Hi! My fiancé and I are getting married at The Green Building in Brooklyn this August. I’ve spent so many hours over the past few months trying to find a place for our guests to gather after the wedding. The thing is our wedding ends at 12:30am, so ideally the bar would have to be open until at least 2am/3am for it to be worth it. I know that sounds pretty late, but our friends and family are the late night party type. I understand that there is a possibility that everyone will be all partied out by 12:30am, but I also don’t want to be without a plan in case we do want to keep the party going—I’ve heard from many couples that regretted not having a plan in place. Given the uncertainties, I would hate to put down a large deposit for a second “event”. Ideally we would want to reserve space for about 40 guests with a lenient minimum bar tab requirement since everyone would purchase their own food/drinks (~1-3am). I’ve reached out to over a dozen nearby bars and most couldn’t accommodate the group/hours, etc. I’m also afraid to go too far from the venue because that’ll reduce the likelihood of people wanting to go at all. We are considering providing Uber vouchers in that case, but haven’t found a place just yet.

Even if you don’t have any Gowanus/BK recs, I would love to hear how you approached or will approach your after party for a late evening NYC wedding! Are you hosting something official, paying deposits/paying for drinks, or winging it? Not sure I can wing it on a Saturday night with potentially 30-40 people but not sure it’s worth all the stress at this point!

Thank you!!