Katherine and Burkett didn’t want to gamble with our iffy New York Spring weather and chose a wonderful indoor venue in Long Island City, The Metropolitan Building. It’s a fantastic location for any kind of photo shoot because it has great light and lots of cool rooms and props to work with. I wanted to post a few of the portraits from their wedding. I’ll put together a longer post on their wedding day soon. Stay tuned.
Venue: The Metropolitan Building
Ruchira and Raghav had a beautiful, elegant Spring wedding at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. As Indian weddings go it was ‘small’. Small being a very relative word since most Indian weddings I photograph have a minimum of 300 guests. They couldn’t have asked for a better setting.
Venue: Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Decorator: Elegant Affairs
Hair: Nikki Avanzino
Makeup: Elizabeth Black
If you’re in NY this week please check out our next Open Show screening for photography, video, and multimedia. I’ve been enjoying producing these events since last year to encourage discussion and critique and create community. You can rsvp for the show on Facebook.
I love destination weddings. It’s a wonderful thing to have a small group of family and friends spending time together over several days to celebrate a wedding. Betsy and Sibin couldn’t have chosen a better location than Old San Juan for the their wedding. It was sweet moment to have Betsy’s mother walked her down the aisle of Holy Trinity Methodist Church in the absence of her father, who had passed away. One of my favorite photos is of Betsy and Sibin leaving the church with the words “God is Love” at the door. The Hotel El Convento was a beautiful location for portraits. A big thanks to Kathi Littwin for working with me on this wedding.
There were too many photos to share so please check on the second blog post that shows off more of the couple’s portraits and the beauty of Old San Juan in a day after shoot.
Getting ready: Conrad Hotel
Ceremony: Holy Trinity Methodist Church
Reception: Ritz Carlton Hotel
Portraits: Hotel El Convento
Event planner – The Event by Merylin, Merylin Andino
Decorator – Intic Corp, Jaasiel Pacheco
Wedding cake – C+M Contemporary Designers
Hair & makeup – Q’za
DJ – Big J Music Services
Videographer – Blink and Sin Pictures
One couldn’t ask for a more beautiful location for a wedding than San Juan in Puerto Rico. The problem was choosing between the many wonderful places a portrait session. We decided to do a day after session before flying back to New York and the lovely Castillo de San Cristobal and on the streets of old San Juan. The Fort completed in 1783 is a national historic site and built by Spain to protect the city against attacks.
Lydia and I met many many years ago in Vietnam when we were both starting out professionally and finding our way in a vastly different culture to our own. Since then we’ve had some pretty crazy adventures together…one with some ‘dangerous’cows and knives under our sleeping bags in the Australian outback that’s particularly memorable. I was pretty excited one of my closest friends found a great guy, Dave, to marry. And perhaps just as excited that they chose to get married on Cape Cod. Lydia and Dave were game to get up at the very early hour of 5:30am two days after their wedding to humor me with a sunrise portrait session. Dave mentioned something about becoming familiar with the perfectionist mentality in getting to know Lydia so she’d paved the way for this moment so to speak.
I must admit that I’m more of a late night person than an early riser so it can indeed be painful to get up for dawn and very tempting to turn off the alarm and go back to bed. When you actually do manage to get yourself out of bed and are lucky enough to find the light is incredible, the world is a peaceful place full of promise and you’ve been given the gift of a gorgeous sunrise there’s nothing better.
Congrats Lydia and Dave! I wish you many more beautiful sunrises together.
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I grew up on LI, but only made it out to Montauk for the first time a few years ago. I love that if you drive that little extra bit past the Hamptons you find this laid back, casual beach town vibe. Even better when you go in the off-season. So a wedding on a beautiful May day just before Memorial Day weekend was ideal. Nicole and Brian picked Montauk for their wedding because they’ve spent every summer there since they’ve been together. They chose a beautiful setting overlooking Montauk’s Fort Pond.
I must admit to thinking it was pretty cool when Nicole told me that Brian’s family owned the Memory Motel in Montauk. Mick Jagger supposedly played there a few times and the Rolling Stones’ Memory Motel from their album Black and Blue takes it’s title from there.
Nicole’s choice of decorations and details were very appealing. I loved the lavender of her bouquet and the boutonnieres and the beautiful brooch from her great grandmother than adorned her bouquet. Nicole wanted their wedding to have a ‘rustic chic’ style and not be overly formal. She thinks of peonies and hydrangeas as feminine blooms. The candy buffet appealed to her sweet tooth and her love for old-fashioned candy stores.
I’ve been really loving the dresses of my brides. Nicole had a beautiful Vera Wang design with ivory cap-sleeves which she felt contributed to the romantic, vintage feel she was going for. Her first job in New York was working for Vera Wang so it was particularly fitting that she wore one of the designers dresses years later.
P.S. Those photos of surprise on Nicole’s face are all about Brian surprising her with a trip to Africa.
Venue: East by Northeast
Makeup/Hair: Erica Ogawa
Flowers: Bella Flowers
Cake: Watermill Cupcake Company
Band: Green Machine
Combining a full Catholic wedding ceremony with a full Hindu one makes for a jam-packed eventful wedding day for sure especially with four locations. Judith and Pradeep tried to create a fusion of their personalities and their separate family traditions with Judith’s family coming from the Dominican Republic (she made a pretty impressive Indian bride though!) and Pradeep’s family from India. I think they did a fantastic job blending everything together. It’s what I love most about weddings in New York…the whole melting pot of cultures and traditions with an American twist.
I’m not a very gushy person when it comes to dresses, shoes, fashion in general….my sister will attest to that….but I have to say that I was in love with Judith’s beautiful blush pink ‘American’ wedding dress designed by Monique Lhuillier. And the shoes were pretty spectacular too. My decor favorite was the use of cherry blossoms for the centerpieces. I always associate cherry blossoms with the beginning of spring.
This is a longer post than most for good reason. There was just a lot going on.
Vendors:
Venues:
Portraits: Reeves-Reed Arboretum
Hair & Makeup : Maira Ortiz
Lengha & Saree styling: KM Events Management
Flowers & Decor: Laura Clare Foral Design & Event Decor
Cake: A Little Cake (Le Petit Gateau)
Rolls Royce: New Jersey Limo Bus and Limousine
Day of Coordinator: Brilliant Event Planning
I met Scott and Daniele just one week before their wedding at the Ladies’ Pavilion in Central Park, funnily enough, standing outside NY Magazine’s Weddings Event. They wandered by and asked what the event was inside. As it turned out they were getting married very soon. So a short conversation on the sidewalk and a somewhat longer one by phone led to me photographing their wedding in a very lovely spot in the park. If they really love their photos maybe I’ll be lucky enough to get an invite to the much bigger wedding they are planning in Brazil. In the meantime, I’m definitely going to take them up on their lunch invitation.
For the second year I’ve been able to offer a portrait session for the benefit auction at the New York Yacht Club. It’s such a great organization. I’m biased, of course, since I’m a sailor and think getting kids to build wooden boats and get the out on the water is such a wonderfully cool idea. There are some incredible things up for auction including a 10 day Galapagos cruise, dinner for two at Fish, a basic sailing course it’s worth taking a look. They also have an online auction if you can’t make it to the event.
