Gosh what a year 2020 has been so far?1 Covid-19, Coronavirus or whatever you want to call it has changed how we view the world, how we interact with each other as well as our hopes and dreams.
Most of my clients have now postponed their weddings to 2021 and beyond. There are a few still going ahead as planned but with much smaller numbers.
You might be wary of having a smaller micro wedding; you might feel sad about having to make changes but I can hand on heart confirm, small weddings are great.
When my husband and I decided to (finally) get married our initial ideas of a big, formal wedding faded into the background, the longer we had been engaged - 8 years if you’re interested!
In fact our wedding was all very last minute. It was intimate, unique and 100% about us as a couple. It was 2012, and after having a tough year we decided to treat ourselves to a trip of a lifetime to New York. We were due to fly out 3 weeks later. 2 days after booking the holiday, we decided to get married while we were there.
I hastily googled “getting married in New York in 24 hours”, to find out if it was possible and what we needed to do. It was actually a lot easier than either of us thought. We kept the whole thing secret from friends and family, as we set about packing for our holiday and booking the wedding with the marriage bureau in New York and all the other ‘legal’ bits we were required to do. With the help of google and Sonia our travel advisor, we booked all the bits we needed to before leaving England. As we were short on time, the only option we had was to marry at the City Clerks Office a la Sex and the City (ssh! don’t tell my husband).
I won’t bore you with all of the little things that didn’t go to plan, but needless to say the day itself was amazing. We woke early, I breakfasted on cheesecake whilst we both got ready. Hastily put together my bouquet of cream roses, purchased from the deli across from the hotel the night before. We jumped into a taxi and arrived at the City Clerks Office an hour before they opened to ensure we’d be first in the queue. We passed the time taking photos of each other waiting our turn.
Soon after a queue started to form. In New York you have to have one witness of legal age with a passport. Not having anyone with us, we asked the chap behind us in the queue if he minded doing the honours. To our delight not only did he say yes, but he also acted as unofficial photographer during the ceremony and he was British himself. After a fairly lengthy wait, our number was called and we headed into the West Wing of the courthouse. The judge was quite sombre and his service short (about 3 minutes we worked out), but it was wonderful.
The rest of the day was filled with exploring New York. We visited Jane’s Carousel in Dumbo, rode the subway, took a taxi over the Brooklyn Bridge, lunched at Grand Central Station, walked along 5th Avenue, had photos taken in Times Square and then took a helicopter flight over Central Park and the Statue of Liberty. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel, showered, changed out of our wedding outfits and went out for BBQ and drinks to celebrate.
When we finally arrived back in England, we quickly arranged a party for 45 of our closest friends and family. As we hadn’t had a traditional wedding, we didn’t want a traditional reception, so we set about organising a celebration at Nash’s fish and chip restaurant. We served fish, chips and red wine; followed by homemade chocolate cake. Friends dj’d over the ice cream counter. You sat wherever you wanted with whomever you wanted, there were no speeches, no formality. We did sneakily have a "‘first dance’; when our song came on we found each other and when it was time to leave, a small group of us carried on celebrating in a few of the local bars. Every single moment was about the two of us doing what was important. Getting married and celebrating it our way, together. It was small, but it was perfect.
It will be 8 years this October, since our wedding day. Almost every month one of us talks about what an incredible day it was. How many brides can say that?