Here Come the Knicks: Game 5 Crashes New York Weddings

u(k6gm8mpxu7t[hkl(e7(xbk_media_dl_1.png The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Stud

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(Bloomberg) — The most important detail at Victoria Perry’s traditional Greek Orthodox wedding this weekend is a very big television.

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On the same night as her long-planned nuptials on Saturday, the New York Knicks will be taking on the San Antonio Spurs for a shot at winning their first NBA title in more than half a century. 

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Perry, a 33-year-old film producer born and raised in New York, is spending several thousand dollars to convert the afterparty of her Manhattan wedding into something more like a high-end sports bar with a 70-inch TV screen to watch the game. Guests will munch on pizza and sliders, surrounded by Knicks-accented flower arrangements, team flags and pom-poms.

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She called it “the best money we spent” out of the entire six-figure budget for the 300-person wedding.

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“Basically our whole afterparty is going to be a Knicks watch party,” said Perry, who, like her fiancé, is a lifelong fan of the hometown team. “The last quarter, we’ll have everyone watching.”

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The fates of this weekend’s brides and grooms were sealed on Monday, when the Spurs beat the Knicks in Game 3, guaranteeing that the best-of-seven series would stretch to at least a fifth game.

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On Wednesday night, the Knicks overcame a 29-point deficit for the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, bringing their lead in the series to 3-1. That means the Knicks have a chance to win it all this weekend for the first time since 1973.

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Couples who picked their wedding dates more than a year ago have been scrambling to decide whether to shell out more money to incorporate the matchup into their already expensive celebrations, or risk guests disappearing into their phones to catch the action. 

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Wedding planner Irene Katzias organized a wedding reception during Game 4 for a guest list of 400 people, mostly New Yorkers, at a luxury ski lodge in Park City, Utah, complete with a floral ceiling installation and two 15-foot trees.

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The day before the $700,000 reception, her clients asked her to rearrange the space around two 72-inch screens to stream Game 4 of the Finals. And they wanted to start 30 minutes earlier so dinner would end in time for the Knicks-Spurs tipoff. The TVs only cost an additional $1,000, and the pair had already picked a blue-and-orange color scheme.  

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“Everything was very symmetrical and beautiful,” she said in an interview before the event. “Now, I am accommodating a large TV, which, as a designer, isn’t my favorite request, but as a planner, it’s important to really respect their story and respect their vision.”

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Afterward, she said the evening was “epic.”

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Not everyone wants to share their special day with the Knicks, or any sports team.

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June is peak wedding season, and the expenses have been rising. Katzias said that luxury weddings in New York that cost more than $400,000 last year are running at least $50,000 more this year. 

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Jesse Richman-Reing, founder of New York-based Events By Jesse, said weddings in New York average $1,500 a person.

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“Everyone’s giving the Knicks a shoutout,” said Richman-Reing, whose company has a wedding scheduled on Saturday. “But when people are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and their guests are coming in, they’re trying to still keep it about themselves.”