Brian and Cathy renewed their wedding vows in Wagner Cove this June. They came over from their home in Glasgow, Scotland with a small group.
The couple met in 1984 on Citizen Band Radio. They were together for a year before getting engaged, three years after that they had their daughter Susan, but they did not get married until they had been engaged for eighteen years. They had a small wedding at their local registry office.
This year Cathy turned 50, so Brian decided to plan to surprise her with renewing their wedding vows somewhere a little more exciting than the local registry office. “I wanted to show her that I still love her today as much as I did when we met thirty-two years ago,” Brian told me. Their vow renewal ceremony was on Cathy’s birthday.
Brian said that he chose Central Park because it is such an iconic and well-known place, “I’ve watched a lot of films with Central Park in it and it always looks so romantic,” he said.
The couple were joined in New York by their daughter Susan and her fiancé Kevin and their friends Margaret and Don. They stayed at the Kitano Hotel on Park Avenue at 38th Street for five days. During the ceremony, Susan was ring-bearer and Don read the poem Marriage Joins Two People.
They chose Wagner Cove for the location of their wedding vow renewal. “It is such a beautiful place to be married,” said Brian. “Also, we got lots of pictures taken all over Central Park at so many beautiful locations,” he added. After the ceremony and photos in Central Park, they went to Times Square for more pictures, then on for drinks and a meal to celebrate.
While this was a gift from Brian to Cathy, he decided to tell her in advance of hs plans, rather than surprise her on the day, so Cathy was involved in the planning process. “Claire was great,” she said, “she was in contact all the time asking if she could help us with anything, she arranged everything for us and we had a great day, everything ran smoothly. It is so hard to arrange things in another country so having Claire was a God send. We would recommend Claire to anyone arranging a wedding or vow renewal in New York.”
Thank you for sharing your story with us, Brian and Cathy, I wish you the best of luck for the rest of your lives together. It was lovely to be involved in your wedding vow renewal.
For more information on planning your own Central Park wedding, visit our website, or “like” us on Facebook for photos and more inspiring stories.
