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Weddings With Style

In the heart of Times Square: great wedding ideas and a cool, modern New York style.

List Questions, Get Answers | Make It Your Wedding | Create Your Menu With Your Guests in Mind | Welcoming Guests | The Reception ... Avoiding Common Problems | Contact


“Most brides and grooms have a particular concern that is most important to them,” says the director of catering at The Westin New York at Times Square. “They’ll ask many questions about the menu, or if they’re very concerned with décor, they’ll want to know about the room’s atmosphere and lighting.

“Another bride and groom might be worried about whether the room is big enough, or if it’s too big! Each couple has their own main issue, and it’s usually the first thing they talk about — which is great because it helps us know what they’re looking for.”

List Your Questions — Get Answers
Whatever your main concern is, there are specific questions you must always ask. "Find out how big the room is, the cost of the various menus, and whether or not the venue suits your personality.

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“More than anything, brides and grooms today want a wedding that suits their personality. They want everybody to walk into the room and say, ‘This is so Joe and Kim.’ So finding the venue with the right fit may be the most important thing.”

Creating a wedding that reflects who you are is often determined by the little things your venue does for you that makes it uniquely yours.

“Kim may drink green apple martinis and Joe may drink scotch on the rocks, so for the first 20 minutes all you pass are their signature drinks, because when they’re out with their friends that’s what they drink and all their friends know that.”

The Westin New York is now planning a wedding where the bride is from Asia and the groom is from Omaha. “They want to do an ‘East Meets West’ theme. So we’re hanging Chinese rice lanterns from the ceiling and serving cowboy steak!”

Creating a unique wedding means finding out who you are as a couple. “That includes knowing who might be in conflict with your wishes as bride and groom, how closely your mother wants to be involved, or if you’re very close to a particular bridesmaid.

“We have to make you feel comfortable that I’m creating your wedding — not that we're creating a great wedding and you just happen to be the bride and groom!”

To find the right venue for you, he suggests also looking for the right person to work with. “You’re going to be working with this person for up to a year, creating the most important day of your life. It’s important that you can work well with him or her. So make sure you click with both the person and the venue.”

Make It Your Wedding
Whether your main concern is the food, décor, size of the space, or music, make sure you ask all your questions.

“People who have live bands also often want to have a large dance floor. That’s important to ask about, because sometimes you walk into a really great room, but after putting in 20 tables, the dance floor becomes too small to fit your guests.

“Our space looks great when it’s set up ‘lounge style,’ and now we’re getting a lot of requests for little seating areas in the room, along with the larger tables.”

They’ll set up a stage for the band with a little lounge area next to it, and then set up tables in the back of the room.

“That way the entire space is personalized for you. If you enjoy going out to lounges with your friends, sitting on couches, hanging out and talking, while you’re sipping drinks and ordering finger foods — you should be able to do that at your wedding.”

The Westin New York has a number of spaces. “Our main room is The Majestic Ballroom. It has a fabulous foyer area and is a very funky, cool, sexy space.”

It has a plum, marigold, and taupe colored suede covering on the walls, with high 14-foot ceilings. “That’s our main space for receptions, and normally we have only one wedding per Saturday night.”

The room can accommodate 220 guests for a sit down dinner with a 21 foot dance floor, including an eight or nine piece band.

“We also have ceremony rooms, which are named after Broadway theatres, such as our Broadway and Gershwin Ballrooms.” These white ballrooms work well for ceremonies.

Create Your Menu With Your Guests in Mind
It’s your wedding, but you’re also feeding perhaps 200 guests, who have their own tastes. “So most of our wedding menus have simple sauces, which your guests might have already been served in a typical Manhattan restaurant.”

Keep your menu simple as well. “For example, you might love tuna. But it comes as a raw fish which is best when it’s seared, and a lot of people, especially if they’re from out of town, might not be familiar with seared tuna.” Instead, the director of catering suggests picking dishes popular throughout the country. “Don’t go with something that’s too trendy.”

He also suggests going for variety in your menu. “When you’re picking the hors d’oeuvres, pick some vegetarian, chicken, beef, and fish. Mix it up.

“Food is definitely the most difficult thing to select. You want your favorite dishes — because you want it to be your wedding — but you also want your 200 or so guests to be happy. That’s why variety is very important. We actually serve a five-course meal here.”

The first course is normally a pasta course or a tartlet of some sort, or in the colder months it could be a soup.

Then there is the salad course. “After the salad course we do an intermezzo, which in the summer might be a honeydew or a watermelon mint shot. In the fall, we might serve pumpkin or squash shots.”

For the entrée, you get a choice of different dishes. “Vegetarian is always an option as well as kosher or kid’s meals. Then we have your wedding cake, petit fours, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and many extra desserts as well.”

They also get some brides and grooms who instead want their whole wedding menu to be created at serving stations. “Everyone can pick, eat, dance, and play all night, and never have to sit down and have any formalities.”

Welcoming Your Guests
“When your guests first arrive, have the space ready. Have someone in front of the card table to help them find their place cards.

“If the ceremony is on-site, have your ushers there to lead people to their seats. Make sure your ‘Reserved’ signs are on your front seats for your family members. Have a coat check if it’s cold weather, and valet parking if needed.

“If you’re going to have a ceremony and you know you’re likely to be running a few minutes behind, serve some sort of cute cookie or spritzer before the ceremony.”

After the ceremony, people seldom do receiving lines anymore, so the cocktail hour is a great time for the bride and groom to walk around and say hello to everyone.

“Because there may be an impromptu toast, or because some of your guests may have been waiting for an hour without a drink, it’s important to pass cocktails at the beginning of your cocktail hour.

“And people love snack food, so have a lot of hors d’oeuvres being passed.”

Guests from the Midwest or from Europe often prefer going up to a station and picking their food, while people from the South are more accustomed to passed foods. “So know your guests and their preferences, and make sure your planner asks about your guests, so they can cater to them.”

For a good mix of foods to serve during the cocktail hour, the catering director suggests selecting eight butlered hors d’oeuvres. “Pick two vegetarian, two chicken, two beef, and two fish.”

The various food stations to choose from include a pasta, risotto, and mashed potato station, as well as a martini bar, raw bar, Latin, or Oriental station.

“Depending on which stations you choose for your cocktail hour, we’ll make suggestions for your passed hors d’oeuvres.

“If you pick a raw bar, for instance, you don’t really need to pass a seafood hors d’oeuvre. You should work with a planner, whether it’s myself or an outside planner, who notices those things, and says, ‘You don’t need to serve crab cakes. You have a raw bar.’

“So first pick your stations, because they’re going to be the most bountiful. Then pick your hors d’oeuvres.”

The Reception
“Once everyone is in the main room, we normally keep the bride and groom back, and then announce them.

“Often our brides want to get everyone on the dance floor for a nice dance set to create some energy and excitement in the room. It gives our waiters time to walk around, pour the wine, and get the first course out so everyone knows it’s fresh and hasn’t been sitting there for the entire cocktail hour.

“I personally think it’s great to do a lot of the ceremonial things in the beginning of your reception, and then party your pants off the rest of the night!

“It’s great to be able to just party at some point and not sit around and be going, ‘What do I have to do next?’ As a planner, I suggest doing everything you can initially, so that for the last three hours of your wedding, there’s nothing else to be done. You’re just having a great time!”

Avoid Common Problems
Brides seldom realize how stressed they may be on their wedding day. “They think they can produce the place cards, or that they can do their own hair and makeup.

“It doesn’t matter how much you pre-plan or pre-buy. It’s never as smooth as you think it’s going to be. Your dog might be sick the night before! So at some point ‘be the bride.’ Realize it’s your special day. You do not want to run around trying to take care of everything that day!

“I always tell my brides and grooms that I will be here from the time you step foot in this hotel until the time the two of you go into your suite that night. I will do everything you need to get done.”

Over the years, they have ironed dresses, buckled shoes, put on garters, fixed hair, even walked around all night with bottles of Gatorade for a groom who had low blood sugar.

One bride soon to be married at The Westin New York, “is definitely one of those ‘I’d like to do everything myself' brides. We get along great because I know she’s that way, and I have everything in place behind her. So if at the last minute she can’t get something done, I have people ready to step in and do it.”

Give Yourself Enough Time To Plan
Most brides allow themselves many months to plan and organize their wedding. “I have a bride who just booked with me for a wedding three years from now. She just had to get a place.

“But now I probably won’t hear from her again until next year. She’ll probably come in a few times to see other weddings here in the space.”

After you’ve booked your venue, don’t wait too long to book your photographer, flowers, or band, because otherwise the particular vendors you want might already be taken. Make your decisions early to give yourself the wide range of choices you’d like.

You also might want to do your food tasting close to the wedding date, perhaps no more than a month or two beforehand. “Fruits and vegetables are seasonal, so you’ll be tasting what you will be served.

“About three months beforehand, have your florist come and meet with your venue. Have your photographer, band, or D.J. come in and see the space.”

The Westin New York starts doing the all-important room layouts well in advance, so you can start thinking about table placements and seating.

“There’s something very comforting about coming to a hotel for your wedding," says the catering director. "There’s really not a lot of questions. At a hotel, the tables and chairs are here, the silverware and dishware is set, and it’s an all-inclusive package.You have enough stress. We have so much of this in-house, there is no need for those extra decisions.

“I totally enjoy every aspect of planning the wedding. The florist has set up his creations, all the room layouts and the menus have come to fruition, and it is thrilling to walk into the room with the bride and groom and see their faces light up. After months of planning, their dreams have finally come alive. Seeing them so happy is definitely the most rewarding part for us.”

The Westin New York at Times Square
270 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
212.201.2700
www.westinny.com