Stonewall Estates wedding

New York State has a neat trick in the fall: time travel. Go north or south up I-87, or head up into the mountains, and you can go back and forth weeks on fall foliage. So there are few more beautiful places to get married in early October than in a gorgeous pastoral Catskills venue like the Stonewall Estates, and everything came together perfectly for Nigam and Bryant’s wedding, with crisp blue skies and blazing orange leaves complementing all of the gorgeous colors of the Hindu elements of the wedding. The amazing team at Tanari Events Not only seamlessly combined South Asian and Western elements, but seemingly disparate overtones — the decor was both highly elegant and extremely comfortable, something that could accommodate both board games in the woods with your family and Nigam and Bryant’s dashing couture tuxedos.

Since the Haldi and mendhi were the day before and every one of the guests was traveling to the area, that atmosphere made for a feeling of a family reunion or a country retreat, a weekend where you can find your comfort and fun whether you just want to sit around a fire or go wild on the dance floor. Nigam and Bryant are so warm and kind that you feel like your day is a bit better just being in the same room as them, so we loved seeing how much joy they had with their friends and family.

Yale Club wedding

We loved this wedding so much it hurts.

If we’d written that at any other time, you could write it off as florid hyperbole. But now it is keenly true: Not only are Melissa and Zach fantastic people to be around whose love for each other is obvious, but they celebrated that love and their commitment fervently and wildly, surrounded by friends and family, dancing and laughing and sweating and dipping each other deeply to the amazing music of The Hook Club in the regal beauty of Yale Club.

We think that it’s so important to be able to do this that we’ve dedicated our lives to telling these sorts of stories, and it hurts to have so much uncertainty about when we can all safely crowd together on a dance floor again, singing and yelling and smiling until our cheeks ache.

But seeing amazing celebrations like theirs still brings us an incredible amount of joy, because we know that we will get back there again. This, too, shall pass. And no celebration will ever feel sweeter than when we can all come back together.

And Melissa has a heck of a party dress for just such an occasion.

We want to reward people willing to take a chance on hope as well as help people through challenging times, so we have extended our 2020 Sales to weddings as well. We cannot wait to tell stories of celebration again, and we are well-practiced at helping couples work through related details and uncertainty.

Central Park Elopement

Katherine and Zak are clearly magical creatures.

When these Australians came to us and said “We would like to get married and then shoot portraits in Central Park in February, and the entire time I will be wearing a fabulous mini-dress,” we thought “Ok, we’re up for anything, but you do know February is a bit different than where you're from, right?”

And then the day came … glorious, sunny, 65 degrees. Have faith, and magic may come.

There is something incredibly special about a New York elopement … and Tatiana and I know, because we had one of our own.

We know that a lot of plans look uncertain right now. When our own wedding date kept getting pushed back to find the right date for friends and family, we finally said “You know what? We really want the big party, and we’re going to have it. But we’ve waited long enough. Let’s just get married, and THEN plan our big wedding.”

It was a glorious decision for us, and we want to help others have the same flexibility. We are offering bookings and gift certificates for elopements at a special rate of $200 per half-hour … and if you then book a bigger wedding later, we will offer an extra 10 percent off on top of any other discounts.

We consider our relationship to clients to be “the friends who have literally done this more than a thousand times before,” and in the case of elopements we’ve planned it for ourselves as well. For Katherine and Zak, we had the unique opportunity to plan not only to location of each portrait, but the exact location of the ceremony. Since they are magical creatures, they also had the luck of a deserted Bethesda Terrace, making a fabulous background for beginning their new life.

Park Chateau wedding

Daytime weddings have a good number of benefits in some situations, such as convenience for certain guests to lighter, airy reception atmosphere, but many couples are nervous about them for two reasons: First, it can mean a really, really early start time for hair and makeup. Second, couples may worry that guests won’t be able to cut loose and have a wild time when it’s still early and sunny in the reception space.

There’s not much we can do about the former, but Judy and Denny’s Park Chateau wedding should forever put the latter worry at ease. They and their guests were ready to celebrate. The dance floor was literally vibrating with the energy, including a surprise dance performance for Denny by Judy and her bridesmaids.

One of the things that keeps weddings so fresh for us after well over a thousand is the incredible variety of emotions and experiences throughout the day, What other day of your life do you find yourself crying with heartfelt emotion at 9 a.m. and having your shirt ripped off on the dance floor by 5? Weddings are all of the intimate beauty and promises that ads and magazines focus on, but that celebration with friends and family is a crucial part, too. It’s the part that takes most of the time and energy to plan, and when it comes together in countless moments of joy like this, it was certainly worth it.

Abigail Kirsch at Tappan Hill Mansion wedding

We’ve been having some fun this winter revisiting weddings, given that one of the fun things about wedding work is that it can be constantly re-interpreted. We shoot and deliver a huge amount of photos — indeed, events are the only sort of photography where it matters how good the 500th-best photo you took in a single day was. Over the course of your life, you can divvy up your photos in different ways — photos you want to put in a gorgeous album or big on your wall; photos you want to put on Facebook to show off the fun your friends had; photos your parents will put on their fridge. But also you can come back to photos and see them in different ways — with the number of photos in a wedding, it’s like that each time you will see a photo that feels like a welcome surprise.

And so we come back to Amanda and Mitchell’s wonderful wedding at the Tappan Hill Mansion to show a different way to view the images — entirely in black and white. We actually give black and white copies of each wedding photo we deliver, and it’s a great way to make it feel fresh and tell the story in new ways. Here we feel that the tone highlights the deeply felt emotion of the day.

We hope you enjoy this as much as we enjoyed revisiting this day!

Trinidad and Tobago wedding

Roger and Aleena’s wedding was special to us in a number of ways. First, it was in Trinidad, giving us the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful country, warm figuratively and (very much) literally. Second, it was at La Soledad Estate, a venue that was originally built to produce two of the most important substances on Earth: coffee and chocolate. But mostly we appreciated it because of Roger and Aleena.

Roger is a talented wedding photographer, and it is always an exciting honor to get to turn the lens on someone so savvy and knowledgeable. Aleena is an airline pilot, which not only came in handy for meeting them in person but shows her incredible drive and intelligence. But more than anything we were awed in how kind and calm they are together.

Picture this: You are having the wedding in the heart of your country’s dry season. You wake up to a forecast of zero percent chance of rain. And then, an hour before your outdoor wedding, the skies open into a downpour. I can’t say they were overjoyed, but they took it all in stride, just enjoying the day and their time together, and thankfully it stopped just in time for the ceremony.

Thank you both for caring so much for us throughout our entire stay in Trinidad. You showed us unmatched hospitality, having numerous overseas planning meetings with us, greeting us at our hotel on arrival and escorting us to the car at the end of your wedding. No other couple has ever done that on their wedding night! We will never forget your kindness, and the vibrancy of your family and friends. And we are so excited about the prospect of seeing you in New York again soon!

Tribeca Rooftop wedding

We love so much about weddings that we would enjoy them wherever we are, but man is there something special about weddings in NYC, with their tremendous variety. Where else can you attend an event with posh fashion, heartbreaking emotion, and drag performers? Only at a wedding like Charlie and Max’s.

They lucked out with a gorgeous fall day, perfect for walking around the West Village and hopping on the 1 train down to TriBeCa to meet their massive, boisterous wedding party and on to TriBeca Rooftop, decorated to perfection by The Wild Bunch. In a nod to Charlie’s British heritage, half the wedding party were decked out in elaborate fascinators. Charlie and Max heightened the fashion themselves, with custom suitcoats and wedding bands and shoes they designed themselves.

The fantastic weather allowed for a touching ceremony on the rooftop and cocktail hour mingling, followed by a parade of heartfelt and hilarious speeches from friends and family. Then the party began, the energy brought by The Sugar Lane Band and even more toward the end of the night with drag performers joining the guests on the dance floor. An amazing day all over.

Central Park Boathouse wedding

“Classic” and “unique” might seem to be opposites — classic beauty seeks to honor and elevate what has come before — but Veronica and Gary managed to pull it off spectacularly. The examples are countless: It’s not often that guests of the Central Park Boathouse find themselves dancing with human disco balls, for example. We could tell this from their first message: Instead of working with a traditional event coordinator, the couple put their trust in a close friend, yoga instructor and activist Jase Cannon — and Jase absolutely nailed it.

The Boathouse was as beautiful as we’ve ever seen it, and quirky details like the human disco balls and flitting fairies blended seamlessly. But the real star of the day was the deep passion Veronica and Gary have for each other. Whether vamping in the Gramercy Park Hotel or laughing uproariously, spread out on a bench in Central Park’s Ramble, their energy was electric.

We’ve seen wonderful moments at weddings where the bride or groom unveil their musical skills and serenade their partner, but Veronica took it to the next level: She didn’t have the skills, so she learned, practicing piano for months in secret so that she could surprise Gary, and the wedding guests, at the reception.

It was an amazing day to be a part of. Thank you, Veronica and Gary!

Florist: Lenox Hill Florist & Events
DJ/Musicians/Lighting: Classie Sounds
Greeters & Entertainment: Athena Entertainment
Stylist: Lorenzo Hair Stylist
Makeup Artist: Esteban Martinez Makeup
Vegan Doughnuts: Dunwell Doughnuts
Wedding Cakes: Milk Bar

(click on any image to view larger)

Akwaaba Mansion Brooklyn wedding ceremony

Heritage Club at Bethpage Wedding

Belle Mer Newport wedding

Hotel on Rivington NYC wedding

Joyce and Nandish’s wedding reminds us that when you have the will to celebrate your love, nothing gets in your way.

In the photos below you will see Joyce and Nandish getting married before the impressive view from the roof of the Hotel on Rivington. You will also see them getting married inside the colorful reception area of the Hotel on Rivington. Do not call a script supervisor; there is no continuity error. They were married in both places, thanks to a sudden rainstorm that swept over the horizon and straight into us.

They simply had too much to celebrate. We always love doing weddings where the bride or groom have children already because it adds just another layer of love and connection to the day, and Joyce and Nandish's children were an integral part of the entire wedding, with sweet moments like Joyce's young son helping her get dressed … right after she helped him.

The Pierre Hotel NYC wedding

Rachel and Brendon’s wedding was a thousand positive adjectives turned up to 11. Each one —- gorgeous, wild, elegant, emotional — needs their own exclamation point. Take the ingredients of a Pierre Hotel wedding, Central Park in fall*, and a couple bursting with excited energy for the day and for each other, and you have a recipe for an amazing day.

Rachel and Brendon not only have amazing positive energy, but a deep connection to their family and friends (whom they treat like family). It has been such a delight to see Rachel mark occasions both happy and sad on her Instagram with photos we took at her wedding, from Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day to new engagements. It reminds us of the lasting impact wedding images have!

We were happy to be helped by Jerry Ng and Tom Harmon to capture as many aspects of this wild-and-joyous-every-minute day as possible. And thank you to Dawn Celovsky at State of the Art Enterprises for planning such a beautiful event.

*Something so wonderful that Ferris Bueller sang about it on the top of a parade float … even though he was in Chicago.

Central Park Boathouse wedding

Everything about Lauren and Doug’s Central Park wedding was gorgeous, including the weather. We specialize in making things work well when everything goes wrong, but it’s sure nice when it doesn’t! They started the day at the 1 Hotel Central Park with close family and friends, giving us the opportunity for a first look on a balcony overlooking midtown.

The ceremony and reception were at the Central Park Boathouse, which is not just beautiful inside but surrounded by some of New York’s most well-known pastoral landmarks. Of course, this can make navigating around hordes of tourists a challenge, but it helps that we have every nook and cranny around there memorized, including paths much less travelled.