My Big, Fancy Office Wedding

Multimillion-dollar weddings in office buildings can feel less celebratory when security turnstiles and building infrastructure interrupt the guest experience. A $2.1 million wedding planning walkthrough at Domino’s Skylight ballroom led to design adjustments that concealed lobby art, covered turnstiles with a custom check-in setup, and transformed the elevator with vinyl paneling and patterned carpet. Office weddings in New York are gaining popularity, with venues like Domino’s Skylight at the Refinery renting for about $100,000 for the space alone. Similar pricing appears at SL Green’s One Madison and One Vanderbilt, while Aspire at One World Trade has been positioned for engagements and quoted around $90,000 for a basic 100-person wedding package.

"At a multimillion-dollar wedding, security turnstiles can be a mood killer, even if the turnstiles in question are as sleek and new as the building they guard. The Refinery at Domino, on the Williamsburg waterfront, is designed for the workday, for tenants that sell squeeze bottles of olive oil and AI rendering software. But even the abstract art that guests pass on the walk to the elevators - and the elevators themselves - can feel off for a wedding upstairs, in the barrel-vaulted Skylight ballroom."

"So she tapped event designer Josh Birch, who hid the lobby art behind a fabric panel; covered the turnstiles with a custom check-in table; and outfitted the elevator with vinyl paneling and patterned carpet. "It did not look like an elevator; it looked like a room," says Birch, who has recently thrown so many parties in office buildings that he could hardly remember this particular treatment."

"Domino's so-called "Skylight at the Refinery" rents for $100,000, and that's just for the space alone - it costs the same to take over the entire Frick mansion. Hall's clients chose Domino over the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its rentable Temple of Dendur. "It's on a popular streak right now," she says. At SL Green's One Madison, an office tower that includes IBM's new flagship, a rooftop tenant lounge that transforms into the venue Le Jardin Sur Madison will also set you back $100,000."

"It's been so successful that last year, the developer opened an even sleeker space at One Vanderbilt on the 72nd floor (the midtown office tower is already home to the Summit observatory). Aspire, the event space on top of One World Trade, rebranded in 2024 as a flashy spot to get engaged and recently quoted around $90,000 for its most basic, 100-person wedding package."

Read at Curbed