You’ll see and hear all kinds of things on the New York City subway: impromptu sermons, guys doing dance routines and people selling, well, practically everything. But it’s not every day that you see a subway wedding reception—that is, unless you were on the L train on July 2.
That’s where Daniel Jean and Esmy Valdez celebrated their nuptials in a wedding reception they’ll likely never forget. The couple got married in a private church ceremony on June 27, but they took their after party, which included 20 guests and anyone else who happened to be in their subway car at the time, to the train to cut down on costs.
“We didn’t have the money to do the dream reception that I’d always envisioned,” the 39-year-old Jean told the New York Post in an interview. “I decided to surprise [my wife] by having a dope reception on the L train.”
Jean isn’t lying. Getting married in New York City ain’t cheap. According to The Knot 2023 Wedding Study, the average cost of a wedding in New York City in 2023 was $63,000 for the ceremony and reception. That massive price tag is 80 percent more expensive than the national average cost of a wedding in 2023, which was $35,000.
Jean enlisted the help of his friend, Jodell Lewis, to help pull the whole thing together.
“I emceed the reception, my friend Christopher Dupree helped manage the setup, and we hired a wedding planner, Anya, to assist with the overall production,” Lewis, who is also a standup comedian, told The Post.
No matter what you think about having a wedding reception on a train full of strangers, a video of the event posted on TikTok looks like a time was had. The clip shows the riders getting down to Snoop Dogg in a subway car decorated with balloons and sunflowers. And if you’re wondering whether or not there was a cake, just check out the spread on the table in the middle of the car.
According to the comments, it looks like there are plenty of people who wished they were on the guest list – or at least riding the L train that day.
One user wrote, “The way this would have made me cry tears of joy to be on this train!! I love it here so much!”
Another commenter said it best, writing, “I’d be riding long enough to get a piece of cake.”