Cipriani 42nd Street · 110 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017
Cipriani 42nd Street is a single monumental room — a former Bowery Savings Bank with 65-foot ceilings, marble columns and a mezzanine — right beside Grand Central Terminal. The scale is the whole point.
What the venue gives you
One enormous hall with a colonnade, mosaic and marble floors, a mezzanine that gives you a high wide angle, and dramatic event lighting. Just outside: Grand Central’s facade and, inside it, Vanderbilt Hall and the main concourse.
Where the portraits happen
- Between the columns, shot low — the couple dwarfed by the architecture.
- The mezzanine — a wide, high frame of the whole room.
- The entrance and Park Avenue facade — a covered city frame.
- Grand Central — Vanderbilt Hall or the concourse, a two-minute walk, subject to access.
Timeline notes
Shoot the room before guests are seated for the clean architectural frames — the mezzanine especially. A Grand Central portrait needs planning: the terminal is public and busy, and interior photography there can require permission for anything beyond a quick handheld frame.
The rain plan
The hall is entirely interior and enormous — weather is irrelevant unless you were counting on the Grand Central exterior, which still works under cover.
Frequently asked questions
Can we photograph inside Grand Central?
Is the room too dark for portraits?
Getting married at Cipriani? Tell us your date and we’ll plan the columns, the mezzanine and a Grand Central frame.