Oheka Castle on Long Island’s Gold Coast is about thirty-two miles from Midtown Manhattan, and the drive can take an hour or more. The last few miles may require a car for guests or a shuttle for larger groups. Coaches entering Oheka must use East Gate Drive, which runs past the Cold Spring Country Club. At the far end, the coach should turn left towards the back entrance. Cars and guests come in the front, using West Gate Drive. Give the transport company this in writing.
Most guests will fly into JFK or LaGuardia, and from there the ride runs forty-five minutes to an hour and a half. MacArthur is closest, but serves fewer cities. From JFK, the AirTrain will take you to Jamaica Station, where you can switch to the Long Island Railroad. You can take the LIRR to the Cold Spring Harbor or Huntington stations, and a coach should be waiting, or at least planned out. When taking the train out, use the long version ”Cold Spring Harbor on the Long Island Rail Road” on your wedding website. Cold Spring on the Metro North is a different town, in the Hudson Valley. Cold Spring Harbor station is 5 to 10 minutes from the gate. Manhattan is about an hour from Huntington on the LIRR.
The hotel opens its dressing room for the wedding party at 8 a.m., the couple’s suite at 1 p.m., and check-in is at 3 p.m. For an afternoon ceremony, anyone who must dress in their own room should book the night before. Parents, grandparents and the wedding party are at the castle early, so save the rooms for them.
The event runs five hours in a row, starting between 1 and 7 p.m. Everything has to be done by 1 a.m. Book the last shuttle to that time, not to a guess. The first shuttle should land well before the ceremony, and the last one after the final song. Schedule an early bus an hour or two before the party’s over.
The castle hotel has 34 rooms, which sleep about 68 people. For a wedding of around 200 guests, that leaves about 130 who will sleep elsewhere or have to drive home. Keep the offsite guests in one or two hotels, and run a shuttle from each to the venue. Try to make two pickup points, at most. Steer the out-of-town guests away from Manhattan hotels on the wedding night: it’s a long ride back into town from the reception. A Manhattan hotel is fine before or after the wedding. Guests do not need their own car for the wedding, only to see more of the North Shore.
The rest of the wedding weekend is in Huntington village, ten minutes away from Oheka. Most guests will stay in Huntington or Melville. You can welcome them the night before the wedding with dinner in the village, and join them for brunch the morning after at the castle or in the village. Check out of the castle is at 11 a.m., so start brunch early.
Your Planner
Hire a planner for an Oheka wedding. The staff are busy running the kitchen, service and rooms. It’s your planner who will run the rooming list, the shuttles to the venue from two hotels, the outside vendors and the rain call. Agree in advance when the rain call will be made, and by whom. For the rain plan, only the ceremony moves indoors, since dinner and dancing are already inside. So no tent is needed. October has early sunsets, so move the ceremony up to keep daylight for portraits.
Make sure you know what time the band and florist can start load-in on the day of the wedding, and when they have to be off the property. No parties in the guest rooms are allowed, so talk to the venue about which room they’ll offer as an afterparty space.
A Stretch Limo in New York
If you want to hire a stretch limo in New York for nine or more people including the driver, that driver will need to have a Class C commercial license with a Passenger (P) endorsement. Since February 3, 2021 these limos have to pass New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) safety inspections twice a year. As part of the 2024 New York state budget, lawmakers voted to require stretch limos to be retired after 10 years or 350,000 miles. The law also requires drivers of stretch limos to give passengers a pre-trip safety briefing.
Before you book, make sure the operator is licensed and insured. Check that the driver has a valid Commercial Driver License with a Passenger endorsement, and that the limo has a valid diamond-shaped NYSDOT inspection sticker. On the car, you should be able to find emergency exits, a window-break tool, and seatbelts. If the limo doesn’t meet these requirements, call the NYSDOT hotline at 833-727-0901.
If you’re also renting a luxury car for the weekend, a New York rental company is not allowed to refuse anyone 18 or older only because of their age. That’s as long as insurance is available for that age, and the company can pass on the actual extra insurance cost to you. If you buy an optional damage waiver for a car with an MSRP over $50,000, there’s no cap on the daily charge. In that case, the charge has to reflect fair market value.
Back at the venue, the arrival courtyard at Oheka is cobbled, and the mezzanine levels in the hotel are not accessible by elevator. Ask the venue which entrance and route are step-free from drop-off to ceremony, dinner and restrooms, wet or dry.
