If you’re tettering with the idea of an after party for your wedding…do it. Just trust me. It was the BEST decision and one we almost passed by.
We had a somewhat untraditional micro wedding – it was only 30 people and our reception was more of a causal sit-down dinner. It was honestly the best, but it ended at 10:30pm…so we knew during the planning process the early end to the evening would leave us wanting more. And so began our hunt to figure out the perfect after party plan!
At first we figured we could just have everyone back at our hotel bar, but we gave them a call and found out that their bar closed at midnight which kind of defeated the purpose.
Next, we figured we’d roll up to a bar in West Village that was close to the reception, but after spending some time in the city, we realized that you couldn’t just show up at a bar on a Saturday night 20ish deep and expect to all get in and be together.
Then the next plan, Plan C we’ll call it, was to rent a small area within a bar out – so basically a few tables to ensure we could all get in and bein the same area. We reached out to a ton of places, but the only ones that seemed to be able to accommodate the request were hotel bars that turned into clubs at night.
Now if you’ve spent any time with Ben and I, you know we’re not club people lol these hotels looked all cute and innocent during the day, but you could tell at night things got crazy and that just wasn’t the ending we were looking for.
Just when we were about to throw in the towel, we walked past Orient Express Cocktail Bar in the West Village and wandered in for a drink. We LOVED the ambiance in there – it was dark and quite and filled with small groups of friends cheers’ing over expresso martinis at candle lit tables. It was perfect.
We sat up at the bar and started talking to the owner to understand pricing and availability for a group out size. Since our group was so small, renting out the full space for a few hours was actually pretty affordable and much less then what we were being quoted by the hotel clubs. To top if off, they were SO nice and flexible. The buy out would include open bar for everyone where guests could order any custom cocktails from their list, they would allow us to bring in food and décor and even control the music with a custom playlist.
That night Ben and I talked about the pros and cons of renting it out – pros: it was perfect…cons: it was still an expensive add-on to the wedding…was it worth it?
Ultimately decided to go for it and I’m so glad we did! Once we secured the space, we had a few additional things to get into place:
- Décor: We knew we wanted some simple décor in there to help make it feel like an event venue and not just a bar. I ordered 50 white balloons from a local shop and asked for long white strings so that they would hang down from the ceiling in the dance floor area.
- Food: Even though we were coming from a reception, food was a must. Ben and I love Bleeker Street Pizza, so we placed an order for a few pies to be delivered at 11:45pm for a late night snack.
- Photos: Our photography/videography package ended during the reception, but I knew I wanted some images from the after party. We decided to put disposable cameras out and hire a photographer to stop by for an hour to grab some professional shots. We used A.J Fergus and he was amazing – would definitely recommend!
- Music: We put together a playlist of late night favorites including a lot of 80’s and Broadway. We know what type of music we like and the vibe we wanted, so decided a custom playlist was the way to go!
And that was it! We spent the end of our wedding night dancing and drinking with our closest friends and family and it was everything! Below are some of my favorite shots from the night.
Quick photo pro tip: If you like the film look, but don’t have it in the budget, ask your photographer to shoot in digital, but edit like film. That’s what AJ did for us and we loved how these photos turned out + it saved it a few hundred dollars!
