Well, we did it! We got married, and boy do we have a story to tell! For those who may not have heard already, Kristin and I decided to get married in New York City. The City is one of our two favorite places. We got engaged in Monterey (which is one of our favorites), why not get married in Manhattan?
The story was supposed to be a beautiful and romantic one. Central Park is easily our favorite part of New York City. New York is the busiest, craziest, most intense and hectic city I have ever been to. I guess that's one of the things that makes Central Park so amazing. Our intention was to get married in Central Park amongst the majestic American elms near 'Literary Walk' or at the heart of the park, Bethesda Terrace. Kristin was going to have a horse and carriage bring her up to the wedding spot where I would be waiting. That's not exactly how it happened.
Let's see. The airline did not have a coat closet so we had to cram her wedding dress into the overhead. In flight, someone's cologne broke and the contents spilled on Kristin's garment bag. We recovered nicely and the dress arrived intact and in perfect condition. We checked into The Grand Hyatt on Saturday December 17th. Our friends Jessica and Mike were in Queens and said they would help us out with pictures and whatever else we needed. We hung out with them Sunday and cruised around Central Park checking out potential wedding locations. Monday we got our Marriage license and got everything ready for our big day - 2:30 pm Tuesday, December 20, 2005.
Beginning at 3:00 am on the 20th, the Transport Workers Union decided to go on strike thus basically shutting down transportation to and within the city. We awoke to this news and immediately began doing damage control. Jessica and Mike were stuck in Queens and would be unable to get into the city in time. Kristin would not be able to make her appointment with the hairdresser and it was uncertain whether the stylist could make it into the city from Brooklyn. The wedding officiant, April Gismondi, was coming in from Long Island and the photographer Billy Joe Hoyle was coming from the Bronx. By 10:30am we were still not sure if anything was going to work. I was just consoling Kristin and telling her that we would still be ok if we had to postpone the wedding when there was a knock on the door. It was Kali, the hairdresser. She had decided to come straight to the hotel to help Kristin out and we are forever grateful for that! Slowly but surely things fell into place. April arrived to calm me down and Billy showed up to take some great photos. We got married in the hotel Lobby, then piled into a limo and went to Central Park for our photo shoot. We also got pictures in Grand Central Station.
