English couple Sarah and John got married with us in Cop Cot in October. They brought over rather a large group by our usual standards of 29 people, which is quite a lot of people all to fly over from England! Sarah was 44 and John 46 when they got married.
Like so many of our couples, they met online, and had their first date in a bar in London. John is from London originally and Sarah was living there at the time. It was a successful fist date and they had been together for ten years when they got married. They had lived together in London for some time, but eventually decided to move to the north of England, where Sarah is from originally. They got engaged on the banks of the Thames, next to spot special to them in Wapping on Christmas morning. “There was no one around and the sky was blue with no clouds in the sky,” Sarah told me.
It was Sarah and John’s dream to have a destination wedding, however they did consider getting married in London. “I had already been to every wedding venue near me for a wedding,” said Sarah, “this is why I wanted somewhere completely different,” she explained. They wanted to get married away from home to make their wedding day unique. When considering where to get married, they knew they didn’t want to get married on a beach in the heat. I wrote a blog post on why getting married New York is so much better than a beach wedding!
They were aware that it would have been easier for people to get to London than New York, “But New York was always my dream,” said Sarah. So, they brought their guests over from England to New York in October because they didn’t want to get married in the heat. But their wedding day was unseasonably warm for October! “But not too warm, thankfully,” Sarah said. They had a total of 29 people at the wedding including themselves, “we were totally blown away with the amount of people who flew out with us, it was so special and lots of guests have said it was just perfect,” Sarah told me.
Sarah said that she does think that destination weddings might be becoming more common. She said that could be because it’s just getting easier to do. I always ask couple if there is anything they would have done differently. “There are definitely no regrets of our wedding, it was absolutely perfect,” she said.
There were some family members who unfortunately couldn’t make it, “but in the end we had plenty of people traveling with us and celebrated with people who couldn’t make it when we got back home,” she said. They told me that they had a great celebration at the local golf club, on our return with all of their friends and family, so they don’t feel that anyone missed out too much.
John’s suit was purchased from Suit Direct and Sarah’s dress was purchased from Curves at Kates Bridal near her hometown. We had a guitarist play for the guests at Cop Cot while they waited for their bride to arrive. Sarah and her party met the photographer at the entrance to the park, and then they made the short walk up the hill to Cop Cot. The guitarist played Stand By Me by Ben E King for them to walk in to. Sarah’s sister and niece walked in first, followed by Sarah with her dad.
Sarah told me that the ceremony was fantastic. “Our officiant was amazing, funny and thorough,” she said. We wrote a short introduction for the ceremony, thanking all for being there, and saying a little about their story to date, and Sarah’s niece read a poem. Then Sarah and John exchanged traditional vows before exchanging rings. Their photographer Jakub Redziniak took some group photos around Cop Cot while the guitarist played more background music.
After the group photos, the couple walked up the Mall with their photographer to take some portrait photos around Bethesda Terrace. “I had been to New York three times previously and had never made it there, I had seen it in so many movies, so wanted to make it there,” Sarah told me.
Their celebratory meal was at Virgils, “proper American food,” Sarah said. After that, the group walked over to The Summit, and took photos as a group of all of the guests in their wedding attire. Then they went on to Grand Central, which is nearby, for more photos before heading back to the hotel.
I asked how we did. “We could not have asked for a more perfect day and we could not recommend yourself enough,” Sarah said. “Our day ran like clockwork, with being so well organised,” she added, which is music to my ears. We always have so much discussion beforehand, with me asking what the couples want to achieve from the day, and then working out how to make it happen, and possibly sometimes managing expectations about what can happen. It’s great to hear that it all goes just as planned on the day.
For this event, we organized pretty much everything except the restaurant for their dinner. “The singer, photographer, officiant, videographer, flowers and yourself were absolutely amazing,” Sarah said. “We would not have had such an amazing experience without your expertise and meticulous planning, so we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the most perfect day,” she added.
It was an absolute pleasure to plan your wedding with you, Sarah, and I wish you both lots of luck for your future together. If you would like me to help you with planning your own Central Park wedding, whether you are planning on traveling to New York to get married with a big group like this one, or just the two of you, visit our website. Keep updated with our news and see lots of beautiful photos, follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and follow us on Pinterest.
