Brooklyn Winery Wedding: A Photographer’s Guide

Much of the Brooklyn Winery wedding photography still circulating online shows the venue’s former location.

Brooklyn Winery moved to its current Williamsburg space in 2023, a block from McCarren Park. So a couple researching the venue may come across photographs of two very different buildings without realizing it.

This guide is about the current space.

Heritage House photographed an International Live Events Association event at Brooklyn Winery, and talked through how a wedding day runs there with the venue’s events coordinator. So this page separates three things and tells you which is which: what the venue publishes, what their team told us, and what we saw ourselves.

Where Brooklyn Winery Is

Brooklyn Winery is at 61 Guernsey Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a block from McCarren Park.

It is a working winery. Production happens on the premises, the wines served at your wedding are made there, and the venue treats that as the point rather than as decoration.

The Room

It is industrial, and it is clean.

Raw can photograph as clutter when a room leans on it too hard. This space is modern and finished while keeping the industrial character that makes it feel distinctly Brooklyn.

The reception room has one long living plant wall running down it, which the venue treats as its signature and which earns that. There are skylights. There is a bar.

Green against a clean industrial shell photographs well. The wall gives you color and organic shape in a room that is otherwise lines and hard surfaces. It also means the room already looks like something before anybody brings in a single stem.

The Ceremony, and the Thing Nobody Tells You

Here is the part worth the page.

If you hold your ceremony at Brooklyn Winery, the ceremony and the reception happen in the same room.

What matters is how this room handles that.

The tables are moved aside and concealed behind screens built into the architecture. Because those screens are part of the room rather than temporary event equipment, the ceremony space photographs as an intentional setting rather than as a reception room waiting to be reset.

That distinction is worth understanding before you tour anywhere. A shared room is common. A shared room that was designed to be two things is not.

Getting Ready

There is a bridal suite. It is small, and it is genuinely elegant, which is the right trade in a building this size. The venue says the suite opens two hours before the event and has its own bathroom.

The harvesting room, which is the barrel room, sometimes doubles as a space for the groom and his side to get ready. Their events coordinator raised that as an option rather than a fixture, so confirm it for your own date.

It is worth confirming. From a photography standpoint, access to the barrel room would give that part of the day a setting tied directly to the venue rather than a hotel room forty minutes away.

Cocktail Hour

Cocktail hour happens in an adjacent room.

That matters more than it sounds in a venue this size. The main room gets time to change without your guests watching it happen. You also get a second environment rather than the same walls for six hours. In a building this compact, that is the difference between coverage that varies and coverage that does not.

What We Noticed Photographing at Brooklyn Winery

What stood out to us working in the space.

The space is flexible

That word gets used loosely about venues, and here it is literal. The room is built to be reconfigured, and the configuration changes during the day by design rather than by improvisation.

The living wall does a lot of work

It is the most photographed thing in the building and it will be the most photographed thing at your wedding, because it is the one element that is unmistakably this venue rather than any industrial room in Brooklyn.

The barrel room is the texture

Where the reception space is clean, the production side is not, and that contrast is worth using. Working both the finished event spaces and the production side would give a wedding gallery considerably more visual range.

It is a compact building

Nothing is far from anything, which is efficient. But it also means a photographer has to find variety inside a small footprint rather than walking to it, and that is a different skill from working seven acres.

One Thing About the Timeline

At most venues the ceremony, cocktail hour, portraits and reception are separate pieces that happen to follow each other. Here they are not independent, because the main room changes jobs partway through the day.

That is not a problem. It is simply the thing to settle first, before the shot list or anything else, because every other decision about the day sits downstream of it.

What the Venue Includes

Everything in this section comes from the venue rather than from us, and all of it can change.

At the time of writing, Brooklyn Winery lists exclusive use of the event space, a dedicated event manager, and the private wedding suite inside the wedding package. Also a group food and wine tasting for the couple, the wines made on site, and chef driven seasonal cuisine. A premium open bar is included, with their own wines, craft beer, and spirits.

The venue currently publishes a capacity of up to 175 guests and lists the dance floor at roughly 300 to 400 square feet.

Their current policies permit outside vendors for flowers, photography, and music, with a valid certificate of insurance. They require a DJ or a band rather than a phone, and no outside alcohol.

Brooklyn Winery also publishes a starting figure per person and notes that off peak seasons and weekdays price differently. Get the current number from them rather than from any blog, this one included.

What to Ask Brooklyn Winery

Their own FAQ is unusually complete and covers pricing, vendors, parking, and accessibility. So these are the questions it does not answer.

• How long the room change takes between the ceremony and the reception, and where your guests are during it. This is the question the whole timeline hangs on.
• Whether the barrel room is available to you for getting ready, and for how long. It is an option rather than a guarantee.
• How much of the production space you can use for photographs, and whether that changes depending on what the winery is doing that week. Worth settling before anyone builds a portrait plan around it.
• Whether the skylights matter for your ceremony time, and what the room does at the hour you are planning to marry.
• Whether leaving the building is worth it. McCarren Park and the surrounding Williamsburg streets can widen the visual range well beyond the venue, but going outside adds a transition to the timeline. That should be a deliberate trade made in advance rather than something decided on the wedding day.
• How vendor load in works, where vehicles can stop, and how much setup time your vendors are given.

Who Brooklyn Winery Suits

This suits a couple who wants Brooklyn to be part of the wedding rather than a postcode on the invitation. The building looks like where it is.

The venue currently publishes a maximum of 175 guests, so couples anywhere near that number should walk the exact floor plan with the events team rather than treating it as a simple yes or no.

It also suits couples who are comfortable with one main room, because the architecture was built for that transition.

It is a less natural fit for a couple who wants the ceremony and the reception to feel like two entirely different places, or one who wants expansive outdoor space. This is a building, in a city, and it is honest about that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Brooklyn Winery?

Brooklyn Winery is at 61 Guernsey Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a block from McCarren Park. The venue relocated to this address in 2023, so older coverage online may show a different building.

Can you have your ceremony and reception at Brooklyn Winery?

Yes, and both happen in the same room. The tables are moved aside and concealed behind screens built into the room’s architecture rather than behind rented pipe and drape, so the ceremony setup looks intentional rather than improvised. Cocktail hour takes place in an adjacent room while the main room is reset.

How many guests does Brooklyn Winery hold?

Up to 175. The venue puts the dance floor at roughly 300 to 400 square feet and requires assigned seating based on a submitted floor plan.

Is Brooklyn Winery good for wedding photos?

Yes, and for two reasons that work together. The long living plant wall gives a clean industrial room color and organic shape, and it is the element that identifies the venue rather than looking like any Brooklyn loft. The barrel room on the production side supplies texture that the finished spaces do not. Using both is what keeps the coverage from looking like one room photographed repeatedly.

Where do you get ready at Brooklyn Winery?

There is a private bridal suite, small but well finished, which the venue says opens two hours before the event and has its own bathroom. The harvesting room, also called the barrel room, is sometimes available as a space for the groom and his side. Confirm that second one with the venue for your date, since it was described to us as an option rather than a standing arrangement.

About the Photographer

Stephen Mayo is the founder and lead photographer of Heritage House, a boutique wedding photography studio. We serve Long Island, New York City, Westchester, New Jersey, and the East End. Stephen is a member of Fearless Photographers, and his work has been featured in Sophisticated Weddings and hamptonBRIDE.

Heritage House plans the photography around the shape of a wedding well before the day arrives. At a venue where one room does more than one job, a good deal of that planning is about what the room is doing at each hour and where the couple can be while it happens.

Planning a Brooklyn Winery Wedding?

The thing worth settling early is the shape of the day rather than the shot list. A building that reconfigures during the wedding benefits from having that plan settled well before the day arrives.

If you are considering Brooklyn Winery, or you have already booked it, we would like to hear what you are planning. Contact Heritage House to start the conversation.

Venue Contact

Brooklyn Winery 61 Guernsey Street, Brooklyn, NY bkwinery.com