The major reason to choose April for your wedding in Central Park is the cherry blossom. If you like the look of the trees laden with the pretty pink blossom in the background of any of your photos then this is the month to get married in Central Park.
The drawback is that we can never be quite certain when the blossom will start to come out, and at what point during April it will be at it’s best. It all depends when the temperatures start to warm up. The blossom can start to come out as early as mid-March, or may not start to bloom until we’re a week or so into April. The different varieties of cherry trees blossom at slightly different times.
It’s not just Central Park where you can enjoy these lovely blossoms; for example, there are lots of cherry trees in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, Riverside Park overlooking the Hudson, and Roosevelt Island (which also has a great vantage point over the East River and Manhattan, so a lovely spot for wedding photos if you have the time to get over there).
Generally, many of the trees in Central Park will still look fairly bare in April. The lush greenery stage of the park’s seasonal circle won’t have quite kicked in yet. The new leaves will be just starting to grow. The best area to enjoy the blossom in the central area of the park is around Cherry Hill. There are some rustic structures in the park covered in foliage by the end of the summer that will still look quite bare in April. Cop Cot has a thick cover of greenery by the end of the summer that just won’t be there yet in April.
Easter usually falls in April, so the break from school is often a good time for couples with families to travel. Many of my couples are Brits, where we have a big holiday over Easter, but the City Clerk’s Office does not close for any weekdays to observe the period, so it won’t affect picking up your marriage license.
The temperatures will be warming up in New York in April. It will still be sweater weather in general, though and there is a good chance of rain, just like many places during the spring! The sun will be setting around 7:30pm. So, that’s a nice time to be on a rooftop watching the sky change color over the city (with a jacket!).