Unique Wedding Sites in New York City: Fresh Ideas for Your Big Day in the Big Apple

So, you've got the ring on your finger (or her finger), and you're ready to get married. But how the heck do you go about doing that? Before panic sets in, let me give you some helpful hints. This series is designed to get you on track to a beautiful and unique wedding.

The Usual
We've all been to those weddings that seemed just like every other. They're usually at church, followed by a party at a boring reception hall spruced up with some flowers and colorful tablecloths. These are perfectly lovely places to celebrate a wedding, and if you have a flair for adding style to blank slates, they might be perfect for you. But if you want something a little more unusual, read below.

Museums
Art galleries and museums are an oft-overlooked place to host a reception, because they often don't come equipped for your day. Yes, you will most likely have to rent tables, chairs, lighting, and other peripherals that come standard with reception halls. It might require more finagling with your caterer, as they might have to prepare everything beforehand if there isn't a kitchen handy in the museum itself. But the rewards are endless! Galleries and museums offer an elegance and refinement to a wedding that a hotel hall cannot. Guests get to celebrate while feeling cultured, get to gaze around at works or art or history while dining on the sumptuous shrimp and steak you have chosen to serve them. They can dance beside Van Gogh or Monet, or perhaps a suit of armor, wondering at what a marvelous idea you had to host your party at such a special place.

The American Museum of Natural History makes several of its larger halls available for events from weddings to corporate functions. From the Akeley Hall of African Mammals, which can host 350 people for dinner and 500 for a reception amongst the elephants, to the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, which can seat 850 for a dinner dance, the museum offers a wealth of themed areas that will make your wedding reception the talk of the town. Just choose between mammals, whales, the stars, or dinosaurs, and you can have your very own night at the museum. www.amnh.org