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Gay Wedding Planning On Steroids in Central Park

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This morning the Times gets even scoopier on that pop-up gay wedding chapel we told you about last week, outlining how the group running the initiative had to jump through city zoning hoops, pacify the Parks Department, and spread the good word through Twitter. The "rich and lovely," "not Vegas-style" design competition for the physical chapel has a tight deadline (Thursday!) and the two winning structures have to be installed in no more than two hours this Saturday morning, July 24.

One of the project organizers Bex Schwartz clues us in to the significance of marrying 24 couples, since the bill passed on June 24 and will be legal as of July 24.
Considering the myriad potential chapel sites sprinkled around the city (Hunter's Point, Battery Park's Castle Clinton, Jefferson Market), we asked Bex what clinched the deal for Central Park. Besides being "iconic" and "beautiful" and "representative of how wonderful NYC is," she tells us a pretty damn charming story:
"On a personal note, my parents wanted to get married in Central Park but ended up in a synagogue in Poughkeepsie, and I grew up with the legend of how all my hippie dad wanted for his wedding was for it to happen in Central Park, so I guess I firmly imprinted that a wedding there is the paradigm of awesomeness." Got your own idea for building a temporary wedding space out of glow sticks, color-blocked satin, and hair gel? Check out the competition rules over at Architizer.
· Central Park Chapels to "Pop-Up" for Gay Marriages [City Room]
· Bright Ideas: Pop-Up Wedding Chapel [Curbed]