Melanie and Joshua are New Yorkers, born and raised. They live in Bronx, NYC. They met in December 2006 through the social website MySpace. Joshua proposed to Melanie after they had been together for six months, which was seven and a half years ago. He just stopped and knelt down on one knee in the middle of the street and asked her to marry him. Of course, she said yes.
I asked why being married is important to them and Melanie said, “because this is a union that will be for a lifetime. Joshua is my best friend. Someone I can trust, laugh with and be myself with.”
They did consider getting married in City Hall for a short time, but they decided not to in the end because they did not think that it was private or intimate enough for them, “it reminded me more of the DMV office,” said Melanie. I can see why she says that, it is a mixture of happy people getting married and bored and grouchy people waiting to complete dull paperwork. Also, couples are not able to schedule their wedding ceremony at City Hall, they just have to wait their turn, which is not very helpful if you have a schedule to keep to that day, such as restaurant reservations.
They both knew Central Park was beautiful, since they live in the city, so they decided that it suited them best. They could look around Central Park and find the location that they liked the best and they chose Cop Cot. They did worry a little about the weather, as all couples do when getting married outdoors, “thankfully on our wedding day the weather could not have been more perfect,” said Melanie.
Many of Melanie’s family speak Spanish as their first language, and Joshua’s family speak English. So, we wrote a ceremony with both languages, the officiant spoke for a few sentences in English, then repeated what she had said in Spanish. Joshua speaks no Spanish, though, so the vows that they said to each other were just in English.
Melanie wore a gown that she had purchased from David’s Bridal. It is a beautiful long, lace dress with a sweetheart neckline. She added a light pink belt with rhinestones and she carried ivory roses with pearls in her bouquet.
Because this couple live locally they had quite a large group by our usual standards of twenty-seven guests. This was all of Melanie and Joshua’s immediate family. At first they thought that getting married in Central Park was a little strange. Once they saw the ceremony location, with Brian, our guitarist playing, they all agreed that it was a lovely and romantic place for a wedding.
On the morning of their wedding day, Melanie went to her church that she had attended since her childhood. She prayed for blessings on her marriage. After the ceremony they had a few more photographs taken around Central Park. Then they went with their photographer, Lindsey Trimble to 42nd Street to take some of those iconic New York City photos. Then after all that the wedding party had a private room at Calle Ocho, which they would certainly recommend.
Melanie and Joshua were very happy with their choice of Central Park as a wedding location, it was certainly the economical choice for them, and was nice and easy, “Central Park is so beautiful, you don’t even have to take any decorations!” said Melanie.
“I would like to thank Claire, she was amazing from the beginning, and always so attentive with my questions and concerns. I didn’t know where to start but Claire made everything run smoothly. Thank you so much Claire!” said Melanie. Thank you for sharing your story with us, Melanie and Joshua, I wish you the best of luck for your futures together. For more information on planning your own Central Park wedding, visit our website, or “like” us on Facebook for photos and more inspiring stories.
