Wedding DJ at The Gramercy at Lakeside Manor in Hazlet, NJ

The Space

Since 1997, this property in Hazlet has hosted weddings, and a renovation by Valhalla Design and Development gave it the scale it has today: 20-foot ceilings, a dramatic entrance, a sweeping staircase, and a fireplace near the arrival point. The grand ballroom itself runs 4,000 square feet, with a ceiling draped in fabric and a balcony that looks down over the room from above.

Floor-to-ceiling windows in the main banquet hall look out over Natco Lake, so the room’s main visual feature isn’t a chandelier or a stage, it’s the water outside. The venue books only one event per day, which means a couple has the full property and staff attention rather than sharing the calendar, and by extension the parking lot and timeline, with another wedding the same day.

Capacity & Layout

The main ballroom seats 310, and the outdoor pavilion, which also overlooks Natco Lake, holds up to 250 guests on its own, giving a couple two genuinely different reception settings depending on the season and the feel they want. Ceremonies happen in the courtyard, around a handmade iron gazebo, or in the landscaped garden, separate from both reception spaces.

That separation between ceremony courtyard, indoor ballroom, and outdoor pavilion means a wedding here has real geography to it, guests physically move between distinct settings rather than staying in one room all evening. A spacious dance floor is part of the ballroom’s layout, positioned to make use of the room’s height and the balcony overlooking it.

Amenities

Catering is on-site, run by an executive chef with customized menus, and a full bar operates through the venue rather than being brought in separately. Valet parking is available, which matters at a venue with both an indoor ballroom and an outdoor pavilion pulling guests in different directions across the property, since guests arriving for an evening reception don’t want to hunt for their own parking spot in the dark, especially once it’s fully booked with only one wedding running that day.

The venue is handicap accessible and offers Wi-Fi, and it permits cold spark effects and a dancing-on-a-cloud effect for the reception, both specialty additions that not every venue allows. Google reviewers rate the Gramercy 4.8 out of 5 across more than 500 reviews, with WeddingWire and The Knot both around 4.9, consistent praise across three separate platforms.

Location & Getting There

The Gramercy sits along the shore of Natco Lake in Hazlet, New Jersey, and the lake is worked into nearly every part of the venue: the outdoor pavilion overlooks it, the main ballroom’s windows frame it, and the manicured gardens lead down toward it. It’s a lakeside property built to keep that view in front of guests all day, not tucked away behind a back garden.

Because the grand ballroom has 20-foot ceilings, a draped fabric ceiling, and a balcony overlooking the floor, sound has real room to fill without feeling cramped: a DJ working this room can expect height and volume to work in their favor, while the outdoor pavilion, open to the lake air, calls for a different setup entirely, more like an open-air reception than an enclosed ballroom.