Royalton Questions

Is there are charge for staying over since they probably need to pay someone to sit downstairs with you all night for security? Just wondering.

We're staying with our OOT guests at the Inn at Great Neck the night of our wedding. We're definitely in the minority here but for us, it seemed kinda creepy to stay by ourselves at the Royalton at night. Also, we like the idea of going back to the hotel with our guests to chill at the bar for a bit if we want to.

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Posted by saribou13

hahah yea, it does seem a little creepy! it seems good in theory but then when you think about it more... some butler guy lurking around while you and DH are trying to enjoy some 'privacy'!?! we'll probably do some sort of hotel after party or after party at my mom's house since our wedding ends at 5 pm!

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FH and I feel the same way!!! It's a nice gesture that they allow you to stay over night but it's kind of creepy...the entire mansion will be empty except for a butler?!? It doesn't seem private enough for me.

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Posted by mmm117

Is there are charge for staying over since they probably need to pay someone to sit downstairs with you all night for security? Just wondering.

We're staying with our OOT guests at the Inn at Great Neck the night of our wedding. We're definitely in the minority here but for us, it seemed kinda creepy to stay by ourselves at the Royalton at night. Also, we like the idea of going back to the hotel with our guests to chill at the bar for a bit if we want to.

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It's not extra. I don't think you even realize the butler is there. Allegra will probably come back and answer more about that though because she stayed there.

I'm torn about staying there. On one hand... we would love to stay there but on the other I want to go back to hotel with my guests and party more at the bar! So we don't know what to do yet.

At first I thought it might be a little bit strange...but I got over that and now I think I'm ok with that part. I don't find it to be as strange anymore.

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Posted by saribou13

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Posted by allegracristina


We had a Friday night wedding and spent the night. We had to be out by 10 am. They tell you the time you have to be out the week of, it all depends on what they have booked the next day. I have no idea how it works with two Saturday brides. I didn't realize they do 2 weddings on a Saturday....You would need to ask them specifically about that.

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Yea, ideally they want to have 2 Saturday and 2 Sunday weddings. I originally wanted to book Sunday b/c I thuoght there was less chance of their being 2 parties the same day, but the pp price was $20 higher pp on Sunday, so we decided to go with the Saturday.

Our invite will be at 11 am, so I would think that people would have to leave by at least 10 am. We will probably even get there around 9 or so to get ready. They said that they tell the nighttime bride she can get there after 5 pm (mine ends at 5 pm), but they can't control for people coming earlier. I just had read a review on here from like 2 years ago or so, where the nighttime bride (reviewer) said that she and her girls were walking thru the lobby in their sweatpants to get ready, while the daytime reception was still going on. that kinda bothered me! but hopefully that won't happen.

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honestly... knowing Gerard... I'll bet that he SNUCK them through the lobby. I don't think it was something where they were walking around and seen by anyone.
I went there once when a wedding was going on... and the bride was there with the bridal party - no guests yet... the bride was taking pics and stuff. And Gerard went to GREAT LENGTHS to hide us from them. I don't think she ever knew anyone else was there. He took me through backways.

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Posted by saribou13

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Posted by allegracristina


We had a Friday night wedding and spent the night. We had to be out by 10 am. They tell you the time you have to be out the week of, it all depends on what they have booked the next day. I have no idea how it works with two Saturday brides. I didn't realize they do 2 weddings on a Saturday....You would need to ask them specifically about that.

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Yea, ideally they want to have 2 Saturday and 2 Sunday weddings. I originally wanted to book Sunday b/c I thuoght there was less chance of their being 2 parties the same day, but the pp price was $20 higher pp on Sunday, so we decided to go with the Saturday.

Our invite will be at 11 am, so I would think that people would have to leave by at least 10 am. We will probably even get there around 9 or so to get ready. They said that they tell the nighttime bride she can get there after 5 pm (mine ends at 5 pm), but they can't control for people coming earlier. I just had read a review on here from like 2 years ago or so, where the nighttime bride (reviewer) said that she and her girls were walking thru the lobby in their sweatpants to get ready, while the daytime reception was still going on. that kinda bothered me! but hopefully that won't happen.

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If you are worried about that... why not do a Friday wedding? Were the prices any better? I think on Friday's they said they only do one wedding per day.

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Posted by KerriJohnS

honestly... knowing Gerard... I'll bet that he SNUCK them through the lobby. I don't think it was something where they were walking around and seen by anyone.
I went there once when a wedding was going on... and the bride was there with the bridal party - no guests yet... the bride was taking pics and stuff. And Gerard went to GREAT LENGTHS to hide us from them. I don't think she ever knew anyone else was there. He took me through backways.

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that's good.. i remember you telling me about that. the way the reviewer made it sound, like she was parading thru in her sweatpants. lol! i'm sure that won't be the case. they seem very discrete there, and he seemed none too pleased when i mentioned that something like that might happen. i'm sure they don't want a rep like that getting out!

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Posted by KerriJohnS


If you are worried about that... why not do a Friday wedding? Were the prices any better? I think on Friday's they said they only do one wedding per day.

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I had no idea until recently that Friday weddings were so popular!! Unfortunately, with Friday evening, the whole thing of having kids who would be past their bedtime would still be an issue. Also we have way too many OOT people. I just feel like it would be really inconvenient. Are most of your guests from the area? It's okay though. I'm over it! I just want it to be the best day that it can be!

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Posted by saribou13

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Posted by KerriJohnS

honestly... knowing Gerard... I'll bet that he SNUCK them through the lobby. I don't think it was something where they were walking around and seen by anyone.
I went there once when a wedding was going on... and the bride was there with the bridal party - no guests yet... the bride was taking pics and stuff. And Gerard went to GREAT LENGTHS to hide us from them. I don't think she ever knew anyone else was there. He took me through backways.

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that's good.. i remember you telling me about that. the way the reviewer made it sound, like she was parading thru in her sweatpants. lol! i'm sure that won't be the case. they seem very discrete there, and he seemed none too pleased when i mentioned that something like that might happen. i'm sure they don't want a rep like that getting out!

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I would think not. He really went above and beyond to ensure she wouldn't see us. He was looking over his shoulder like crazy! Being that he was that way with us, I cvan't imagine him being the opposite with someone else.

Wow I did NOT realize they do 2 Saturday and 2 Sunday (!!!!) weddings if possible. That's crazy to me for such a small place. Anyway, hearing that, now I'm SUPER glad I couldn't afford a Saturday night wedding after all! We were at the Royalton ALL DAY getting ready on Friday! My makeup artist came there, and the first girl started at 2:30pm. I've also been there on other Fridays when they were setting up and the bride was there at like 1:30 pm. It was great that we were able to be there all day being attended to and fed by the butlers and bridal attendant!

In regards to sleeping over there, it honestly just depends what works for you. I thought it was a little creepy too at first, but when we really got down to it, nothing else made sense, for us in our unique situation. Here's why-first of all our wedding was a night wedding, with a two hour after party at the Royalton that ended at 3:00 am. The last guests weren't out til like 3:30am! The last shuttle to the hotel left at 3:15 am. So there was no more 'partying at the hotel with guests' in our case! If we wanted to stay at the LaQuinta with our guests, we would have had to pay for the room (we took the free shuttle over the free bridal suite) so $159 plus tax, or $299 plus tax if we wanted the bridal suite. For a matter of like 5 hours, it wasn't worth it! Plus we LIVE in Roslyn, and had to be at my mom's in Roslyn at noon for the bagel brunch. It made no sense to pay to stay at the hotel and then have to drive back to Roslyn to get all the rest of the stuff out of the Royalton, and then go to my mom's.

So here's how it went with spending the night. When Gerard and everyone was getting ready to leave (like 3 am again), the overnight butler comes. Gerard introduced me to him and told me he would be in the office and to call with any request. That was it! Because it was almost 4:00 am we just opened our cards, talked and passed out by 5am. Mike (DH) got up and met his dad downstairs at like 9 am to pack up all the tv's from the after party and other big stuff we needed his truck for. Then the butler brought up coffee and tea, and little mini muffins. We had some coffee by the fireplace, and then split by 10 am like requested! Also Gerard was there in the morning just like he promised! It was a long night for everyone! So in the end, it worked out for us to stay there.

allegra, that totally makes sense for you guys to stay there! your guys' wedding went so long... i'm sure you must have been exhausted!!! i would have fallen over for sure.

everyone being so surprised that they do 2 weddings per day is making me a little nervous!! it seems like this is pretty par for the course, even at all the higher end places. originally, i always envisioned a mid-afternoon (around 3 pm) starting wedding, but that just doesn't seem to be too practical these days... most places want to maximize their time. even if we could afford a nighttime reception... we just don't have enough people! i'm kind of an idealist in that i wanted the big nice wedding at an awesome place even though i don't have the big guest list to back it up... we will probably end up w/ like 100-125 people. once i saw the royalton i knew it was everything we were looking for though, and i just had to have it!

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Posted by saribou13

cool! it's nice that you were given that option... that wasn't presented as an option to me. maybe if i had a bigger guarantee or something like that. wow - 10 am?! that's a lot of getting ready!!

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It sounds early, but it's not! I don't know if any of her girls are getting makeup and hair, but they probably are. Figure photos will start around 3 pm, and hair and makeup just for the bride will take 1 1/2-2 hours depending on what she's getting. Plus time for all the girls to get done as well. I got my hair put up at 1:45 for my wedding, then makeup at 4, pictures started at 5 pm, guests arrived at 7pm. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time!!

PS-Stacy CONGRATS TO YOU!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!! I was pretty sure that the Royalton only does one wedding at a time on Sundays, just like Fridays. I could be wrong though.

did you do pictures with FH before the ceremony? i don't want him to see me until i'm coming down the aisle! plus i only have 2 BMs and my mom. so hopefully it won't take TOO long... otherwise we're going to need to get there at like 5 am!!!

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Posted by saribou13

did you do pictures with FH before the ceremony? i don't want him to see me until i'm coming down the aisle! plus i only have 2 BMs and my mom. so hopefully it won't take TOO long... otherwise we're going to need to get there at like 5 am!!!

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We did a bunch of pictures before the ceremony. We had our special reveal moment and it was amazing!!!!!! Just the two of us. He watched me walk down the stairs to him and he met me halfway. We did bunch of pics after the ceremony as well because we were running late. We missed the CH but it was all good. I should have asked for passed hors d'oeuvres to be put in the bridal suite though! I barely tried one!

Here's our first meeting!

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Posted by allegracristina

We did a bunch of pictures before the ceremony. We had our special reveal moment and it was amazing!!!!!! Just the two of us. He watched me walk down the stairs to him and he met me halfway. We did bunch of pics after the ceremony as well because we were running late. We missed the CH but it was all good. I should have asked for passed hors d'oeuvres to be put in the bridal suite though! I barely tried one!

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awww that's so cute!!! we could do that but i just feel like i really want him to see me for the first time when i'm coming down the aisle. just a personal preference, but either way is really special! of course, conveniently speaking, it would be much better to do what you did, for pictures and stuff! i have to do things the hard way lol. i am definitely going to ask them to put CH food in the suite for us... i will be so sad to miss that part!

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Posted by allegracristina

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Posted by saribou13

did you do pictures with FH before the ceremony? i don't want him to see me until i'm coming down the aisle! plus i only have 2 BMs and my mom. so hopefully it won't take TOO long... otherwise we're going to need to get there at like 5 am!!!

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We did a bunch of pictures before the ceremony. We had our special reveal moment and it was amazing!!!!!! Just the two of us. He watched me walk down the stairs to him and he met me halfway. We did bunch of pics after the ceremony as well because we were running late. We missed the CH but it was all good. I should have asked for passed hors d'oeuvres to be put in the bridal suite though! I barely tried one!

Here's our first meeting!

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These pictures are so beautiful!!!!! I want to do the same thing w/ my FH. He initially didn't want to see me until the church but if we do it that way we will miss our CH. I promised him we will make it special the first time he sees me and that grand entranceway and staircase will really help! I can't wait to get married at the Royalton!!!!!!!!!!!

you guys are smart... i am much too stubborn