Ask a couple what they pictured when they first started looking at venues, and the answer is almost never a room. It’s a feeling. Open air, somewhere to breathe between the ceremony and the party, a place where guests can wander out with a drink instead of standing in a hallway waiting for doors to open.
We’ve been in East Northport for more than 40 years, and the request for garden space is one of the most consistent things we hear. Long Island couples prefer wedding venues with private gardens because outdoor space that belongs to the venue alone gives them a ceremony setting, a cocktail hour, and photography options without moving anyone off the property. At Larkfield, our gardens run more than an acre, they’re completely private, and they hold up to 250 guests.
Long Island couples prefer wedding venues with private gardens because they offer privacy, outdoor ceremony and cocktail hour options, convenient photography, and a smoother schedule without traveling between locations. Private gardens also give guests room to enjoy the outdoors while keeping the ceremony, reception, and photos together on one property.
What Private Garden Space Changes About Your Wedding Day
Outdoor space sounds like a nice extra until you see how much of the day it quietly solves. It decides where your ceremony happens, where guests go during cocktail hour, where your photos are taken, and how much of the afternoon you spend traveling instead of celebrating. When that space is private and sits on the same property as everything else, those four things stop being separate problems. Here’s what that actually changes about a wedding day.
Privacy Guests Can Feel
A garden shared with the public is a different experience from a garden that’s yours. Larkfield Gardens is completely private, so your ceremony isn’t competing with foot traffic and your photos don’t include strangers in the background.
That privacy shows up in small ways all afternoon. Guests relax faster. People who don’t love being watched are more willing to step outside. Your photographer can work without asking anyone to move. Nobody thinks about it consciously, but everyone feels it.
One Place, One Schedule
Plenty of couples fall in love with an outdoor ceremony spot, then realize the reception is somewhere else and the whole day has to be built around transportation. Our ceremony option removes that.
You can hold both the ceremony and the reception here. Your guests and your wedding party travel to one location. There’s no second round of flowers and no limo service to coordinate between sites. There are also no restrictions on your choice of music or your dress, so the outdoor part of the day is yours to shape. The practical effect is time. Every hour you’re not spending in transit is an hour back with the people who traveled to see you.
Gardens That Work Three Seasons
We call the gardens our three season spectacular because that’s honestly how they get used. The natural surroundings do most of the work, and the space changes character depending on when you book it.
Indoor and outdoor ceremony space is included with your wedding, along with an indoor and outdoor cocktail hour. That combination matters more than it sounds. You’re not committing the whole day to weather in one direction. The outdoor option is there when you want it, and the ballrooms are ready when you don’t.
Photos You Don’t Drive To
Garden access for photography is part of what’s included when you book, and the gardens offer a wide range of options across the grounds. That’s a real scheduling advantage.
Couples at venues with no outdoor space of their own often build a photo excursion into the middle of the reception. An hour disappears. Guests notice. When the photography happens steps from the cocktail hour, you’re back before anyone has finished a first drink.
Moving Inside and Out
A garden only helps if guests can move between inside and outside without a bottleneck. Our Orangerie was built for that transition. It looks out over the stone courtyard, it has five patio access doors, and it offers indoor and outdoor seating.
The ceiling there reaches 35 feet and is lit by clerestory windows, so the light stays generous as the day moves on. Historically an orangerie was closer to a sixteenth century Italian greenhouse where citrus trees wintered, and that sun space quality carried into the design. It accommodates up to 250 guests, the same number the gardens hold, which is why the two spaces work as a pair.
From there, receptions move into the ballrooms. The Villaggio is our largest space at 5,500 square feet with 20 foot ceilings and chandeliers, and it accommodates 400 guests with a dance floor or 475 without one. The Borghese is slightly smaller at 4,032 square feet with a maximum capacity of 220, and no less ornate.
The Estate Around the Gardens
The gardens don’t sit on their own. Larkfield is inspired by the Tuscan villas of Italy, and that shows up in the timber and stone facades, the soaring hearths, the manicured grounds, and the interior balconies. The romance of Tuscany comes home to Long Island here, and the outdoor space belongs to that same design rather than sitting behind the building as an afterthought. Guests tend to register it on arrival, before anyone has said a word about the venue.
Conclusion
Photos of outdoor space rarely tell you what you need to know. Scale, privacy, how the light falls in the afternoon, how far it really is from the ceremony spot to the cocktail hour, all of that only registers in person. Come take a tour and walk the gardens yourself. Call us at 631.368.4422, email in**@*******ld.com, or leave a message through our contact form and one of our representatives will be in touch shortly. You can also fill out the form on our pricing page to access the wedding pricing guide. We’re at 507 Larkfield Road, East Northport, NY 11731.
FAQs
How many guests fit in the gardens?
Up to 250. Our Orangerie holds the same number, so the outdoor and indoor sides of your ceremony or cocktail hour match in capacity.
Can we have the ceremony and reception here?
Yes. Indoor and outdoor ceremony space is included, and the reception follows in one of our ballrooms. One location, no travel in between.
Is garden photography included?
Yes. Garden access for photography comes with your wedding, along with the cocktail hour, dinner reception, full service bar, bridal suite, wedding cake, and linens, tables and chairs.
Are the gardens private?
Completely private, with a multitude of photography options across the grounds.