Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden wedding

We know we will vividly remember Sarah and Joseph’s wedding for the rest of our lives. It wasn’t just that Sarah and Jospeh leave an indelible mark on every person they meet. But this wedding stood on the brink of a precipice larger than any of us knew at the time, as our last wedding before the full effect of the Coronavirus pandemic hit the United States.

This wedding exemplified everything that we have missed so much about large weddings — the energy, the hilarity, the multitudes contained in a day that has both incredibly intimate love and commitment and loud, intense, hysterical celebration.

In a year where most of us have been separated from so many loved ones, it was a blessing to be a part of an awesome celebration like this. Special thanks to Masi Events who somehow amplified one of the most already gorgeous places in America - the Fairchild Botanic Gardens.

1 Hotel South Beach wedding

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden wedding photo

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Sony A9, Canon 45mm T/S @ f/2.8, 1/500th, ISO 500

We were just down in Miami for Sara and Joseph’s amazing wedding at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, and as soon as we started scouting it we had a problem: There were so many amazing spots that in a few minutes of looking around we got about eight hours worth of portrait ideas. But we made our own path and found this secret grove of banyan trees, knowing how much they both loved them, letting them enjoy a few minutes together before the lovely chaos of the wedding day began.

Thanks to planner Michael Masi for putting this amazing day together!

Shangri-La Spa wedding: Anna and Kerry

Let me tell you a story about pressure. Pressure is when the bride for your January 2016 wedding first contacts you in April … April, 2009. Pressure is when said bride is also a wedding photographer … and goes on a wedding photography show … still years before she actually planned a wedding, saying that she would hire you for her wedding even if she had to wear a trash bag as a dress to do it.

That was the pressure of Anna and Kerry’s wedding. How could I, just some guy who likes to take pretty pictures of people enjoying themselves, live up to seven years of Anna’s hopes and dreams? I’m not sure I ever could, but thankfully I had an advantage that she never considered for most of that time … Tatiana, still the biggest secret weapon in wedding photography.

The biggest advantage, though, was the outsized personalities, hospitality, and general awesomeness of the bride and groom. Yes, we are blessed to have couples that seem to have a staggeringly high number of people maintaining their niceness through stressful, expensive wedding days, but it is something else when you find yourself using the bride and groom’s apartment as an ad hoc office the entire day after their wedding. Consider the smiles that you will see below, and consider how large they are despite their original venue being damaged by tornadoes right before their wedding, and that their gorgeous new venue, the Shangri-La Springs, was rained out on the morning of their wedding. Of course, there may have been some pent-up energy that was released when the sun peaked through the clouds, since at that moment Anna told the officiants to shorten the ceremony to exactly three minutes from processional to first kiss so they could run outside and soak it up.

It ended up being a beautiful day for them, whatever the weather. I barely remember the wetness, the dirty shoes … what I remember is the ringing laughter, the no small amount of tears, the beautiful decor put together by CocoLuna Events, and the bonds of new friendship I myself had made through this process. It was such a wonderful, terrifying honor … and thankfully, Anna got to wear a beautiful dress, and not a trash bag in sight.