Woodbridge Couple Gets Married Under Rockefeller Center Tree

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — When they met, Cathy Fitzpatrick and Tim Vollenbroek knew they had found love again. The two Woodbridge, NJ residents — she's lived there since she was 4 years old — had both been married before. They each have three adult children.

But Cathy, 53, made the choice to leave first husband because he was physically and verbally abusive to her. Tim, 54, was newly separated as well. In 2004, a friend of his told him to stop moping around and try online dating. Tim scoffed at the time, saying "he would never spend money on something like that," Cathy recalled. So the friend secretly bought him a one-year membership to Yahoo Personals and set up his account.

Cathy was the third woman he went out with. Their first date was after his daughter's soccer game at Jose Tejas Mexican restaurant on Rt. 1. Nine years, later in February 2015, he asked her to marry him.

And on Christmas Eve 2018, they said "I do" underneath the world-famous Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City.

The tree is their yearly tradition: For the past ten years, every Christmas Eve, Cathy and Tim go into New York City to "see the tree." They buy hot chestnuts and pretzels, see the light show at Saks 5th Avenue and ring in Christmas under the tree at exactly midnight. The number of friends and family who accompany them every year gets bigger and bigger: They started out driving alone into the city, then a few cars were needed, then a limo and now it's a party bus.

"We were thinking about places to get married — should we do it on the beach, or where we met? And we felt like we didn't really have 'a spot' the way other couples do," she said. "But then we realized, Wait, we do have a spot. The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center."

The plan was to head in with their children, and their two mothers. Nine people in all to witness the wedding. Cathy researched online and found a minister who had married people under the Rockefeller Center tree before. She bought a wedding dress and veil. She really didn't want the whole thing to become, in her words, "a big deal."

But then her friend called NBC News. They said they were going to get a film crew out there to film it. NJ 101.5 picked up the story, as did NJ.com.

At 11:15 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the group got to Rockefeller Center. They made their way through the masses of people to try to get right under the tree. Cathy thought they were fine where they were, but her minister insisted they could get closer.

"When people saw I was in a wedding dress, they were like, 'Are you getting married?!' Everyone just parted for us when they heard that," she said. "We were praying for good weather. It's New York, so we were also hoping people wouldn't be rude. But everyone was so nice. When we realized we had 200 to 300 people watching us and filming us with their phones during the ceremony, I started to get a little nervous. We just hadn't realized people would be so into it."

During the ceremony, a man who appeared homeless kept trying to sell Tim roses, to give to Cathy. As the minister spoke, he walked right in between the couple and the minister "at least three times," Cathy said. "We told him nicely, No thank you, we were getting married. After the ceremony, he gave me a big bag of mini Snickers. He insisted I take it as a gift."

On the ride back to New Jersey, the reception was held on the party bus. Her daughter bought a cake and sandwiches. Cathy and Tim had their first dance aboard the bus — to "Faithfully" by Journey — and she threw her bouquet down the bus aisle.

Now the couple is settling back into normal life in Woodbridge. Cathy works at the FedEx Ground facility in Keasbey; Tim commutes into Manhattan every day, where he owns his own architecture company. Cathy also wrote a book, "Looking On The Bright Side," about her experience with domestic violence, and her decision to leave. You can order it on Amazon. She also used to volunteer with the Woodbridge police department's domestic response volunteer team, where she was on call for women and men in abusive situations.

Cathy said she started writing chapters of the book as therapy for herself when she was a single mom, after she put her kids to bed.

"For me personally, finding love again had a lot to do with growing and finding confidence and not allowing myself to accept any man in my life that wasn’t worthy of me," she said. "When I learned that, I kept searching until I found the great man that I found in Tim. A man worthy of the good woman I grew to learn was me."

You can watch video of their Christmas Eve ceremony and first dance on the party bus:

Photos provided to Patch or from YouTube.