A Romantic Autumn Elopement in New York City's Central Park

Although they live in California, Jessika and Alex love New York City and decided to elope in Central Park. "The inspiration behind our day was the balance of nature and the city, a space where we could truly be ourselves and embrace the quiet and busy energy together," explains the couple. "Our color palette was centered around the beautiful fall colors we anticipated seeing: a rich, rust orange and olive green. It was important to us both that we honor our LGBTQIA+ community in our day through our vows, visiting Stonewall Inn, and through the people we shared this intimate moment with."

Given the park's intrinsic beauty, the couple skipped having any flowers and let their surroundings shine on their own. "Luckily, our decor for our ceremony was already there," says the couple. "Shakespeare's Garden was filled with flowers and beautiful plants, it was the perfect environment for us and just what we envisioned for this moment. We had thought about having bouquets, but ultimately decided we wanted the garden to speak for itself and have the focus be on what already existed in the space (also, we both didn't want to carry bouquets around the city, it just didn't fit our vibe!)."

"We wanted to make our elopement incredibly special and curated for us, so we decided on having our a ceremony early in the morning so we could have the entire day to celebrate," says the couple. "We wrote our own personal vows and our officiant curated a personalized ceremony speech. After our ceremony, we shared a very sweet FaceTime call with our parents and also our animals! We had some downtime to relax after such an exciting day, and ended our day at Catbird for our forever bracelets, which were a surprise from Jessika." 

Looking back, the couple shares that "there were two moments we were beyond excited for: our intimate subway photo time with Sylvie and our vows with Karla. Sylvie truly made our photo experience so fun, and when she told us we'd stay on the subway until everyone left so we could take photos all alone we couldn't wait! It was exhilarating having the space to ourselves and Sylvie really made the most of that short moment alone. Our vows with Karla were by far the most special part of our day. Karla took the time to get to know us prior to our ceremony and specially curated our ceremony speech to us as individuals and as a couple; they truly went above and beyond our expectations and made it seem as if we had been lifelong friends. Taking that time to personally write our vows and read them aloud to one another with just Karla and Sylvie present was perfect for us; there was no pressure to omit any piece of ourselves, we could be 100% present and 100% real."

"A big piece of advice that was given to us and should be given to all couples is: Do what you want for your day and have fun with it! Do what feels right and makes you feel your best, and know that ultimately this moment is about your partnership and the commitment you two are making. There will always be outside pressure when you are making big decisions, but listen to what makes the most sense for you."