Karl and Elizabeth renewed their marriage vows in July underneath Bethesda Terrace in the heart of Central Park. They got married a year earlier at City Hall and they wanted to renew their vows on their first wedding anniversary with something a little more personal.
Elizabeth is from Ecuador and had just graduated from Columbia when they got married, they knew that within a year she would end up having to go back home and neither of them wanted that. They had been together for a year and could not imagine living on different continents, so they decided to get married quickly so they could begin to build their lives together in New York. They told me that it is just a quick and basic ceremony at City Hall and they wanted the opportunity to make special promises to each other somewhere beautiful.
The couple are local New Yorkers, but they wanted to make an occasion of it, so they stayed at the Hotel Plaza Athenee for a few nights. Our photographer met them there and they walked in to Central Park together, and up the Mall to Bethesda Terrace for the ceremony.
The couple had considered inviting some guests, but in the end they decided that they didn’t need anyone else present for their vow renewal, so they had nobody else there. They had written vows that they wanted to say to each other. Our celebrant has officiated many weddings but she told me that their beautiful words to each other made her cry. Our officiant is bilingual, so we had much of the ceremony in English, with a prayer to the Virgin Mary in Spanish towards the end.
After they had renewed their vows, Karl and Elizabeth had a few more photos taken around Central Park and then went off to One if by Land, Two if by Sea for dinner.
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