historical importance. Recognizing its visual grandeur and historic significance, the site was chosen as the location for the recent A&E series “American Weddings” plus the films “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Cotton Club.” Michael and Alice have dedicated themselves to restoring the hall’s period workmanship, which is truly of another era. The grand rooms — each christened with a rich name like “The Chopin Room,” “The Queen’s Room,” and “The Viennese Room” — feature garlands of vividly painted plaster flowers, oil paintings, richly molded ceilings, mirrored arches, impressive columns, and enormous crystal chandeliers. Throughout, the gold-leafing and bright color schemes — which might seem excessive out of context — are in perfect keeping with the Gilded Age period restoration. When they purchased the hall 25 years ago, Michael and Alice had been successfully running their own travel business, publishing a Greek newspaper, running an employment agency and a real estate operation, and hosting a weekly Greek radio program. “The facility is so unusual, so grand, so theatrical, we thought of it as a magnificent place for New Yorkers to cherish,” says Alice. “When we first came here, we saw it as an entertainment palace for ballet, opera, and the arts.” But almost immediately bridal couples came in wanting to be married in this setting. “So we spun our wheels to finish it as a catering hall.” “The most exciting thing we do is make people’s wedding dreams come true,” they say. “After the wedding, when they call to say everything was unbelievable, well, that is a big reward. To have people tell you how beautiful it was, or when someone says, ‘My friend was married here and said this is where I must come,’ that’s the biggest reward. “Almost every girl, from the time she first finds herself in front of a mirror fixing her hair and makeup, is dreaming of her wedding day. So we make it possible to have your dream.” back to top Featured Grand Prospect Hall Real Wedding: International Romance
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