A Rainy March Wedding in Central Park’s Shakespeare Garden

A rainy weekday can offer couples a quieter Central Park and striking photo opportunities. Enese and Ibrahima married on a Wednesday morning in March at the Shakespeare Garden, where showers came and went. The weather shifted their plans, but the garden’s flowers, wooden platform and open paths gave them several settings for the ceremony and portraits.

The morning timing and wet weather meant fewer people were in the park. For couples considering an outdoor wedding, this day offers a useful planning example: a weekday morning can coincide with quieter paths, while rain may change how guests move between locations and how a photographer frames the scene. The couple’s experience shows what can be gained from staying flexible when conditions shift.

Enese and Ibrahima had been together for about a year and a half when they married. They first met on Thanksgiving Day, when Enese got into Ibrahima’s car while he was working as a driver. She remembered that they quickly began joking and laughing as though they had known each other for years. They felt an immediate connection and believed their personalities complemented one another.

Their planning window was short: Enese contacted the planner two weeks before the wedding, and the couple already knew they wanted the Shakespeare Garden. That clear choice helped shape a compact plan around one ceremony location, followed by portraits at nearby park landmarks. For couples working on a similarly brief timeline, deciding early on the setting and the feel of the ceremony can help focus the remaining arrangements.

A garden ceremony with room to adapt

The Shakespeare Garden offers more than one possible ceremony spot. Enese and Ibrahima had initially planned to marry on a rustic wooden platform partway through the garden. Ibrahima and many of the guests waited there, above a short flight of steps, while Enese arrived with her party. At the last minute, the couple chose a place beside one of the flower beds instead.

The planner explained that an event permit for the garden allows a wedding to take place anywhere within it, so the change of location was workable. The planner typically applies for a two-hour permit, allowing time for both the ceremony and photographs. That time block is also useful when deciding how much of the garden to include: couples can make room for the vows, a few portraits and a possible change of scenery without treating the ceremony spot as the only usable backdrop.

Another garden feature is the Charles B Stover Bench, a granite seat at the top of the garden also known as the “Whisper Bench.” A whisper spoken at one end can be heard at the other. The platform, flower beds and bench give a couple choices with distinct settings, while keeping the day’s plans within the same garden.

Making space for both faiths

Enese is Christian and Ibrahima is Muslim. Their officiant included one reading from the Bible and one from the Quran, giving each faith a place in a ceremony that was otherwise fairly secular. The couple also wrote personal vows to share before exchanging rings. This approach brought family traditions and individual words together without making the ceremony revolve around a single format.

The Bible reading came from Corinthians:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

The Quran reading was from the seventh surah:

It is He Who created you from a single person, and made his mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her (in love). When they are united, she bears a light burden and carries it about (unnoticed). When she grows heavy, they both pray to Allah their Lord, (saying): If Thou givest us a goodly child, we vow we shall (ever) be grateful.

Portraits beyond the ceremony

After the vows and ring exchange, the couple took photographs among the flowers, which looked lovely in March, and on the wooden platform and its steps. Their next planned stop was Bethesda Terrace. Along the way, they paused at Oak Bridge, where the view includes tall buildings behind the park.

Recent showers had left Bethesda Terrace nearly deserted. Photographer Jakub Redziniak used the open space for wide shots across the terrace, then continued with the couple to the Mall for more portraits. The sequence—garden first, Oak Bridge on the way, then terrace and Mall—made several distinct backgrounds part of one photo walk.

Enese said the day went smoothly and praised both the officiant and photographer. Her account points to a practical takeaway for couples planning an outdoor ceremony: choose a setting with multiple nearby photo options, build time for portraits into the schedule, and leave enough flexibility to respond to the weather or a change of heart. A rainy March morning gave this wedding a quieter park and an itinerary that could adjust as the day unfolded.