The State Room on film, through two weddings we shot 33 floors above Boston Harbor: a summer ceremony in daylight and an October one at blue hour.

Most of what you will find about State Room weddings is photographers’ galleries, and they are good at showing you the view in a single frame. A film asks different questions of a room: which way the windows face, what they do to faces in daylight, what happens to them as the sun goes down, and where you can go when you step outside.

We have filmed two weddings at the State Room, and between them they show the room at both ends of the day. Caroline and Eric married in summer daylight. Rachel and Bryan married on an October evening, at blue hour. Same building, same windows, two very different films.

Thirty-three floors above the harbour

The State Room is at 60 State Street in the Financial District, thirty-three floors up. Longwood Venues, which runs it, lists four spaces: the Great Room and Mezzanine, for up to 560 at dinner and dancing; Harborside 1 and 2, divided by a retractable wall, for 240; Cityside, for 90; and a boardroom. Between them the rooms look out across 270 degrees of harbour and city.

Boston’s brick streets and the harbour seen from a window of the State Room, thirty-three floors above State Street

Caroline and Eric’s film opens on that view, shot straight through the glass: the old brick streets far below, the harbour, and the far shore beyond. It is the establishing shot most venues need a drone for. Here the window does the job, which is just as well: the FAA’s automatic drone ceiling around 60 State Street is 150 feet, a long way below the 33rd floor, and on Red Sox home days no drone may fly there at all. We looked up the airspace at 20 venues we have filmed, this one included.

Which way the windows face

In both of our films the ceremony was set against the windows on the harbour side, and in both you can see the Custom House clock tower in one of the panes. That puts the view to the east. The sun sets on the other side of the building, behind the city.

So, as at the Boston Harbor Hotel, the harbour windows will not give you a sunset. They give you something that suits film better: blue hour, when the sky over the water turns deep blue and the lights along the waterfront come on. From thirty-three floors up you see all of it at once.

A daylight ceremony: Caroline and Eric

Caroline and Eric married in the Great Room in summer, in full daylight. Their ceremony was set with clear chairs on a black-and-white checkerboard floor and tall arrangements of white flowers, with the harbour filling the glass behind them and the mezzanine staircase, wrapped in greenery, to one side of the room.

A bride and groom holding hands at their ceremony in front of floor-to-ceiling windows over Boston Harbor at the State Room, on a black-and-white checkerboard floor

Part of their ceremony took place at a table set with candles, white flowers and trays of sweets. The two of them sat side by side while the women around them held a long lace cloth above their heads, and afterwards, still at the table, they fed each other from their fingertips with the harbour laid out behind them. Moments like these are why we film the whole ceremony rather than just the vows. They are some of the most joyful minutes in the film, and the ones families rewatch.

The one thing a daylight ceremony up here asks of you is a little planning. A wall of bright glass behind a couple makes faces darker to the camera, and on a clear afternoon the difference is large. It is entirely manageable, and it helps to know in advance where the officiant will stand and which way you will face. If you can move the ceremony later, even by forty minutes, the contrast drops considerably.

A blue-hour ceremony: Rachel and Bryan

Rachel and Bryan married on the last Saturday of October, and their invitation set the ceremony for 5:30 in the evening. The sun set that day at 5:43, and civil twilight — the end of blue hour — came at 6:12. So their ceremony began thirteen minutes before sunset and finished in the middle of blue hour.

That is the frame at the top of this page. By the time they kissed, the harbour had gone deep blue with the lights of the waterfront in it, the top of the Custom House tower was lit behind them, and the rust and orange flowers framing the windows stood out against the sky. It is the best argument we know for timing a State Room ceremony to the sun.

It worked because they had done their portraits outdoors in the afternoon, before the ceremony, so nothing was waiting on the light. If you want the same effect, start from your date’s sunset and work backwards. Our month-by-month sunset table has the times for every month of 2027.

One room, two ways

Rachel and Bryan’s ceremony used wooden cross-back chairs, and their dinner tables were already set in the same room: long wooden tables under strings of bistro lights, with the city showing through the windows once it was dark. Caroline and Eric went for black and white — clear chairs, the checkerboard floor, white flowers — and after dark, speeches at a head table with the lights of the city behind them and a first dance on that same checkerboard floor.

The State Room set for dinner, with long wooden tables under strings of bistro lights and the city lit up in the windows

A room of glass and hard floor is lively to the ear, so the cleanest speech audio comes from the microphone itself rather than from the room. It is worth confirming with your DJ or band that every speech will be on a microphone we can record from.

Stepping outside

Sixty State Street puts you in the oldest part of the city. Rachel and Bryan went down to the street for portraits and ended up kissing on the corner with the Old State House behind them and a crowd of passers-by looking on. It is one of the moments that places their film unmistakably in Boston.

A bride and groom kissing on a street corner in downtown Boston with the Old State House behind them

Caroline and Eric went a little further, to the Public Garden, for portraits on the footbridge over the lagoon and a wedding party photo by the water under the willows. It is less than a mile from the door, but build the drive into the timeline: downtown on a Saturday afternoon, a short trip can take longer than the distance suggests.

Planning notes for a State Room wedding

Time the ceremony to the sun. A ceremony that begins shortly before sunset ends in blue hour, which is when this room looks its best. Look up your date in our sunset table before you fix the time.
Do your portraits first. For an evening ceremony, portraits in daylight beforehand are what make the timing work.
Tell us which room. The Great Room with its mezzanine, the Harborside rooms and Cityside look out in different directions and need different planning.
Plan for the glass in daylight. For an afternoon ceremony, tell us where the officiant will stand. Bright windows behind a couple are easier to plan for than to fix.
Don’t count on a drone. The windows give you a better aerial than a drone could here, and on Red Sox home days the airspace is closed altogether. Our drone airspace guide has the details.
Leave time for the street. The Old State House is a two-minute walk from the door; the Public Garden needs a car.

The State Room is one of the venues in our guide to the best wedding venues in Boston. You can watch more of our Boston weddings in the gallery, see what each collection includes, or tell us your date and we will tell you what time the sun sets on it.