On the water
Waterfront wedding venues on Long Island.
We're an island. Getting married on the water isn't a stretch out here, half the time it's just the default. The only real question is which water.
We're an island. Getting married on the water isn't a stretch out here, half the time it's just the default. The only real question is which water.
Sound, bay or ocean, they are three different weddings. Which one is on every card. Owners: claim your listing.
Private Sound beach in Bayville, ceremony on the sand and cocktail hour up the steps.
Prime's event room on Huntington Harbor, boats going by all night.
Port Jefferson hotel on the harbor, wedding and room block under one roof.
Massapequa mansion with the bay at the back door.
Patchogue room on the Great South Bay from the same Lombardi family.
Ballroom with the Great South Bay running past the windows.
Ronkonkoma hall with the lake out the windows, big on quinceañeras too.
A working paddlewheeler that boards in Bay Shore and does the reception afloat.
County golf-course mansion in Great River looking over the water.
Eagle's Nest, the Vanderbilt estate over Northport Bay, booked through approved caterers.
Oceanfront rooms, a spa, and a ballroom over the dunes.
Harbor-side resort on Star Island with docks in the photos.
A three level Freeport waterfront building with a rooftop ceremony deck, listed on WeddingWire at $100 per person off peak and $110 in peak season.
Private beach and a fire pit on Great South Bay in Sayville, with a 4,700 sq ft ballroom seating 350 and a separate 2,400 sq ft cocktail room.
Seven acres of gardens, waterways and fountains on Hempstead Harbor, running three reception rooms and taking weddings from a 60 guest minimum.
A 1909 mansion on Suffolk County parkland at the Great South Bay, capped at 205 guests, publishing $80 per person and a 22% administrative fee.
A working Oakdale seafood restaurant on Great South Bay with free deepwater docking, a 180 seat buyout and a published $129 per person starting rate.
A Bayville hall on Long Island Sound with 18 foot ballroom ceilings, one event at a time, and a Saturday guest minimum fifty higher than Friday's.
A working marina venue in East Patchogue with dock ceremonies, family run since 1993, and an $11,800 off peak starting total on The Knot.
A Great South Bay hall in Lindenhurst with two ballrooms at 300 and 180 seated, a boat arrival option, and a website we could not read.
A Centerport hall on Mill Pond with a 300 seat Summerwind Ballroom, a stated one wedding at a time, and 2027 to 2028 winter packages already selling.
A Bay Shore restaurant with four event rooms from 30 to 250 guests, whose wedding hall trades under a second brand we could not verify.
A ferry only Shelter Island boathouse on 18 acres, booking one event per weekend April through November, with a $15,000 building fee on its rate card.
A Greenport vineyard on the Long Island Sound that publishes a $25,000 to $35,000 site fee and tents up to 300 guests from May through October.
A purpose built Southold event property with a 50 slip marina on Peconic Bay, open to anyone, carrying a $46,000 starting price on The Knot.
An Island Park waterfront catering hall with a 5,500 square foot ballroom and a 7,500 square foot cocktail room, whose operating status we could not confirm.
Seven event spaces on about 10 acres, a lawn that takes 200 and an indoor room that takes 125, on an island reached only by ferry.
Weddings run in four months only, May, June, September and October, with up to 300 under one tent, and the club never says whether a non member can book.
A Shelter Island inn on the harbor with an $8,530 peak site fee listed on WeddingWire, reached only by ferry, which decides when the night ends.
One of the rare Long Island venues that prints its rates: $110 to $195 per person on its own site, plus a $5,000 tent if you marry there.
The old East Hampton Point, rebuilt and reopened in 2021, with three ceremony sites, 13 cottages and not one published figure of its own.
A Hempstead Harbor yacht club seating 125 in its main room that never says whether a non member can book a wedding there.
A sailing club founded in 1891 with eight rooms and two terraces, capped near 200 guests, where a member has to sponsor the event you want to hold.
A public state park ballroom over Montauk Lake, run by Lessing's, with $129 per person on Wedding Spot and a midnight cutoff on the music.
A Greenport hotel with a private Sound beach and 55 water view rooms, seating 130 with a dance floor and taking 200 standing, with no price published anywhere.
The North Shore puts you on the Long Island Sound. Calm water, harbor towns, and the light coming off the Sound at golden hour that photographers build the whole timeline around. The Crescent Beach Club in Bayville sits right on it, and the Harbor Club at Prime puts you on Huntington Harbor. The South Shore trades that for the Great South Bay: boats, barrier islands, a straight breeze off the Atlantic, and bayfront rooms like the Piermont in Babylon. Head further out and the water changes again to Peconic Bay and Gardiners Bay, quieter and cooler and next door to the vineyards. At the very tip, off Montauk and the Hamptons, it opens up to ocean.
Pick your water and the rest of the day settles around it. A Sound sunset in Bayville and a bay breeze in Sayville are two different weddings, and either one beats a room with no windows.
On the water, the sunset hour sets your timeline before you do. In late June it sets around 8:30, so dinner gets the show through the windows. By late October it's gone before six, which means an evening ceremony happens in the dark unless you move everything up. Ask which way the room faces before you ask anything else, because a west-facing room on the Sound delivers the photo everyone came for, and an east-facing room delivers a lovely view of dusk. Your photographer will build the whole day backward from that hour, so know it before you print the invitations.
Every waterfront venue has a gorgeous ceremony spot outside and a plan for when the weather turns. Make them show you the plan. Ask who makes the call to move the dock ceremony inside and by what time, because you don't want to be the one deciding at 4:40 with your hair done. The pictures worth seeing are of a wedding they ran in bad weather, not the brochure day. A room that looks good with rain on the glass is a keeper, and the Sound in a storm is its own kind of show.