OHEKA Castle Wedding Guide (2027): Cost, Capacity & Everything to Know

OHEKA Castle stands at the end of a gated drive in Huntington, on Long Island's Gold Coast. Otto Hermann Kahn, the financier whose name the house abbreviates, built it between 1914 and 1919 as a 127-room French château with formal gardens by the Olmsted Brothers. It played Xanadu in Citizen Kane and has been a film set ever since. Today it is a 34-room hotel and a full-time wedding venue.

That is what you are buying here: a castle with the wedding already built in. OHEKA cooks the dinner, runs the bar, bakes the cake and sets the tables, and it hosts one wedding a day. The day runs from a ceremony in the formal gardens to cocktails through the historic rooms, then dinner and dancing indoors for up to 350.

For 2027, weddings start at $112,000 on a Friday or Sunday, for at least 150 adults, and $160,000 on a Saturday, for at least 200. The tradeoff is easy to state. The castle sleeps a fraction of your guests, and at a large wedding the room you dine in is the later Terrace Room, not the ballroom in the photographs.

• Location: Huntington, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York
• Venue type: 1919 French-style château with formal gardens, event rooms and a 34-room hotel
• 2027 starting price: $112,000 Friday or Sunday, $160,000 Saturday, covering site rental, dinner, premium open bar, cake, service charge and tax
• Guest minimums: 150 adults Friday or Sunday, 200 Saturday, 125 Monday to Thursday
• Maximum: 350 guests, seated indoors with dancing
• Sweet spot: 150 to 250 guests
• Sleeps: About 68 in 34 rooms and suites
• Exclusivity: One wedding a day, with the event rooms to yourselves
• Rain plan: The ceremony moves indoors. Dinner and dancing are indoors already
• Catering and vendors: OHEKA handles all food and drink. Florist, music and photographer are yours to choose
• For the couple: A dressing room from 8 a.m. and an overnight suite from 1 p.m.
• Event length: Five hours, ending by 1 a.m.
• Typical total budget: $255,000 to $375,000 for 200 guests on a Saturday*
• Getting there: JFK or LaGuardia, 45 to 90 minutes by road. Long Island Rail Road to Cold Spring Harbor, 5 to 10 minutes from the gate
• Best for: A big guest list, a full-service kitchen and a castle that works in any weather
• Main consideration: High minimums, and most guests sleep somewhere else

*RoamRecs planning estimate. Budgets and drive times throughout this guide are ours.

OHEKA is for couples who want the castle and do not want to build a wedding from scratch inside it. The kitchen, the bar, the cake, the tables, chairs, linens and china all belong to the venue. What you bring is the look and the sound: flowers, photography, music and lighting. Compared with renting a private estate and trucking in a caterer, half the planning is done before you start.

The decision that matters most is which room you dine in. The Otto Kahn Grand Ballroom is the original: a hardwood floor, the proportions and detail of the 1919 house, and banquet seating for 200. The Terrace Room is a later addition, carpeted and far larger, and it is what makes dinner and dancing for 350 possible. Most couples fall for OHEKA through pictures of the staircase, the library and the ballroom. See the Terrace Room dressed for a wedding before you book, and make sure it is the dinner you have in mind.

The sweet spot is 150 to 250 guests. That clears the weekend minimums and still leaves the historic rooms space to breathe at cocktail hour. Below the minimums you are paying for guests who are not there. At 300 to 350 dinner is the easy part, so put your planning time into the ceremony and cocktail hour on a wet day.

Two things come with the territory. First, the hotel has 34 rooms, so at 200 guests around 130 people sleep elsewhere or drive home. Treat the castle as the family house: the couple, both sets of parents and the wedding party. Second, a wedding books the event rooms for the day, not the estate for the weekend. The hotel and its restaurant are separate, and a rehearsal dinner or a brunch is its own event.

One thing to know for 2027. OHEKA goes to auction on October 27, 2026, and it is booking and hosting weddings as usual. Before you sign, have the contract say what happens to your date, your price and your deposits under a new owner.

Best for: a guest list of 150 or more, a kitchen and bar you do not have to hire, and a day that works whatever the weather does.

Think twice if: you want fewer than 150 guests, your own caterer, or everyone sleeping under one roof.

The price is set by the day of the week, and each day carries its own guest minimum.

These are starting prices for a complete wedding at the minimum guest count: site rental, catering, service charge and tax together.

How the price is built

An OHEKA contract has two parts, and it helps to know which is which before you read a proposal.

For a sense of proportion, a Saturday proposal for 200 guests prepared in 2025 put the site rental at about $26,000 and the catering at $450 a guest, or roughly $121,000 once service charge and tax were added. Prices have risen since and the shape holds: under a fifth of the bill is the house, and the rest is the dinner.

That is why the guest list moves the price. Each guest above the minimum adds about $650 with service and tax.* A Friday or Sunday starts $48,000 below a Saturday and asks for 50 fewer guests. If your list is closer to 150 than 200, that is the biggest saving on offer here.

*RoamRecs estimate.

What the price includes

• Cocktail hour with passed hors d'oeuvres and stations, then a seated dinner
• A premium open bar
• A wedding cake from the Classic Elegance collection
• Tables, chairs, linens, dinnerware and glassware
• White-glove service, with a server for every table, a bridal attendant and a butler
• The event rooms to yourselves, with one wedding a day
• The grounds and the library for photographs
• A dressing room from 8 a.m. and an overnight suite for the couple from 1 p.m.

This is why OHEKA's number looks high next to a private estate's rental fee. At an estate the caterer, the bar and the furniture arrive as separate bills. Here they are in the price.

What it leaves out

Flowers and décor, photography and video, the band or DJ, specialty lighting, a planner, guest shuttles and guest rooms. Staff gratuities are yours to add as well: the service charge is not a tip. A rehearsal dinner, an afterparty or a farewell brunch at the castle is priced as its own event.

Paying for it

The site rental is due in full at signing, along with 25% of the catering. A further 55% of the catering is due six months before the wedding and 20% one month before, and the final balance is settled ten days out by cash or certified check. OHEKA quotes cash prices. Paying another way adds 3%.

A well-produced OHEKA wedding in 2027 lands in these ranges. They are RoamRecs planning estimates for the wedding day itself: ceremony, cocktails, dinner and dancing.

Here is where the money goes at 200 guests on a Saturday:

Three things move the total. The day: a Friday or Sunday takes $48,000 off the starting price. The guest list: every 50 guests above the minimum adds about $33,000 at the castle, before the extra tables of flowers. Ambition: the low end of the music line is a good DJ and the high end a full dance band, and a floral ceiling or custom staging will take you past the range.

The ranges leave out the rehearsal dinner, the brunch, an afterparty, guest hotel rooms, attire and beauty. Vendor meals are $75 each before service and tax, so count your band, photographers and planner's team.

OHEKA takes weddings of up to 350 guests, and it is at its most comfortable with 150 to 250.

How we would use the castle

Ceremony in the gardens, cocktails through the foyer, the Formal Dining Room and the patio, dinner and dancing in the Terrace Room. The Terrace Room sits beyond the Formal Dining Room, so guests walk through the old house to reach dinner. Let them. That walk is the reveal.

Up to 200 guests, you have a real choice. The Grand Ballroom is the more atmospheric room and the one in the photographs. Ask how the band and dance floor fit at your count, because 200 is its banquet figure. The Terrace Room gives the same party more floor.

From 250 up, the Terrace Room is the plan. Its 350 figure assumes tables of 12. Long tables, rounds of eight or lounge furniture take more floor, so have your layout drawn before you fall in love with it.

Save the library and the staircase for portraits. They are the rooms your guests will recognize, and they photograph best empty.

Dinner and dancing never move. Only the ceremony does. That is OHEKA's quiet advantage over every tented estate on the North Shore: a wet forecast changes one hour of the day.

Up to about 200 guests. Ceremony in the Grand Ballroom, cocktails across the Formal Dining Room, foyer and lounge, dinner in the Terrace Room. Nothing has to be reset while guests wait.

200 to 300 guests. The Grand Ballroom still holds the ceremony, seating 270 to 300 in rows. Cocktail hour needs every connected room open, with bars and stations spread out so nobody queues in a doorway.

Above 300. The ceremony outgrows the ballroom and moves to the Terrace Room, which is then turned over for dinner during cocktails. Ask OHEKA to walk you through how the team runs that flip and where your guests are while it happens.

Agree in advance what time the rain call is made and who makes it. You do not need a tent here. If your design wants one anyway, clear its position with the venue before your florist starts drawing.

The castle has 34 rooms and suites, enough for about 68 guests. One suite, for the couple on the wedding night, comes with the wedding. Everything else is a room block arranged with the hotel.

These are the hotel's own published rates. A wedding block is quoted separately, so ask for yours alongside the wedding proposal.

Give the castle rooms to the people who will be there from the morning: parents, grandparents and the wedding party. Check-in is 3 p.m. and checkout is 11 a.m., while the dressing room opens at 8 a.m. and the couple's suite at 1 p.m. Anyone who needs to dress in their own room before an afternoon ceremony should book the night before.

Two house rules shape the rest. Parties in the guest rooms and suites are not allowed, so an afterparty needs a space of its own. And the hotel breakfast is à la carte in the restaurant, so a farewell brunch is something you host, not something that happens by itself.

Where should wedding guests stay?

At 200 guests, around 130 people need a bed elsewhere or a ride home. Keep the overnight group in one or two hotels and run shuttles from each.

Steer out-of-town guests away from Manhattan for the wedding night itself. It is a fine base for the days before and after, and a long ride home at 1 a.m.

The cocktail hour is the showpiece

OHEKA's cocktail hour pairs passed hors d'oeuvres with food stations, and the number of stations grows with the guest list: four from 101 to 175 guests, five from 176 to 225 and six from 226 up. The choice runs from seafood, pasta and carving stations to Mediterranean, Asian and vegetarian or vegan ones. Guests will remember this hour, so spend your tasting time on it.

Dinner is seated: one appetizer, then a choice of meat, chicken or seafood. Dessert is either plated or the dessert café, alongside the cake. The one upgrade worth knowing about is the American lamb-chop carving station, at $15 a guest.

The bar

A premium open bar is in the price, and the list is a good one: Grey Goose, Casamigos, Woodford Reserve and Macallan 12 are all on it. The house pour for the toast is Cote Mas Brut, a French sparkling wine. If you want Champagne in the glass, ask about an upgrade.

Dietary needs

The kitchens are not gluten-free or nut-free. Send individual allergies and any kosher requirements to the catering team early, by name, so each one gets a plan.

The morning of

The dressing room comes with a continental breakfast for ten between 8 a.m. and noon, with a bottle of sparkling wine, and a light lunch for 20 between 12:30 and 3 p.m. Extra breakfasts are $45 and extra lunches $75, ordered in fives. Mimosas or Bloody Marys are $14 a person and children's meals $10, all plus a 23% service charge and tax.

A small tip: lunch arrives at 12:30 and the suite opens at 1 p.m. Have it delivered to the dressing room.

What is yours to choose

OHEKA does all the food and drink, with no outside caterers. The florist, the band or DJ, the photographer and the planner are yours. An outside florist or music company needs the venue's approval and proof of insurance, and there is a $500 approval fee. Ask for the current approved list first. Working from it is the easy route.

Hire a planner

OHEKA's team runs the kitchen, the service and the rooms. Your planner runs everything else: the rooming list, two hotels' worth of shuttles, the outside vendors and the rain call. At 200 guests that is a full job.

The end of the night

A wedding at OHEKA runs five consecutive hours: one of cocktails and four of dinner and dancing. It can start any time between 1 and 7 p.m., and everything, overtime and afterparty included, ends by 1 a.m. Extra hours are sold at a set rate. Book the band and the last shuttle to your finish time. Run an early bus an hour or two before the last one. If you want an afterparty, ask which room OHEKA offers for it and price it as part of the wedding.

Candles are welcome in enclosed holders with a base to catch the wax. Anything hung from a ceiling, plugged into serious power or amplified outdoors needs the venue's sign-off before your designer commits to it.

Most couples marry in the Formal Gardens. The reflecting pools and clipped hedges make the aisle, with the château behind you. A ceremony at OHEKA goes with a reception at OHEKA. The castle does not host one without the other.

A legal wedding here is simple. Get a New York State marriage license at least 24 hours before the ceremony. It stays valid for 60 days. The Huntington Town Clerk issues one for $40, and both of you apply in person. If a friend is officiating, the same office issues a one-day officiant license for $25.

Tell guests to fly into JFK or LaGuardia, or take the Long Island Rail Road. OHEKA is a Long Island wedding, an hour or more from Manhattan, and the last few miles need a car or a shuttle.

MacArthur is the closest airport and the calmest, if a guest's airline flies there. Most will find more flights into JFK or LaGuardia.

The train is the insider route from the city. Guests ride the LIRR to Cold Spring Harbor or Huntington and a booked car or shuttle meets them. From JFK, the AirTrain connects to the LIRR at Jamaica, so there is no reason to go into Manhattan first. Write "Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island Rail Road" on the wedding website in full. Cold Spring on Metro-North is a different town in the Hudson Valley, and someone always looks it up.

One instruction to give your transport company in writing: coaches use East Gate Drive, coming in past Cold Spring Country Club to the castle's back entrance. Cars and guests arrive at the main gate on West Gate Drive.

Do wedding guests need a car?

Not for the wedding. Guests in the hotel block ride the shuttles, and guests from the city can come by train. A car is useful for anyone staying on to see the North Shore.

Plan two pickup points at most, a first shuttle that lands well before the ceremony, an early bus home and a last one after the final song.

June and September are our picks. Both give you the gardens at their best, warm evenings and enough daylight for portraits after the ceremony.

May is fresh and green, and cool once the sun goes. Keep cocktail hour close to the house.

June is the classic. Rain is as likely as in any other month, which matters less here than almost anywhere: the indoor plan is already in place.

July and August are hot and humid. Hold the ceremony late in the afternoon and have cold water waiting at the garden.

September has the best light of the year and gentler heat. It is the month we would choose.

October brings cool evenings and early sunsets. Move the ceremony up so the portraits still have daylight.

November to April is when OHEKA shows what a tented estate cannot. Plan an indoor wedding from the start, with the staircase, the library and the ballroom doing the work the gardens do in June.

The castle is the wedding day. The rest of the weekend lives in Huntington village, ten minutes away.

The night before. A welcome dinner in the village, where most of your guests are staying, or a rehearsal dinner at the castle booked as its own event.

The wedding day. Breakfast in the dressing room from 8 a.m., portraits in the library and gardens, an afternoon ceremony, then cocktails, dinner and dancing without leaving the house.

The morning after. A hosted brunch for everyone, at the castle or back in the village. Guests in the castle check out at 11 a.m., so start early.

A Friday wedding asks travelling guests for a Thursday night and a day off work. A Sunday wedding asks for a Monday. The $48,000 saving is worth most when your key people can make that trade.

For guests with an extra day

• Huntington village. Restaurants, bars and shops within a few blocks of Main Street, and live music at The Paramount.
• Cold Spring Harbor. A one-street harbor village five minutes from the castle, with a small whaling museum and a waterfront for a morning walk.
• Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay. Theodore Roosevelt's home, about 20 minutes west.
• The Gold Coast houses. Old Westbury Gardens and the Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport give guests more of the world OHEKA comes from.
• Manhattan. About an hour from Huntington on the LIRR, for guests turning the wedding into a New York trip.

Best for

• Weddings of 150 to 250 guests, and up to 350
• Couples who want the food, bar and furniture handled by one team
• A historic house with a real indoor plan for every part of the day
• Winter and shoulder-season weddings
• Guest lists drawn mostly from New York and Long Island
• A Friday or Sunday date, where the price drops furthest

Things to consider

• The minimums are 150 adults on Friday or Sunday and 200 on Saturday
• The castle sleeps about 68, so most guests stay in Huntington or Melville
• Dinner for more than 200 is in the Terrace Room, not the original ballroom
• No outside caterers
• The booking is the event rooms for the day, not the hotel or the estate
• The arrival courtyard is cobbled, and two hotel mezzanine levels have no elevator access
• The property goes to auction on October 27, 2026

These are the questions a good planner would put to OHEKA before you sign.

1. Does the starting price for our date cover the site rental, catering at the minimum, service charge and tax, and what is the split between them?
2. What does each guest above the minimum cost, and how do children and vendor meals count toward it?
3. What is the starting price for a Monday to Thursday wedding?
4. Which room is our dinner in, and may we see it set for a wedding of our size?
5. Where is the indoor ceremony at our guest count, and where are guests during any room flip?
6. What does an extra hour cost?
7. Which room do you offer for an afterparty?
8. How many hotel rooms can we block, at what rate, and what is the commitment for unsold rooms?
9. What would a full hotel buyout cost?
10. Is the ceremony fee, with chairs, sound and a rehearsal, in the price?
11. Is the $500 vendor approval fee charged per vendor or once?
12. What are the load-in and breakdown times for our florist and band?
13. Which entrance and route is step-free from drop-off to ceremony, dinner and restrooms, in dry weather and wet?
14. What are the damage deposit and the cancellation and postponement terms?
15. How does the contract protect our date, price and deposits if the castle changes owner?

NYIT de Seversky Mansion, Old Westbury. Choose it if your list is closer to 100. Its minimum is 100 adults, against OHEKA's 150 and 200, and it is more flexible about specialty outside caterers. You get a Gold Coast mansion without the hotel.

The Mansion at Glen Cove. Choose it if you want your guests under one roof. It has 186 rooms and suites to OHEKA's 34, so far more of the wedding can stay where it happens. It is a hotel on an estate, where OHEKA is a castle with a few rooms.

Bourne Mansion, Oakdale. Choose it for a grand historic ballroom on the South Shore, with one wedding a day and dinner for up to 300. Guests sleep in nearby hotels, as most do at OHEKA.

OHEKA often ends up on the same shortlist as a Manhattan ballroom, and the choice is really city against estate. The RoamRecs New York City wedding venue guide covers the city side, and the RoamRecs wedding venue directory lets you compare by price, capacity and on-site rooms.

The question to carry through your shortlist: how much does the castle itself matter to you? If the gardens, the staircase and a château on the invitation are the wedding you have been picturing, the minimums and the shuttle to the hotel are a fair price for them.