The Ultimate Guide To A Long Island Hotel Wedding

Long Island wedding venues all boast their own unique features, but they also share many of the same attributes—this includes ballrooms, a catering hall aspect, grand entrances, and more. Then, every so often, there’s a Long Island wedding venue with a certain quality that you just don’t find at every venue you tour during your wedding planning process. 

The Fox Hollow is one of those special wedding venues with an extraordinary advantage that makes it one of Long Island’s premier places to hold your wedding. Not only does the Fox Hollow present all of the elements you need to stage the wedding of a lifetime—like gourmet cuisine, breathtaking interior design, an undeniable luxury, and lush surroundings—the purveyors also proudly exhibit an on-site boutique hotel.

The Inn at Fox Hollow, mere steps away from the Fox Hollow wedding venue, provides the soon-to-be-married couple with a highly sought-after convenience factor, enhanced by the warm glow of elegance, comfort, and unmatched amenities. It’s the perfect solution for all the stress of wedding planner, as it brings all of your friends and family into one place for the ultimate expression of togetherness. 

In an effort to express how truly beneficial it can be to have an on-site hotel at your Long Island wedding, the wedding experts at the Fox Hollow have gathered their indispensable knowledge of nuptials in order to help you navigate the process of planning a most memorable event. In this Ultimate Guide to Long Island Hotel Weddings, we answer questions about why hotel weddings are the best, if an on-site ceremony is right for you, how to elevate your guests’ comfort, how to stage a fantastic rehearsal dinner, and so much more. 

Before you walk down the aisle, absorb everything we’ve learned from our decades in the business of Long Island weddings!

Why Long Island Destination Weddings Are The Best

The search for an ideal Long Island wedding venue is one of the first wedding planning responsibilities you take on after getting engaged. During this journey for the setting of your special day, you’ll likely email, call, and Google-search dozens of potential sites in both Nassau and Suffolk counties. 

When you decide on a wedding venue, all of your other plans begin to fall into place—things like your themes and color schemes, wedding cuisine, the number of guests you’re inviting, are all dependent on where your ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception will take shape. And one of the best reasons to choose a wedding venue that features an on-site hotel is that it immediately gives you, along with your guests, a place to sleep and also extend your wedding night into a wedding weekend. 

Here’s why a hotel wedding—specifically a wedding at the Fox Hollow—makes for the best Long Island weddings!

Why You Should Say ‘I Do’ To An On-Site Wedding Ceremony

Another stroke of genius at your wedding would be to hold it at a venue that can accomodate an on-site ceremony. Finding out if your wedding venue of choice offers this special option goes a long way in helping you decide whether or not you need to book a house of worship so that your guests can witness you and your partner reciting vows and tying the knot!

The inclusion of a space for a ceremony at your wedding venue catering hall allows you to focus on all of the other elements of wedding planning that vye for your attention during the months leading up to the big day. The Fox Hollow boasts an on-site chapel, and its package includes decorations like flower pedestals, a floral archway, and an aisle runner—along with a choice of either an indoor or outdoor chapel!

Here’s a few reasons why choosing a wedding venue with on-site ceremony capabilities is ideal!

Should You Consider A Combined Bachelor/Bachelorette Party?

While you’re busy planning the more serious aspects of your wedding day, there’s plenty of fun times to be had on the road to being happily married. There’s typically an engagement party, along with luxurious shopping excursions for the perfect wedding dress, as well as decadent tastings of wedding food.

One of the most highly anticipated events in the run up to your wedding day has to be the bachelor/bachelorette party. It’s the chance for you to let loose and allow all the stress of wedding planning to melt away during one crazy night one or a collection of carefree days. Typically, in marriages between a man and a woman, the two parties are strictly separated: the bride goes out with her bridesmaids and the groom sticks with his groomsmen. 

However, these days there’s a new trend that’s gaining traction in the wedding world: Combined bachelor and bachelorette parties. In this scenario, the invisible wall between the two genders falls in favor of inclusiveness and one big party. 

Click here for a collection of reasons why you might want to consider combining your bachelor and bachelorette parties into a single raucous event!

Enhancing Guest Comfort At Your Wedding

Besides worrying about actually getting married, your wedding day will also see you assuming the role as event host. No matter how many times people tell you to just “enjoy the day” and that “you can’t control everything,” chances are you’re going to feel a great deal of responsibility regarding your guests’ comfort and their level of enjoyment. And you know what, that’s great! Part of staging the perfect wedding is ensuring that your guests are having just as much fun as you—or more!

This feeling gets amplified when you’re welcoming out-of-town guests to your wedding. These particular family and friends might have traveled a long distance to witness you and your partner tie the knot and as such, you’ll probably feel that much more pressure to ensure they experience the utmost comfort during their visit. 

Luckily, when you hold your wedding at the Fox Hollow and block rooms for your guests at the Inn at Fox Hollow, your guests can turn their trip to your wedding into a mini vacation. Here are some other ways you can enhance your guests’ comfort at your Long Island hotel wedding!

Wedding Guest Welcome Bag Essentials

When your guests arrive for your wedding day, you’ll be far too busy to greet them at the door when they check into the Inn at Fox hollow. But part of the fun of having hotel rooms blocked out for your wedding guests is that you get to welcome them with a thoughtful package of goodies that’s waiting in their rooms when they arrive.

Not only is it a great way to show appreciation for their attendance, but it’s also an opportunity to provide your wedding guests with tote-bag accoutrements that can come in handy throughout the wedding day—as well as the morning after. Everything from water and snacks, to a thank-you note and even a hangover kit all have a place in the welcome bag!

Check out this list of welcome bag essentials that will add to your guests enjoyment of your special day!

What’s The Deal With Rehearsal Dinners?

The best weddings are the ones that feel like they have a free-flowing style, almost as if all of the components are happening at the spur of the moment—more like a naturally good time than a rigidly structured schedule of events.

In reality, even the seemingly unscripted moments of a wedding probably aren’t as spontaneous as you think. Planning is one of the most important aspects of any wedding and a crucial component of that process leading up to the wedding day is the rehearsal dinner. This occasion, typically held the night before the wedding, serves to bring friends, family, and new acquaintances together in a relaxing, fun atmosphere—but the rehearsal dinner also has the vital purpose of ensuring that everyone knows exactly what they need to do the day of your nuptials.

Click here to learn what should happen during your rehearsal dinner!

The Cons Of A Destination Wedding

So you’ve decided to hold your wedding in a place that will require your guests to stay a few nights at a hotel. That’s great! As we’ve already mentioned, planning this type of wedding transforms your single night of romantic bliss into a mini vacation for you and your guests. How fun does that sound?

But when this idea morphs into an excursion that takes you, your guests, and your wedding outside of the country, you might quickly find the planning process devolving into an unmitigated disaster of uneasy moments, harsh realities, and logistical nightmares. 

Before you decide to plan a destination wedding in a different country, read this blog examining the cons of such a misadventure!

Anatomy Of A Hotel Wedding After Party

While the days of wedding guests rampaging through the halls of hotels into the wee hours of the night have most certainly become a thing of the past, the Inn at Fox Hollow still offers guests the opportunity to keep the wedding party going even after the reception has come to an end. 

The Inn at Fox Hollow accommodates after parties with its chic, classically cool Vintage 25 Bar & Lounge, where guests can unwind for some post-wedding cocktails and a delicious bar menu. Click here to read more about what the Inn at Fox Hollow offers you and your guests after the wedding has come to a close!

The Pros Of Hosting A Farewell Wedding Brunch Or Breakfast

Perhaps the final benefit of holding your nuptials at a wedding venue that also has an on-site hotel is that it gives you the chance to say goodbye and thank you to all of your guests with a final gesture: A farewell brunch or breakfast the morning after.

It’s a lovely, jovial event that also affords guests to give you and your partner one last declaration of congratulations as you begin your lives together as a newlywed couple headed straight into married life. It’s also a great time for your guests to laughingly rehash the previous evening’s events over coffee and treats.

For a full rundown of everything the Inn at Fox Hollow offers you and your guests the morning after the wedding click here!