NYC City Clerk Wedding

New York City Courthouse Wedding

Joe + Marie

Marie and Joe decided to get married at the New York City City Clerk's Office located at 141 Worth St. They began by obtaining a marriage license from the City Clerk's Office, filling out the application online, and presenting their valid identifications in person. Once they had their marriage license, they scheduled an appointment at the office, either online or by phone.

On the day of their appointment, they arrived at the City Clerk's Office early, ensuring they had all necessary documentation in hand. With their marriage license, identifications, and other required paperwork ready, they proceeded to the designated area for the marriage ceremony, accompanied by their beloved dog.

During the ceremony, officiated by a city clerk, Marie and Joe exchanged vows and rings. They had the option to personalize their vows or choose from standard options provided by the city clerk. After the exchange, they, along with their witnesses if required, signed the marriage license, with the city clerk also signing to finalize the marriage legally.

Following the ceremony, Marie and Joe received their marriage certificate from the City Clerk's Office, which served as legal proof of their union. With the formalities completed, they celebrated their marriage in whatever way they saw fit, whether it was with a small gathering, a dinner with family and friends, or a special outing with their dog.

Throughout the process, Marie and Joe ensured they followed the specific requirements and procedures of the New York City City Clerk's Office to ensure everything went smoothly.

New York Times Wedding Photography by Apollo Fields

Ron and Sunil's New York Times Wedding | Apollo Fields | New York Wedding Photography | Intimate Weddings in NYC

Ron & Sunil
2020

For a suburban family, a house is a home--but for a New York City family--home is their entire neighborhood. Despite being in one of the biggest cities in the world, all you have to do is live in a NYC neighborhood for one year to know what I’m talking about: how you start to recognize the same faces on the subway, the same delivery trucks blocking the same traffic as they’re double-parked, and how you begin to see the same people rotate from neighborhood bar to neighborhood bar while you sit there wondering how you think you know them. So the fact that Ron and Sunil live in the Upper West Side, one block away from where Heather and I first met, technically makes us New York family.

I first met Ron while serving him and his late husband at a restaurant at 105th and Broadway in Morningside Heights. I was new to bartending and they would playfully give me pointers as I trudged through shift-after-shift. Funny enough, this happened to be the same bar that Heather and I first met. To take this NYC serendipity even further, Ron and Sunil held their small reception at the restaurant across the street in the same building where Heather used to bartend! Talk about that neighborhood love!

Just a couple of blocks west, after you cross Riverside Drive, you come up on Riverside Park, which runs four miles up and down Manhattan’s west coastline. It’s too far a trek for most tourists and is a great place to do yoga, go for a run, have a picnic, or in Ron and Sunil’s Covid-contingency-case, have a wonderfully intimate and beautiful wedding ceremony. In true New York fashion, between all the congratulations from the passersby, there was a token heckler. Unsure what to do, we followed Ron and Sunil’s lead and we let their love speak for itself, ignoring this unhinged man for the pest that he was.

We’re so grateful to have been part of their celebration and we aren’t the only ones! Their wedding was featured in the New York Times this past weekend and they look just as good in their stylishly complementary outfits as they did the day of. Ron calls his jacket a ‘dusty pink’ and it might’ve been a literal description if Sunil dropped him when they danced and dipped on 106th street, but lucky for Ron, Sunil is an adept dancer. Shortly thereafter they embraced and the emotions of the day caught up with them. Ron cried. I cried. We live for these moments.

Ron and Sunil plan to renew their vows next year on the same date, inviting the same minister (Ben) who was actually at the church the night they got engaged! We love the idea of using their anniversary to celebrate their love even bigger and better. They plan to hold their reception at the India House and we can’t wait! Who knows, they might even invite their whole neighborhood!

vendors:

Apollo Fields | Photography
Serafina UWS | Reception
Riverside Park | Ceremony Site
Banana Republic | Ron’s Suit
Middle Collegiate Church (East Village, NYC) | Revs. Ashley DeTar Birt, Benjamin Perry / 2021 Ceremony Location

media:

New York Times

Bethesda Fountain Elopement in NYC's Central Park

James and Wanda's NYC Central Park Elopement in Bethesda Terrace | Intimate Weddings During Quarantine | Downsizing a Wedding in New York City | Apollo Fields Photography

I remember not-so-long-ago when we were in the thick of the Stay At Home quarantine wondering to myself, ‘Will weddings EVER go back to normal?’ 

It was just so hard to imagine a big group of people flying in from all over the world to celebrate marriage again.  Between the hugging, tight cocktail hours, packed dance floors-- it all seemed like a dream we could only hope to relive.  In some ways, it still does.  I don’t know when we will have hundreds of guests jam packed on a dance floor again… nobody does.  We can only predict, schedule, hold our breath, and hope.  

This 4th of July weekend restored a huge chunk of that last ingredient for me:  HOPE.  And oh man, did it fuel my creative soul and heal a lot of the mourning that I have been experiencing as couple-after-couple have had to (understandably) reschedule their original plans.  

It was my first weekend back in the saddle (the wedding saddle that is-- I’ve been in the literal saddle this whole time) and it was a double header to boot.  Two mornings in a row, I got to experience couples turning lemons into lemonade and reimagining their weddings in the best ways possible.  Both couples have had to postpone their big celebrations to 2021, but wanted to still honor their love and commitment to one another by legally wedding in a more intimate setting.

Wanda and James were slated for a big destination wedding in Banff this year on July 5th, but everything was obviously derailed with COVID19. This date is especially important to them, because it is exactly three years from the day they met, so in order to still celebrate this day and their marriage, they planned an elopement in the heart of the city they live in.

Central Park— and especially Bethesda Fountain— is typically a tourist hotspot as well as local refuge in the thick of NYC summers. However, on this Sunday morning, it was comparatively empty, with a light breeze cutting through the thick of the city humidity. It is easy to imagine this having a post-apocalyptic feeling, but that truly wasn’t the case. It felt private, sort of serene, like this iconic nucleus of New York suddenly belonged to only us. I remember saying to them before I left, “This is the million dollar wedding venue”. It really was. I don’t think a million dollars would actually buy out this location if somebody tried.

It sounds cheesy but this elopement really did restore so much hope for me. I got to witness two families coming together to watch Wanda and James exchange vows. I got to spend the morning with this fun and badass couple. I got to see Wanda shed a tear, which I was assured wasn’t easy to do! Nothing felt risky or contaminated, which was a very real concern not-so-long-ago (and still lingers in the present and future). We were all there for the exact right reasons, and this made me believe that weddings WILL go back, and in some respects might be better than before!

Photography: Apollo Fields
Location: Bethesda Terrace, Central Park NYC