The name on this building has changed twice in eight years, which matters more than it sounds. It is the 1928 resort on Star Island in Lake Montauk, and from 2018 to 2022 it traded as Gurney’s Star Island Resort & Marina. Same road, different company, and a lot of listings still have it wrong. The harbor is the reason to book it. Boats in every frame, nobody arranging them.
Investors bought the property in 2013 and rebranded it Gurney’s Star Island Resort & Marina in 2018. Safe Harbor Marinas bought it in July 2022, at a figure Behind the Hedges reported as $149.4 million, and restored the original Montauk Yacht Club name when it reopened after roughly nine months of work. Proper Hospitality took over the hotel operation after that. Three operators in a decade is not a red flag on its own, but it does mean the person who signs your contract may not be the person who runs your day.
The published record also disagrees with itself on the parcel. The East Hampton Press calls it a 35-acre property; Behind the Hedges calls it 16 acres on Star Island. We cannot reconcile those, so we are not carrying an acreage in the fact table at all.
Their own gatherings page puts capacities on most of it. Waterfront Ballroom: “up to 160 for a seated dinner, 200 for ceremonies, or 250 for cocktails.” Sunset Pier, 160. Cottage Lawn, 500. Lighthouse Fire Pits, 140. North Courtyard, 150. Pool Patio and Lighthouse TWO, 60 apiece. There is also a Great Lawn over the marina with no published number on it.
Then the same page says they host weddings of “approximately 50–300 guests.” Both statements are theirs. The honest read is that the Cottage Lawn will hold 500 bodies while the operation is staffed and permitted to run 300. Ask which of those two numbers the catering director will actually sign for on your date, and get it before you build a guest list around the lawn.
The hotel side is 106 waterfront rooms and suites plus five 1928 cottages, so an out-of-town crowd sleeps where it drinks, which on Montauk roads at midnight is not a small thing. The marina next door takes wet slips from 12 feet to 300, with a 45-foot maximum beam and 12 feet of draft.
That working dock is the background of your ceremony photos and it is also your traffic. Star Island Road on a July Saturday is busy in both directions. The upside: this is the one Long Island wedding venue where a guest asking to arrive by boat is a routine request rather than a favor.
Oceanfront rooms, a spa, and a ballroom over the dunes.
Bay-side Montauk restaurant with parties right on the sand at sunset.
Garden-wrapped venue at the gateway to wine country.
Cutchogue winery with a modern tasting house and vines in every direction.
Peconic winery built like a Mediterranean villa, a North Fork wedding classic.
Southold house of sparkling wine, which tells you how the toasts go.