No Long Island venue publishes its minimum

We read the weddings page, the FAQ, every downloadable packet and every rate card we could open for 164 Long Island venues. 142 of those pages carry a minimum field on our profile. The number that print a dollar food and beverage minimum on their own site is zero.

That is worth sitting with, because the minimum is the figure that decides whether a venue is possible for you. A per person rate tells you what a plate costs. A minimum tells you the smallest total the venue will accept, whatever your guest count does. Those are different constraints, and only one of them is ever published.

The three first party dollar figures we found near the word minimum are not minimums at all. The Pavilion at Sunken Meadow publishes a $5,000 advance deposit. The Mansion at West Sayville publishes a $2,500 minimum deposit on all events. Coindre Hall's is a valet requirement of three attendants. A deposit comes off the bill; a minimum sets the bill's floor. We have left each on the venue's own page rather than promote it here.

These 9 figures are real, and none of them is the venue's own. Each is printed by a marketplace storefront, named in the last column, and most are undated. Treat them as a starting point for a question, not as a quote. Sort by the lowest figure printed if you want the cheapest end first.

A guest minimum says the venue will not run your wedding below a headcount. It does not tell you the money. Almost all of these come from marketplace storefronts too, and a few contradict the venue's own page. The Garden City Hotel's FAQ says weddings from 50 guests while WeddingWire lists a 150 guest minimum, and Coindre Hall's figures differ by day of the week. Both readings are on the venue's profile.

For 56 of them the field reads not published, because no minimum exists in public in either form, on the venue's own site or on a marketplace. The other 42 describe their position in words instead of a number, and some of those are the most useful answers on the site. Bedell Cellars' FAQ says there is no guest minimum and no wine case minimum, and Corey Creek says the same. A written no is worth more than an unpublished yes.

Either way, the first real number you see will arrive in a proposal, after a tour, which is exactly when it is hardest to walk away.

Venues where the question does not arise in the usual way are in this group too. At a dry hire site you hire the caterer, so the minimum that binds you is the caterer's, not the venue's. The venues whose own sites say the caterer is yours to hire.

1. What is the food and beverage minimum for our date, in dollars, and does it change by day of the week or season?
2. Does the minimum include the service charge and sales tax, or sit underneath them?
3. What counts toward it: bar, cake, ceremony fee, rentals, valet?
4. If our guest count falls below the minimum, do we pay the difference or lose the date?

Ask for the answers by email, not on the tour. And read the percentage question alongside it, because a minimum quoted before a 22 percent charge and 8¾ percent tax is a different number from one quoted after: what gets taxed on a Long Island wedding bill.

One researcher read each venue's own website first: the weddings page, the FAQ, any PDF packet or rate card. Whatever appeared there is labeled first party. Then The Knot, WeddingWire, Zola, Wedding Spot, PartySlate, Here Comes The Guide and Eventective, each labeled by name. Where two sources disagree we print both and name each, and we never average them.

Venue pages were last read through 27 September 2026. A venue that starts publishing its minimum should tell us and we will move it to the top of this page: how to correct or claim a listing. Related reading: the venues that do print a price, what Long Island venues actually publish about cost, and the quote checker.