Joy for a Migrant Family With a Wedding in the Park

Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll meet a couple who arrived in New York City as migrants from Ecuador a couple of months ago — and were married on Wednesday. We’ll also find out why a beach that has been closed on Sunday mornings since shortly after the Civil War is now opening.

José Luis Zambrano Sanchez and Jennifer Elizabeth Troncoso Rodriguez were accompanied by their son, Elian, for their wedding in Carl Schurz Park.Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York Times

There was the moment when the officiant asked if the bridal couple was ready. “Nervous but ready,” the bridegroom, José Luis Zambrano Sanchez, replied.

There was the moment during the exchange of vows when the soft, happy voice of the bride, Jennifer Elizabeth Troncoso Rodriguez, was almost drowned out by a helicopter overhead.

And — finally — there was the moment when the officiant, Val Coleman, said, “You may seal your marriage with a kiss.”

The wedding on Wednesday, in Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side, was another step in an eventful year for the couple who arrived in New York City a couple of months ago with their 7-year-old son, Elian — migrants who had fled the spiraling violence in Ecuador. Elian stood between them during the ceremony, his smile showing where baby teeth had come out and permanent teeth had not quite come in. They have been living in a hotel on West 57th Street where the city is housing migrant families.