Details about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding remain firmly under wraps, but that hasn’t stopped rumors from swirling about what their wedding might look like or where it might take place. Though early chatter suggested they might tie the knot in Watch Hill, R.I., where Swift owns a home, recent tabloid headlines suggest the possibility of a New York wedding during this Fourth of July weekend.
Swift is known for her love of the Big Apple. She owns a massive compound in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood, and her 2014 song, “Welcome to New York,” is an ode to the city. She and Kelce also reportedly attended a wedding in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood in May.
If the couple were to wed in New York, the venue would need to match the scale of a pop star and star athlete celebration.
So when rumors surfaced on Friday that the wedding could take place at Madison Square Garden, one factor made it feel somewhat plausible: the arena’s highly controlled environment. With extensive security infrastructure, the Garden would offer a level of privacy and protection that other event spaces could not match. And with enough money and imagination, even an iconic arena can be transformed into a wedding venue.
Rumors aside, here are five venues in New York where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce could host their wedding.
Casa Cipriani
Located at the southern tip of Manhattan, Cipriani South Street, the event venue at Casa Cipriani, is a charming spot overlooking New York Harbor. The property also includes multiple event spaces, a boutique hotel and a private member’s club, where Swift and Kelce have been spotted.
With its private club, the venue is accustomed to handling the security requirements of high-profile guests and offers that expertise as a feature. The events complex has its own private entrance and lobby, complete with a grand staircase, separate from the hotel and club lobby. And, since the venue is on the southern tip of Manhattan, it feels a bit more secluded rather than being in the center of the city’s bustle.
The venue can accommodate 1,500 guests for wedding receptions — a larger capacity than most spaces in New York. Because the hotel has 47 guest rooms, it’s possible to arrange a full hotel buyout, making the property truly exclusive to the couple and their guests. “More and more guests are asking for that information,” said Tracey L. Brown, the director of catering and events. “Most hotel environments are very large and buying it out is not really an option.”
Casa Cipriani operates in the Battery Maritime Building, the ground floor of which is a ferry terminal opened in 1909 that provides access to Governors Island.
“We are here now and sort of giving a new life to this beautiful building,” Brown said. “It’s a Beaux-Arts architectural style masterpiece, one of the few left in New York City.”
Governors Island
Offering views of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty, Governors Island could be a fun, out-of-the-box choice.
Marcy Blum, a celebrity wedding planner, said that many clients look for locations beyond Manhattan “because there really are very few viable spaces in the city proper where you could do it all.”
Jason Rhee, who has been planning weddings since 2007, said, “A lot of our clients, especially celebrity clients, don’t want to do something that’s been done before.”
Governors Island offers a local escape just minutes from Lower Manhattan. “The feeling of being on the island really feels like you’re part of the city, yet you’re getting away and you’re being transported,” said Sarah Krautheim, the chief of staff of the island’s trust.
Collective Retreats, a luxury glamping site on Governors Island, has the infrastructure to host a reception of up to 250 guests and overnight stays in tents and private suites. Because nobody lives on the island, only guests can remain after public hours. Couples cannot reserve the entire island, which remains a public space.
Though Krautheim would be excited by the prospect of someone like Swift getting married on the island, “our mission is really to be a public space for all New Yorkers,” she said, and “we probably wouldn’t entertain an island takeover, so to speak.”
“I think as the island expands and continues to add more amenities, maybe we will get a couple more celebrity inquiries,” she continued. “But we haven’t heard from Taylor Swift’s wedding planner, I can confirm. But definitely something we’d be excited about.”
Hotel Chelsea
Mentioned in the title track of Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” the Hotel Chelsea is rich in history, art and music. Many guests who admire its former residents feel a connection to that legacy. Over the past century, numerous artists, like Janis Joplin and Patti Smith, have lived there. About 40 tenants still reside in the building, most of whom are artists, said Dominic Benevento, the hotel’s director of events.
“It really resonates with a lot of people, and you feel it,” Benevento said. “The hotel has a living energy to it in every corner.”
The singer Carly Rae Jepsen and Cole M.G.N., a music producer, for instance, got married there in October and felt connected to the music history of the hotel.
“The hotel becomes a part of their story. It’s like a character in the day,” Benevento said.
The property is best suited for 100 guests or fewer. So if Swift and Kelce wanted an intimate wedding, it could be here.
“We’d be thrilled if Taylor Swift wanted to do anything at the hotel for her wedding,” Benevento said.
New York Public Library — Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
“The library is one of the few iconic spaces that you can rent for a wedding or an event,” said Blum, who has planned several weddings at the Bryant Park branch, including those of Kevin Love and Kate Bock, and Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent. “It’s an iconic building. It’s very beautiful.”
The pros are that couples are able to bring in their own caterer and décor, making it more of a blank canvas for executing a vision.
But in order to keep the library accessible to the public, setup can begin only after the library closes, which is at 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and the time restrictions can make preparations challenging. The ceremony and cocktail hour typically take place in the library, or the ceremony may be held elsewhere, such as a church, because of the time constraints.
The reception usually takes place in the Celeste Bartos Forum, which is located downstairs and can accommodate 425 guests for a seated dinner, and setup there can begin beforehand. (The library is closed from July 3 to 5.)
The Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel on Central Park South is one of the most well-known hotels in New York and has been stamped on pop culture. The 2000s rom-com “Bride Wars” is about two best friends, played by Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson, whose dream weddings at the Plaza Hotel are accidentally booked on the same date.
“When people say they get married at the Plaza, there’s always a like, ‘Oh my God, the Plaza,’ you know?” said Mike Warren, the director of catering for the hotel’s banquet division.
The venue typically caps events at around 380 guests, and because of the exclusivity, it does not host multiple events in a single day, averaging about 40 weddings per year. “We probably could do more,” Warren said, “but we customize and we give that detailed attention, and weddings are very complicated. We have a lot of moving parts, so we purposely keep it around that.”
No one has ever done a full hotel buyout, he said, although some events have come close. Regarding a possible Taylor Swift wedding, “Nobody seems to know where it is,” he said. “If it were here, it would be amazing.”