Rachael and Glen got married in the Ladies’ Pavilion in early November. They are both from Australia. They met in 2020 when Rachael was working as a nurse and Glen was working as a doctor in the Coronary Care Unit of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia.
Their wedding date was the fourth anniversary of them being a couple, Rachael was 35 years old and Glen 36 when they got married. They had gotten engaged exactly three years before on the same date! They were living on the Gold Coast in Australia. “Glen surprised me with a scavenger hunt that took us to all ours and our dog, Henry’s, favorite places,” Rachael told me. “At each stop I had to use clues to find a hidden envelope that contained a question and fill the answer in on a crossword. The final clue spelled out the words “will you marry me?” on the crossword,” she said. Glen had organised for Rachael’s parents and family dogs to be there too, and they all went out for a lovely celebratory steak dinner afterwards.
Like many of our couples, Rachael and Glen wanted to get married before they began having children. Getting married in Central Park was the way they wanted to celebrate their love for each other, “and formalise our union before starting our family,” Rachael said.
Rachael told me that they had always known that they didn’t want a traditional big wedding, “we knew we’d probably prefer to have a very small wedding or to elope,” she said. Glen really wanted to get married on November 1st so they agreed that they may as well do it this year while the couple were temporarily living in Canada. “We briefly thought of eloping to Las Vegas but decided that wasn’t very “us” so then Glen suggested New York and I loved the idea,” Rachael said. “A quick Google led us to Wed in Central Park and our decision was made,” she added. And so, they sent me an email in April and we started planning.
Glen had never visited New York before, and Rachael had been once before, so they didn’t feel they knew very much about the city. “We had seen Central Park in movies and on TV and thought it was so beautiful and iconic,” she said. She told me that they weren’t sure if they might feel silly getting married somewhere that they had no real history with or connection to, “but the fact that Central Park is a big open public space made it seem welcoming and like an achievable place for tourists to get married,” she said. They’re certainly not the first visitors to the city to get married in Central Park, there are plenty of our clients who are visiting for the first time. Of course once you’ve gotten married here then you do have a special connection with the place! Racheal said that after coming across our website, there was no way they could choose anywhere else!
I always ask couples if they had any concerns about getting married in Central Park. “Once we got in touch with Claire we didn’t really have any concerns as she communicated so well and organised everything so perfectly, so we knew exactly what was happening and what to expect,” Rachael said. That is my goal – there’s a fine line between giving all the information a couple needs and overwhelming them, so I try to give all the info in a steady, gradual way, but I do like to feel that a couple knows exactly what to expect. “I also spent a lot of time perusing Claire’s blog to try to get an idea of what it might be like and what we wanted,” Rachael said. I’m so glad to hear someone is reading all of this!
Rachael and Glen are Australians currently living in Canada, and they were visiting from Victoria, Canada. They stopped in Washington DC for a few days before arriving in New York as Glen had a conference to attend. When they got to New York they stayed for two nights at Hotel Belleclaire on the Upper West Side. This is one of my favorites, not just because of the name! “This hotel is in a lovely old building in a great location. The room was clean and beautifully decorated but absolutely tiny,” said Rachael – a common complaint about New York hotel rooms! They were given $20 vouchers to use each day in the French patisserie next door or the hotel restaurant downstairs, which they said was great and that they would definitely stay at this hotel again. They stepped things up a little the night before the wedding and checked in to The Plaza for the nights before and after their wedding. “It was extremely expensive but it was worth it for the special memories and the room service banana splits,” Rachael said. Then they moved on to a third hotel for their remaining four nights in New York – the Moxy NYC Downtown. This hotel is in the financial district, at the other end of Manhattan to where they had been staying up to the wedding, so they said it was nice to see a different part of town. “Again, the room was very small but the hotel was new and clean,” Rachael said. She said that she preferred the location of Hotel Belleclaire but would stay at both hotels again. I agree – it’s no secret to any regular readers that I love the Upper West Side.
Since they were staying in the area, it was easy enough for them to spend the afternoon in Central Park the day before the wedding, and so they were able to visit the Ladies’ Pavilion to check it out. Rachael said it made them feel less nervous about it all. “We both thought the Ladies’ Pavilion was so beautiful and we were really happy with our decision to have our ceremony there as it felt very secluded and private despite the park being busy,” she said. It does strike a nice balance between some privacy, being quite tucked away, but also having a lovely view.
On the morning of the wedding, we had our photographer Jakub Redziniak met them at their hotel. He took some photos of them there at the Plaza before taking some photos in Central Park. They told me that their favorite pictures that were taken in the park were taken during the ceremony and from Bethesda Terrace. They had been hoping to have some photos taken on Bow Bridge, but some areas were restricted due to the New York Marathon taking place two days later. They did get come photos with the bridge in the background, though. “It’s hard to choose a favorite area in Central Park as it’s all so iconic and beautiful, especially in the autumn,” Rachael said. She told me that this was something they hadn’t considered when picking their date as Australians who don’t really get to experience “proper” autumn foliage.
For their ceremony, we wrote a short introduction about their relationship to date, and we had the officiant read the poem All I Need to Know About Life I Learned from my Dog, which I’ll put at the end of this post. “The poem was in homage to our dog Henry,” Rachael said. Glen was keen that they write their own vows, but Rachael wasn’t looking forward to that part too much. “I don’t love writing or public speaking but I’m so glad we did the personal vows because they made the ceremony so special,” she said. Glen wrote his vows on The Plaza stationary which makes them a lovely souvenir that Rachael plans to frame. “Our ceremony was wonderful! We both loved it and will remember it forever,” Rachael said. Eloping can make a huge difference to many people when it comes to sharing personal thoughts and feelings in vows. We find that lots of people will say things to their partner when they elope that they just wouldn’t feel comfortable saying in front of 200 of their closest acquaintances!
They told me that all of their family knew they were eloping and while they were disappointed to not be attending, they thought getting married in Central Park was a great idea. “We were lucky enough to be able to speak to them in the morning and send them photos throughout the day so they didn’t feel too far away,” Rachael told me.
The temperatures are usually turning cold in New York in November, so Rachael decided to wear a jacket and long skirt. Her mom had worn something similar for her wedding in the 80’s and she liked the idea of matching her. In the end their wedding day was unseasonably warm, so they were quite comfortable being outside all day. Rachael’s outfit was made to order from Gaala Paris. “It took about six weeks to arrive but was worth the wait as it was beautifully made and I couldn’t find anything similar nearby,” she said. Her veil was from Etsy, bag from Self-Portrait and shoes from Chanel, she said all were purchased online except for the shoes. Glen’s suit was from Moore’s in Canada and he treated himself to a Gucci tie and loafers for the occasion. Rachael surprised him on their wedding morning with some cufflinks engraved with their dog Henry’s cute face so they could feel like he was with them on the day.
I had arranged for flowers to be delivered to the hotel that morning. Rachael had given me some reference pictures of what she’d like, “and they did the best job making something similar – I loved my bouquet!” Rachael said. Glen had a matching boutonnière that their photographer had to put on his suit the morning of the wedding, “because neither of us knew how to attach it!” said Rachael. She said that she wished she had organised to have her flowers preserved as it was so sad throwing them away when they left New York.
Rachael did her own hair and makeup. She had a blow-dry at RPZL in Rockefeller Plaza the night before the wedding and then put some waves in her hair with a curling wand in the morning. She had planned to do a half up hairstyle and attach her small veil on top but she ran out of time so just clipped the veil to her undone hair. She says that she is glad she did this in retrospect as she thinks a DIY hairstyle probably would have fallen out throughout the day and looked bad in photos. She said that she was happy to do her own makeup but she wishes she had practiced more because she was slower than expected on the day and ran out of time and had to finish it in a rush. Luckily it looked good in the photos but it wasn’t as finished as she would’ve liked. She said that she was hesitant to have her makeup done by someone else without being able to do a trial but she thinks it probably would have saved some stress in hindsight.
The couple certainly made the most of their day in New York. “We treated our wedding day like a highlights tour of New York and it was the best day ever!” Rachael said. I’m going to let her tell the story. “We started at the Plaza then took a cab to Central Park and took some photos by Bethesda Fountain. Then we walked to the Ladies’ Pavilion for our ceremony, taking some photos with Bow Bridge in the background on the way. After our ceremony we headed back to Bethesda Terrace to take some photos in the beautiful area under the terrace. After this we had a hotdog and then left the park to meet our vintage cab. We were then driven to the New York public library, Grand Central Station, the Top of the Rock (I highly recommend the express pass to avoid any queues) and Times Square by our lovely vintage cab driver. We finished the day with the vintage cab taking us to Brooklyn for some photos on Washington Street and by the waterfront and carousel. We then left our wonderful photographer and headed to our dinner reservation at the River Café. We had such a lovely three course meal here and the ambience and view made it feel so special – I’d highly recommend the River Café to other couples for their wedding dinner. We then headed back to The Plaza and enjoyed some of our two wedding cakes – a red velvet cake from Magnolia Bakery and a delicious fruitcake made by Glen’s mom as per family tradition. We also enjoyed some complimentary champagne from The Plaza.” What a wonderful NYC day!
I asked if they would have any advice for anyone else considering a wedding in Central Park. “Nothing in particular, I would recommend it to anyone looking to get married somewhere a bit different. It’s also a great way to combine an elopement or wedding and a fun honeymoon,” Rachael said. They said that for the rest of their time in New York they hadn’t really planned things as such, they were just going with the flow. “Next time we go to New York we’ll make more of an itinerary as there’s so much to do it’s easy to be overwhelmed by choice if you don’t have a plan for the day,” Rachael said. I asked if they had any recommendations. “I’d recommend Hotel Belleclaire as it’s in a great location. I’d also recommend Angelo’s Pizza near Carnegie Hall, although I’m sure most pizza in New York is great. I’d also recommend going to Katz’s Deli, even though it’s a bit of a tourist trap it was fun just for the atmosphere. We also saw the Moulin Rouge musical which was incredible,” she said.
Rachael said that as an introvert, the idea of having a big traditional wedding had never appealing to her, and in fact she dreaded the thought of having to do it one day. Luckily Glen felt exactly the same way and was more than happy to have either a small wedding with just their immediate family in attendance, or to elope. Rachael said that she has been a guest at several large traditional weddings and they were all great and so much fun to be a guest, but being the bride at an event like this just didn’t appeal to her. “I can definitely see the appeal of a big wedding if you’re someone who loves a huge party. The organisation side of things and the expense does seem quite overwhelming though,” she said. “I think smaller weddings are great for more introverted types who prefer more intimate gatherings and those who don’t want to spend a fortune on their wedding. Elopements are great because they can be combined with a holiday but you don’t need to factor in having family and friends travel long distances for your wedding as you would with a destination wedding.
I asked if they had any regrets about not getting married at home in Australia. “I have no regrets in choosing to elope and would recommend it to anyone,” Rachael said. “The only drawback of eloping is not being able to spend the day with our families but when we decided to elope we knew we’d also have a party or maybe a weekend away with all our immediate family members in the future,” Rachael said. They plan to do this on their first anniversary, which will of course be springtime in Australia!
So, how did we do? “Wed in Central Park was so wonderful from start to finish. Claire was so helpful, organised and knowledgeable. Claire made everything seem easy and straightforward. We couldn’t believe how everything came together on the day exactly as she had laid out in her emails. The photographer and officiant Claire organised were wonderful and friendly and we were so happy to have them with us on our special day. The florist Claire organised and the vintage cab were also amazing,” She said. Thank you so much for your kind words, it’s certainly easier to make the magic happen when a couple have a clear idea what they want as Rachael and Glen did. “Our elopement was even better than we could have imagined thanks to Claire and there’s no way we could’ve organised any of it on our own. I’d highly recommend Wed in Central Park, we can’t thank Claire enough!”
Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your story with us, Rachael and Glen, it was a pleasure to plan your elopement with you! I wish you both the very best of luck for your future together back in Australia! If you would like me to help you with planning your own Central Park wedding, whether you or are planning on traveling to New York to get married with a group as this couple did, or eloping, 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.
All I Need to Know About Life I Learned from my Dog by an anonymous poet.
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride together.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
When loved ones come home always run to greet them.
When you want treats, practice new tricks.
Let others know when they’ve invaded your territory.
Take naps together and stretch before rising.
Run, romp, and play daily.
Be loyal.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.
Thrive on the attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout…
Run right back and make friends.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk together.
Love each other unconditionally.
