Wedding bells will ring from the rooftop of a Long Island City venue on July 28, as Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer ties the knot with his longtime partner, Dan Hendrick.
The couple will exchange vows in an evening ceremony on the rooftop garden of Studio Square in Long Island City. The couple chose the location for its view of the Manhattan skyline, of Sunnyside – and the rest of Queens.
“We wanted to have the ceremony in Queens,” Van Bramer said. “It’s where I grew up and it’s where we both live. It’s meaningful to us that we get married close to home (Sunnyside Gardens) and that we don’t have to go to Canada or Massachusetts to do it.”
Van Bramer and Hendrick announced their engagement in November after Hendrick proposed  to the Queens lawmaker at a restaurant in Puerto Rico, four months after New York’s Marriage Equality Act was signed into law.
One member from each family will deliver a message to the couple at a reception scheduled to follow the wedding ceremony, and the couple’s best friend, Rob MacKay, will toast the union.
After the wedding, Van Bramer said, “We might get away for a brief time, but we have no plans for a long honeymoon.”
—Liz Goff