Jodie and Mike are from Redditch in England. Originally, their plan was to elope to New York to get married alone, but in the end, their parents and siblings decided to join them. They have been together for seven years since they met through a friend on a night out. They both work incredibly difficult jobs; Jodie works in Ambulance transport and Mike is a fire fighter. So, they both work shifts, so they sometimes go several days without seeing each other.
Mike proposed in Barcelona. He had taken Jodie there for her twenty-seventh birthday, and he surprised her by popping the questions in a cable car going over the city. Getting married is important to them to show their commitment to each other for the rest of their lives.
After they got engaged they started saving their money for a house and for the wedding. They had planned to get married in the UK, but after buying their house they realized quite how much longer they would have to save for to afford a big wedding in the UK.
Jodie and Mike already had a road trip vacation to the North East US planned, which finished in New York. Originally the idea started as a joke that they might get married while on vacation, but then they began to seriously consider it. A little while later, with six months to go, they contacted me at Wed in Central Park and we started planning.
They loved all the photos they saw of Central Park, “it just looked so beautiful,” said Jodie. “It’s very different to an English church wedding or hotel wedding and we thought it was an amazing alternative to the norm,” she added.
I always ask couples if they had any concerns about getting married in Central Park, and they almost always say they have a few, but Jodie said, “I can’t believe how relaxed I was about it all.” This makes me very happy.
Before arriving in New York, Jodie and Mike had toured the North Eastern US. They had arrived in the US in Boston, gone to Washington DC from there, then on to Baltimore, then Philadelphia, and finally New York. While in New York City they stayed at the 48Lex Hotel, which they loved.
Jodie and Mike chose the Ladies’ Pavilion for their ceremony location. It’s the time of year for spotting turtles in the water in Central Park and Jodie told me that the saw lots in the Lake next to the Pavilion. They loved the views from the structure of the Lake and the trees behind it and the buildings behind the trees. Our photographer took them around the Lake and took photos along the way, taking in Bow Bridge and Bethesda Terrace and Fountain.
Jodie wore a full wedding dress. She chose one without a train because she thought that would be too hard to drag around Central Park and it would get too dirty. Her dress was floor length, though, so she said that it did get rather dirty with all the walking around, but it was worth it for the fabulous photos. She did her make up herself and had her hair done in to an updo at a blow drying salon.
“Our day was perfect,” said Jodie, “the sun was shining the scenery was beautiful, it was so different to getting married in England and we love to be different,” she added. “Everyone involved was amazing, Claire did all the hard work for us, the only thing we had to do was get the marriage licence, which we filled in online beforehand. Our officiant and photographer were brilliant and so helpful. I cannot express enough thanks to you all, you really did help make our day perfect! Thank you so much.”
Thank you for sharing your story with us, Jodie and Mike, I wish you the best of luck for your futures together, we are honored to have been a part of your wedding. For more information on planning your own Central Park wedding, visit our website, or “like” us on Facebook for photos and more inspiring stories.
