Pinky and Bones (yes, they go by those names), are musicians from Glasgow in Scotland, who came to New York this month to get married in Central Park. She is 25 and he is 23 and they met as emo-kids in Glasgow Central Station. They have been together for seven years and decided to elope to New York to get married.
They got engaged on the train following Pinky’s sister’s wedding, a destination wedding in Crete. Bones had always said that she would never get married, but they were chatting and Pinky said “I think we should get married”. Bones didn’t think too much of it and just said, “OK”, but as the night went on, as they were picking out rings and negotiating the terms of a wedding, they realized that they were actually going to do this! As far as they were concerned, they were going to be together for ever anyway, but being married was important to Pinky, so Bones agreed because she saw that it was important to him.
They never really considered any conventional wedding locations. “We thought about going on a ‘reconnaissance’ holiday and visiting a lot of different locations across Europe, including Vlad’s castle!” Bones told me. They also considered using a family member’s back garden for the ceremony, and they knew someone who owns a lodge in a forest that they thought might be nice. In the end they never officially agreed on a location and Bones surprised her groom the night before they left for New York with the news that she had organised a wedding for them while they were there.
The main reason why Bones was not keen on getting married was the idea of having a big wedding, and all that goes along with one. “I was having real terror about a traditional wedding, to the point I was just never going to do it if it had to be in front of lots of people,” she said. “The pressure of it all did not sit well with me at all and I started reasoning against marriage which wasn’t fair to my partner,” she added. This is such a familiar story for me. So many of my clients would truly hate to say their vows with a huge audience, and an elopement is just the only way for them.
They had no visited Central Park before, but they were happy that they chose it for their wedding ceremony location. “It must have been meant to be,” Bones said, “we fell in love with Central Park.” She said that she did have some concerns about getting married in such a public place. “I was concerned about the foot traffic of Central Park and how respectful people would or wouldn’t be about what we were doing,” she told me. “I needn’t have worried though, everyone was really respectful during the ceremony, and so friendly and encouraging before and after,” she said. This is another thing people often say to me, and I observed it myself as I got married in Central Park – everyone sees a newlywed couple and congratulates them, couples say that it really adds to the joy in their day.
They held the ceremony on Bow Bridge. “It was smaller than I expected after seeing photos online!” said Bones. “It was a short and sweet ceremony and we said nothing but the vows we were asked to repeat. We didn’t feel that anything else needed to be said.” This is another great thing about elopements – there are no guests to worry about and no expectations other than your own, so you can do everything in the way that suits you. After the ceremony they had photos taken with their photographer from I Heart New York Photography.
The couple were in New York for six nights and stayed at the Hotel St James, close to Times Square. Bones wore a tea-length ivory dress and Pinky wore a black kilt and traditional Ghillie shirt. The bride had dyed her hair blue for the occasion and they both wore matching black leather jackets with skulls embossed on the backs. There were no flowers. They took a horse and carriage ride around Central Park after their wedding and then went to the Loeb Boathouse for their celebratory dinner.
I asked what their friends back home thought of their decision to elope to New York. “I think that married couples admire us!” Bones said. “We’ve been married for just a week and already three couples have told me that wish they had done it like we did; just gone and married where we wanted to be with just the two of us,” she told me.
Thanks for sharing your story with us, Pinky and Bones! I wish you lots of love and luck for your future together. For more information to help you with planning your own Central Park wedding, visit our website, or “like” us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and follow us on Pinterest where you will find lots of lovely photos and many more inspiring stories of real weddings.
