Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, or OWHC as most of our couples call it, sits on Old Westbury Road on the North Shore of Long Island, about forty minutes from Manhattan. It is a working synagogue with a full event side: a large ballroom, a separate cocktail room, a private bridal suite, and grounds that take an outdoor chuppah. We have photographed a lot of weddings here, in every season, and this page is what we would tell a couple who is deciding on it, plus four of those weddings in full.

Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation at a glance

  • Where: 21 Old Westbury Road, Old Westbury, NY 11568, on the North Shore of Nassau County.
  • Capacity: the ballroom takes everything from about 50 guests to 950, per the venue’s own listing. The largest wedding we have photographed there had well over 500 for the outdoor ceremony.
  • Ceremony: indoors in the ballroom, in the sanctuary, or outdoors on the patio and lawn.
  • Catering: Ram Caterers runs the kitchen, so every event is kosher without the couple having to arrange it.
  • Spaces: ballroom, cocktail reception room, bridal suite, a courtyard, and the lawns.
  • Best for: Jewish weddings of any size that want tradition handled properly and a room that can be transformed completely.

The spaces, as they photograph

The ballroom as a ceremony room

This is the thing to understand about OWHC: the ballroom is a blank, and the couples who marry here build a world inside it. We have seen it walled floor to ceiling in living greenery for a winter wedding, lined with hundreds of candles for a spring one, and turned into a rose garden with a blossom canopy over the aisle in summer. The ceilings are high and the room is deep, so a long aisle with a chuppah at the far end reads as grand rather than crowded, even with 400 seated.

The ceremony set in the ballroom at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, a white aisle flanked by candles and a floral chuppah
Candlelit chuppah of pink florals at the far end of the ballroom at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
The chuppah aisle at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation set with living greenery walls and a lit archway
Jacob in a white kittel escorts Kelly down the aisle at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
Kelly and Jacob under a chuppah of pink and red roses in the ballroom at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

The ballroom as a reception room

Once the ceremony is over the same room turns around for dinner and dancing, and because the design was built for the couple rather than inherited from the venue, no two receptions here look alike. Long tables under candlelight, a dance floor washed in colour, a flower wall behind the sweetheart table. Our job is to keep the light honest so the florist’s work is what you remember.

The ballroom dance floor at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation washed in pink light during the first dance
The reception at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation set beneath a wall of pink and white roses
Reception table beneath a pink chandelier at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
A long candlelit reception table with white branches at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
Reception table with a tall pink cherry blossom centerpiece at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

Outdoor ceremonies on the grounds

In late spring and summer the chuppah moves outside. The lawn is framed by tall evergreens, which do two things for photographs: they hide everything that is not the wedding, and they turn the aisle into a corridor of green. Arielle and Aaron’s ceremony below had several hundred guests on the lawn, and from the air you can see how much room there is. Ashley and Ben built a canopy of pink blossoms over the same aisle two months later and it looked like a different place.

Aerial view of an outdoor wedding ceremony at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, hundreds of guests either side of a white aisle
Guests seated for an outdoor ceremony at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, the aisle lined with purple and pink flowers
The outdoor chuppah at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, a floral arch against tall evergreens
The outdoor ceremony aisle at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation beneath a canopy of pink blossoms
Ben in a tallit walks to the chuppah beneath pink blossoms at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

The cocktail room and the courtyard

Cocktail hour has its own room, which matters for an Orthodox timeline because the tisch and the bedeken can run there while the ballroom is being flipped. The courtyard outside it is lined with greenery and, in winter, patio heaters. Rebecca and Joe married in December and their guests used it all evening.

Cocktail lounge at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation with a sculptural white floral installation and candles
The courtyard at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation on a winter evening, lined with greenery and patio heaters
Rebecca in a lace gown on the steps of the greenery archway inside Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

Four real weddings at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

Rebecca & Joe, a December wedding in green and white

Rebecca and Joe turned the ballroom into a winter garden. Living greenery walls, a lit archway over the chuppah, white branches down the length of the tables. The bedeken was a sea of emerald green, the family in one colour around the bride, and the tisch that followed was as loud as any we have photographed. Their portraits were made inside, against the greenery, which is the answer to the question every winter couple asks about this venue: yes, you can make the whole day here without going outside.

Rebecca is veiled by Joe at the bedeken at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, family in emerald green around her
Joe dancing with his friends and family at the tisch at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
Rebecca and Joe in front of the living greenery wall in the ballroom at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
Rebecca and Joe's five-tier white wedding cake with greenery at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

Kelly & Jacob, candlelight and roses

Kelly and Jacob’s ceremony was the candlelit one. Hundreds of tapers down both sides of the aisle, a chuppah of pink and red roses at the end, and Jacob in a white kittel walking Kelly in. We photographed the aisle empty first, which is a habit worth keeping at OWHC, because the room is only ever set like this once. Reception was the same palette turned up: a pink chandelier over the tables and a dance floor lit to match. Portraits were made earlier in the day at a stone arcade nearby.

Jacob veils Kelly at the bedeken at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation as the women crowd in around her
Kelly and Jacob on a stone terrace beneath an arcade of arches during portraits
Kelly in her cathedral veil holding a white bouquet, portrait in black and white
Kelly and Jacob cutting a white cake wrapped in red roses at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

Arielle & Aaron, a summer ceremony on the lawn

This is the wedding we point to when someone asks whether OWHC can handle a big outdoor ceremony. Several hundred guests on the lawn, a floral arch against the evergreens, and an aisle lined in purple and pink. Aaron wore a white dinner jacket, the bridesmaids were in pink, and the bedeken had that press of family around the bride that makes the best frames of the day. Portraits before the ceremony were made in the gardens a few minutes down the road, on a hedge-lined allee and at a lattice gazebo over a pond.

Aaron veils Arielle at the bedeken at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, bridesmaids in pink around her
Aaron lifted on a chair during the hora at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
Arielle and Aaron in a white dinner jacket on the lawn at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation at golden hour
Arielle in a lattice garden gazebo over a lily pond during portraits near Old Westbury
Arielle on a long hedge-lined garden allee, her veil trailing across the grass
Arielle and Aaron kiss on the recessional as guests cheer at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

Ashley & Ben, a canopy of blossoms

Ashley and Ben took the same lawn and put a canopy of pink blossoms over the aisle, with a white floral arch at the chuppah. Ben walked to it in a tallit. Inside, the reception ran beneath a wall of pink and white roses, with gold vessels and candlelight down the tables. Their portraits went from a rose-lined garden path to a stone balustrade above the lawn, Ashley’s train down the steps.

Ben veils Ashley at the bedeken at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
Ashley and Ben on the dance floor at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation during the hora
Ashley beneath a pink and white floral arch at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
Ashley and Ben walking a garden path lined with roses during portraits near Old Westbury
Ashley and Ben on a stone balustrade above the lawn, her train spilling down the steps
Candlelit reception tablescape with gold vessels and pink roses at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation
Ashley and Ben cutting a tiered cake with pink roses at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

Photographing a wedding at OWHC: what we have learned

Plan the tisch and the bedeken for the light

The cocktail room and the smaller rooms off the lobby have the softest light in the building in the late afternoon. If your bedeken can happen there rather than in a corridor, the photographs of the veiling are dramatically better. Tell your planner we asked.

Give us the empty room

Ten minutes with the ceremony room set and empty, before guests are seated, is the single most valuable window of the day at this venue. The florists will have spent months on that aisle. It exists for about an hour.

Portraits: on the grounds, or five minutes away

The lawn and the courtyard are enough for a full portrait session, and in winter the greenery walls inside do the job. If you want gardens, they are minutes down the road, and several of our couples have gone there before the ceremony. Build forty-five minutes into the timeline and it is easy.

Sunset matters for outdoor ceremonies

An outdoor chuppah on the lawn is best in the last ninety minutes before sunset. Earlier than that in July, the light is overhead and hard. Later, and the recessional happens in the dark. In June that means a ceremony around 6.30pm; in September, closer to 5.30pm.

Let us photograph your wedding at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation

We know this building, the flow of an Orthodox day inside it, and where the light is at every hour. If you are considering OWHC, send us your date and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit, or book a short call to talk it through. Our collections and pricing are on the investment page.

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