The Housing Works Bookstore Reviews

Housing Works provided a dream wedding come true! The space is really unique with a beautiful aesthetic and accommodates 100-110 fairly well. Bookstore by day, the venue cleans up. The staff and managers are really great to work with and really kind. They went above and beyond when accommodating our needs and making sure everything went smoothly. The day of the wedding, a managing member of the team was present and very active in facilitating all the behind-the-scenes logistics. People couldn't stop telling us how great the wedding was and how unique of a space it is. Plus, the $7000 required for deposit is a tax write-off. I would easily recommend Housing Works for a more non-traditional, but no-less wonderful, wedding venue.

Deciding to have our wedding at the Housing Works Bookstore was definitely the best choice we made in our wedding planning journey. The space is unique, warm, and intimate and was perfect for our New Year’s Eve wedding. The people who work there couldn’t have been any more helpful and kind. Our venue coordinator Tomek made sure that every detail was fine tuned for the big night and he did whatever he could to make sure every one of our visions came to life within the space. I was worried about the potential for rigidity having a wedding in a bookstore, but they couldn’t have been any more accommodating and flexible. This team knows what they’re doing. On top of that, they have hand picked an extensive list of vendors who have been in their unique venue and can pull off killer weddings and events within the specific layout of the space. One of the hardest parts of choosing our vendors was narrowing down the list of options because they were really all incredibly good choices. On the night of the wedding the venue looked like a dream. Our guests couldn’t get over how the space was transformed from a bookstore into the jaw dropping spectacle that it was. How they pull this off if beyond my understanding, but I can tell you that if you want a unique venue in NYC that will exceed all your expectations and leave your guests gushing for weeks to come, Housing Works Bookstore is for you. I can’t recommend them highly enough. (The photos I'm posting were taken by Forever Photography)

My husband and I had unofficially decided on Housing Works Bookstore for our wedding long before even seeing it set up for a wedding. Tomasz and his team made our ceremony and reception an absolutely perfect evening. They are a well oiled machine when it comes to setup and service. 10/10 would recommend!

We just had our wedding here and it exceeded our very high expectations. The number of guests that said "this is so cool!" and unique, etc. was so heartening. You get SO much for your money here (most of which you can take off your taxes) and it just...looks amazing. The coordinators were extremely helpful and responsive. The charity itself is an excellent one (look it up). They made the whole experience just incredible. The price we paid included a lot of up-charges we opted into that we think most people would (e.g., they have provide the bar and bartenders, but we went for the premium package; they can provide the linens and decorations, etc. which we also paid for).

You're going to spend money on a venue anyway-- why not make it go to a good cause? Tomasz was friendly and helpful, always guiding us towards staying within our budget and helping us figure out things other venues wouldn't, like help cleaning up at the end of the night. The venue itself is gorgeous and unique-- we used it for both the ceremony and reception. Very queer friendly!

Housing Works Bookstore is an incredible place. I was so excited to come across it during my online venue research. Firstly, they do amazing work to uplift the homeless living with HIV/AIDS. And I’d you choose this venue, the rental cost will be a donation to their mission. What’s better than that?!
Working with Tomasz was effortless. He’s professional, kind, organized, and just a genuinely good person. All the vendors HWBS and works with are on another level. Our guests were in awe and pleasantly surprised of how beautiful and magical a wedding can be inside a bookstore. Choose HWBS! You won’t regret it!

We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful venue for our reception! Tomasz went above and beyond every step of the way for us. Thank you so much!

100% recommended, and yes we are going to return here for our 5/10-year anniversary!!

We had our wedding recently (both ceremony and reception) from 7PM-midnight and writing to express huge thank you to Tomasz, our contact and event captain from the housing works bookstore. We met Tomasz for the first time when he showed us the venue for the tour, and we fell in love with the place and the people. The bookstore is beautiful, especially at night after being repurposed for the wedding.

For ~100 people wedding, the bookstore is perfect-sized (we had 75 guests). We loved the missions of the housing works, and the bookstore fitted with our wedding theme and our goal. Tomasz is very organized, and he makes sure you have absolutely beautiful day through multiple meetings, and he is 100% present on the wedding day by making sure the day flows smoothly.

We also found the housing works bookstore rate is extremely reasonable, and rather affordable given the convenient location and what the venue offers. The bookstore offers the liquor, and we found, at first, wine selection is a bit limited, but later we noticed they are quite delicious. Guests often commented how unique the venue is, and how pleased they were with the whole experience.

Highly recommended, and if you are not hiring for the wedding, please visit during the day (either bookstore or thrift shops) and support Housing Works!

Oh wow - where to begin! First of all, as a New Yorker, Housing Works has renowned immaculate vibes. Not only is it a wonderful organization doing the good work of fighting homelessness and HIV in NYC, it's one of those magical New York places that just *feels good* the moment you walk in. You know? It smells like old books, the floors creak a little, it's been the home to many a famous open mic and intimate concert - it's the real deal. History, romance, and purpose are all vibrantly present in the space.

For anyone who is looking to make their wedding unique and special (and who maybe doesn't vibe with the traditional pomp and circumstance of big, formal weddings), this is your place. You get to be married surrounded but art and stories. The staff is absolutely incredible and will help you design an evening that feels authentic to you. Pro tip - they know what they're doing! Listen to their suggestions - I promise they aren't trying to upsell you, they just want you to have the best experience ever. I'm really glad that we took all their advice an worked with their perferred vendors. Everyone who was a part of our celebration was a delight and went above and beyond to make sure we were taken care of.

Our wedding was fun, no stress, joyous, and exceeded all our expectations. Can't recommend HWBS enough - I wish we could get married all over again!

The perfect venue for our intimate ceremony and reception. Dad walked me down "the aisle" to bagpipes from the balcony; our UU (occasionally funny) ceremony brought tears; with drinks and superb dinner perfectly accommodated.

We cannot say enough good things about Tomek and his team, or the venue itself. Planning a wedding at Housing Works was easy, efficient and fun at every step of the process. Tomek is incredibly professional and invested in making sure every detail is to your liking, and all the bartenders and event staff were friendly and super capable. A couple of especially great things: 1. Your wedding can be as simple or involved as you like, since the bookstore and Tomek are really flexible; 2. No need to go crazy with decor, since the store is already one of the most beautiful interior spaces in New York; 3. The venue pricing is eminently reasonable, and you can feel great about what you do spend, since the proceeds function as a donation to Housing Works' homelessness and HIV/AIDS efforts. Top to bottom, an amazing experience.

Our wedding ceremony and reception took place at Housing Works Bookstore on August 28, 2021 and we had the best time! Our original date was back in June 2020, and HW was extremely helpful and easy to work with as we changed our date multiple times throughout the pandemic. The clear dedication and passion of the staff we worked with gave us every confidence that our wedding would be beautiful, and they worked seamlessly with our other vendors and our day-of-coordinator. The space is already beautiful and full of life during their normal business hours, so the ambience cannot be matched for a unique and beautiful celebration. We would very highly recommend Housing Works Bookstore for anyone considering that type of space for their big day.

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe hosts events, and it's an amazing space. My wife and I had our wedding here in June, and we couldn't be happier with the result. When you walk into a bookstore on a normal day, it's cute, but it doesn't look like a place where you would host a wedding. Looks can be deceiving. Josh and his team turn the bookstore into a classy, erudite, and intimate space with a little work and a lot of creativity. Housing Works Bookstore was the perfect venue for our 80 person wedding, which consisted of a short ceremony, a full plated dinner, and an evening of dancing to jazz music. We would recommend Housing Works to anyone who wanted to host a small, classy, and intimate event.

We actually booked Housing Works site unseen (due to COVID19). My wife and I were living across the world, and we couldn't come together to check out venues due to travel restrictions. We worked exclusively with Josh, who is simply wonderful. Josh is thoughtful, accommodating, honest, and easy to get along with. From the very beginning, Josh made my wife and I extremely comfortable. He carefully walked us through all the options, choices, and impacts of various decisions. He helped us frame up our event, and design a wedding that was perfect for us. Without his care and patience, our event wouldn't have been near as memorable.

Housing Works provides bar options, and we went with the premium bar, added signature cocktails, and we also booked the wine table service for dinner. We are so happy that we selected those options. The bar and service was excellent (the set up is beautiful), the signature cocktails were loved by our guests, and the wine table service at dinner increased the intimacy and class of our dinner tenfold.

The ambiance and intimacy of the space was truly memorable. Josh and his team transform the bookstore into an intimate venue through the use of subtle lighting and carefully placed accents that highlight the old woodwork, the vintage books, and the industrial interior of the bookstore. The presence of the books all around the venue actually creates a cozy aesthetic, which brings people closer together. We couldn't imagine our wedding photos without all the books in the background!

Lastly, everyone at Housing Works is simply wonderful. The staff is kind and helpful. Empathy flows from staff, and that makes sense considering that Housing Works is a charity. Perhaps that was the best part of the whole event. Our venue fee went to a great cause - to a charity that does yeoman's work for those most in need in our great City.

My husband and I absolutely LOVED getting married at Housing Works Bookstore! The space is stunning and it felt like such a special place to have our big day. Our guests couldn't stop talking about how much they loved our venue. Tomek, the events coordinator at HWBS, is a pleasure to work with - he's friendly, professional, and efficient, and we felt like we were in good hands throughout the whole process. We also loved that Housing Works is an organization that's doing great work in New York and we were happy to support a good cause via our venue choice. I'd highly recommend HWBS to anyone looking for a slightly unconventional venue.

I don't even know where to begin... but because I have to start somewhere, let's start with the space itself. if you're considering HW, hopefully you're familiar with their mission (the nonprofit), the incredible book collection, the string lights... Gorgeous space all around, which also helps you save on superfluous lights, flowers (we had none, we didn't feel the need... we spent more on food!), etc. The space is the draw!

We were married privately earlier in the pandemic and postponed our renewal ceremony and party at HW when we hoped things would become simpler, safer. Fast forward to our pandemic, blizzard wedding of ~90 people, navigating proof of vaccination, an extra hour of party time and late night bites so people wouldn't have to venture out after hours...

Our wonderful HW people were there every step of the way. While we originally signed with Josh (who is so lovely), Josh ultimately left HW and handed us over to Tomek, who I would, honestly, follow into hell because he gets it. You want to work with someone who doesn't get rattled by spreadsheets and last-minute safety changes, pandemic or not. And that's what you get at HW: a uniquely beautiful place, an incredible list of preferred vendors who also understand and respect HW (the space and the mission), and staff who make you feel seen. Our all-start support system: our coordinator Gillian, our photographer Kelly, our bartenders, our caricature artists (we had caricature artists! Not a preferred vendor and HW completely handled this dream of ours), our caterer (Comparti) -- it was all somehow exactly as I would have hoped, and that's with a difficult pandemic with a lot of important red tape and a blizzard.

HW is special. It may not be for everyone, but if it's for you, you'll cherish the experience forever.

We were married at Housing Works Bookstore on 3/7/2020, and I still cannot believe how warm and magical our wedding was. Choosing Housing Works as our venue was the best decision we made in the whole planning process--Josh is a dream to work with, and has great relationships with vendors. We basically followed all of Josh's recommendations for vendors and were delighted with how easy (and fun!) the process was from there. No drama, no problems, just awesome professionals who all care about supporting Housing Works and fighting the twin crises of HIV/AIDS and Homelessness.

Getting married at the Housing Works Bookstore is a way to make sure the money you spend on your wedding supports a good cause--and it is really well-priced for Manhattan! We had a cocktail-style receptions, which I would absolutely recommend. I was a bit nervous about how it would work beforehand, but it was fantastic! Everyone was drinking, eating, talking, and dancing the whole night without being interrupted for sit-down meal service.

The appeal of getting married in a bookstore means having bookshelves as your backdrop, plus Housing Works provides electric candles among the books, string lights, and even has book bundles you can use for centerpieces. With all that, it really doesn't require extensive décor, we just used additional candles and small bud vases for the tables. I highly recommend attending one of their open houses so you can see how gorgeous the space looks when set up for an event.

If you get married at Housing Works Bookstore, I promise you'll have a wedding your guests will never forget, all while supporting a great cause!

We celebrated our wedding (both the ceremony and reception) at the Housing Works Bookstore at the end of October. From the time we started working with Housing Works through the end of our event, we couldn’t have been happier with our experience. The space has an absolutely unique vibe that can’t be matched elsewhere, with books, string lights, and a balcony encircling the main area. There was something truly magical about being surrounded by loved ones during our ceremony. It’s hard to believe that a venue this wonderful also has such an excellent mission behind it, and we were thrilled that our venue cost was a donation to Housing Works’ mission. Josh, our event coordinator, was kind, funny, detail-oriented, and extremely professional throughout our planning process. He offered his expert recommendations whenever we had questions about the space and was extraordinarily accommodating, from bar setup to venue access to planning meetings to vendor collaboration. He was there on the night of the wedding to ensure that it was a perfect, effortless, and unforgettable evening for us. Thank you so much, Josh and Housing Works, for making our wedding such a fantastic event!

What really made HousingWorks spectacular for us was the staff. The whole day functioned as a well-oiled machine! Every detail was thought out and excellently cared for. The planning process was straightforward and we always knew our options and the due dates. For a ceremony and reception venue in Manhattan, we found the rates they offered really competitive, especially given what excellent service we received. Everyone at the wedding remarked what a unique and beautiful venue it was and every single person I've run into who has been to a wedding there still remembers it years later! If you want a memorable and unique wedding, do yourself a favor and book with HousingWorks!!!

We had a wonderful wedding at Housing Works in August 2019. The venue was gorgeous (and affordable, without looking like we'd compromised at all). Tomasz and his team were incredibly helpful, both in the run-up to the wedding and on the day itself. Thank you, Housing Works!

Working with Tomek was awesome. He was very professional throughout the entire process. He was quick to respond to all our emails and answered all our questions. We met several times to discuss our vision, including attending an open house event that housing works offers. We felt very confident that the venue was going to look perfect the day of and it did. Thank you Tomek for all of your help. We highly recommend HWB and Tomek for your event!

The moment we heard that Housing Works hosted weddings, we knew it would be our venue. You can’t find a more beautiful, special, elegant, and purpose-filled venue — and at a very reasonable price. Tomasz and his team were a delight to work with, and we had such a wonderful wedding here. A truly one-of-a-kind, only-in-New-York venue.

If you're tired of the same traditional wedding, look no further! This place was so incredible from the set up to the very end. Josh is amazing! Plus it goes to charity so it's really the best venue!!

We got married at Housing Works this May and we are so happy with the decision on every level. Working with Tomek and his team was great - they're responsive, professional, have very useful advice/suggestions based on how you want your wedding to go and executed everything flawlessly the night of. The venue itself is a lot of fun - we had 115 people with a cocktail-type set up with seating for 80 and it worked great with the space. It wasn't too crowded but was comfortable and had people up and mingling everywhere you looked. The layout worked great for food as well as for dancing and we got rave reviews from friends and family alike for the unique set up.

My guests couldn’t stop talking about how much they loved this venue. A quaint bookstore by day, Housing Works Bookstore transforms itself for special occasions into something quite magical. Spiral staircases, dozens of votive candles, soft strung lights and draped walls created a warm and welcoming atmosphere. The staff was most accommodating throughout the process and the evening flowed smoothly from one moment to the next. And it’s close to the F train stop! Totally perfect!

I highly recommend booking this space if you want an intimate, vintage vibe. Josh, the store event manager, was a pleasure to work with. He is so accommodating and really guided me on how to plan for a smooth set up that included the ceremony, the cocktails, and dinner. Josh was very helpful in recommending reliable wedding vendors such as my caterer, the band, and my day-of coordinator. Though I went a little bit over the budget for the venue, I think I got my money's worth. They handled the linens, the chairs, the lighting, and alcohol as well with additional pricing.All in all, I had no regrets in booking this place. (Bonus: proceeds will help HIV/AIDs people)