Cindy and Damian brought their two kids over from their home in Belgium to New York with them in July to renew their marriage vows in Central Park. Damian is originally from Gloucester in England and Cindy is from Antwerp in Belgium. They were 48 and 50 when they renewed their vows and this was their 20th wedding anniversary.
They met online back in February of 2002. It’s pretty common to hear from many of our couples getting married in recent years that they met online, but back in those days it was much more unusual. The world of online Yahoo Messenger was very different to how things are today! Cindy, was at home in Belgium; in a chat room waiting for friends to come online. Damian, was at home in England, and he decided to choose a person in the chat room at random to talk to.
Cindy’s profile name was “Cinderellabella” and she asked Damian to guess her real name. Damian’s guess was that her name might be Trevor. “This was obscure enough to peak my interest, we continued to chat for the rest of the evening and forgot that we were waiting for our friends,” Cindy told me. They spoke every night from that point on until they decided that it was time to meet in London just a few weeks later.
Cindy caught the overnight bus from Antwerp which would arrive at 8am, Damian caught his bus to arrive at around the same time. “Damian had never seen a photo of me and had no clue what I looked like, but said not to worry as he had his trusty mobile phone,” Cindy said, and she told me that the phone would have been quite a brick back then. Cindy didn’t have a phone though, so she tried to call him with a payphone, just as she was in the phone box, a rather worried looking guy asked if she was Cindy. “We spent the whole day exploring London and had our first kiss outside of Selfridges,” she said. They visited each other a few times over the coming months, but soon Damian said that he didn’t want to leave and they decided that he would move in with Cindy. A few months later Damian asked Cindy to marry him.
Cindy and Damian got married in England in August of 2003. “Marriage wasn’t important to either of us before we met. But when we got together we just knew that we wanted to commit our lives to one another, it somehow felt that it completed us,” Cindy told me.
It is a tradition for them to renew their marriage vows every five years, “it is a lot of fun and gives us plenty to look forward to,” Cindy said. Damian also proposes every five years, before the vow renewal. They renewed their vows in Las Vegas for their tenth anniversary, Gretna Green in Scotland five years after that. Now they’ve renewed their vow in New York they’re considering idea for the years to come. They said maybe Iceland or Santorini next – both very popular elopement or destination wedding locations, too.
So, once they had decided on Central Park, they found me. Cindy said that they “hadn’t a clue” how to arrange everything, “and that’s how Wed in Central Park became invaluable to us,” she said. They loved Central Park because “it’s beautiful and iconic,” according to Cindy, of course I very much agree!
Cindy and Damian chose the Ladies’ Pavilion for their vow renewal ceremony location. They held the ceremony mid-morning, which left the rest of the day for sightseeing. They chose the “just the ceremony” package from us, and then arranged their own photographer/tour guide for the day, Ricki’s Walking Tours. She took Cindy and Damian and their daughters (17 and 19 years old) over to Dumbo to take photos there.
Weddings are of course very special, but I do always especially enjoy writing the wording for a vow renewal. This is because there’s often such a lot to say, many couples renewing their vows have been together longer than couples who are getting married (although not always!) so there’s lots to say! “The ceremony was exactly as we wanted, we had lots of fun,” said Cindy.
We had the officiant talk a little about how they met, and what their wedding was like, and the major life events since. “Our officiant, was amazing, she understood the vibe that we wanted was not too serious and was really easy to get on with,” said Cindy. Their daughters had each prepared something to read out during the introduction and we had the officiant talk about how important their kids were to them. They Cindy and Damian exchanged traditional vow and said “I do” for the fourth time! “Claire from had made sure that everything ran smoothly from helping with writing of the vows to coordinating all relevant permits. It meant that all we had to do was enjoy our day,” said Cindy.
Initially the plan was for it to be just Cindy and Damian and their two daughters in attendance, but as a surprise, Damian’s mother, sister and friend were there. I always ask what the guests thought about holding a vow renewal Central Park. “They thought it was an amazing idea and a beautiful venue,” Cindy told me. Cindy and Damian had decided to keep their attire to smart casual, “as it was a city vow renewal and we knew that we still needed to travel around to get pictures on Brooklyn Bridge and in Dumbo,” Cindy said.
I asked what Cindy would say to others considering doing what they did and renewing their vows in Central Park. “We would recommend all people involved in this vow renewal,” Cindy said. “Your planning was spot on, communication excellent. Thank you for making this such a success,” she added.
We are so happy to have been a part of your five yearly tradition. Thank you for sharing your story with us. If you would like me to help you with planning your own Central Park wedding, or a vow renewal as this ceremony was, visit our website. Keep updated with our news and see lots of beautiful photos, follow us on Instagram, follow us on Facebook, follow us on TikTok, and follow us on Pinterest.