After living in DC for 13 years, I finally made it up to New York! And what better excuse than Melissa and Oladele's beautiful fall Long Island wedding! Melissa is a cousin and bridesmaid from
Anne and Chris's wedding two years ago, so I was thrilled and honored when she called and asked me to come up to photograph her own wedding!
Melissa and Oladele are so in love (you may recall their sweet
engagement pictures); it was such a joy to be part of their wedding day! They were a photographer's dream, allowing time in between the ceremony and reception for pictures at the magnificent
Old Westbury Gardens. What an incredible opportunity, I just wish we'd had a few more hours there. :)
We also stopped by an amazing find, the
Cedarmere property with a stone bridge and an old Gothic Revival style decorative mill. Cedarmere was home to
prominent 19th-century poet, newspaper editor and civic leader, William Cullen Bryant, in the mid 1800's and the house (currently undergoing restoration) is designated part of the Underground Railroad. Again, a few more hours of daylight was needed to here! Many thanks to Melissa and Oladele for literally running around these properties so we could make the most of our time! I think it was worth it for these amazing wedding portraits. :)
The handsome groom:
The beautiful bride:
Can you tell how happy they are to be married?
Old Westbury Gardens, what a dramatic backdrop, I love it!
The Temple of Love, how appropriate. :)
Love the little guard house in the walled garden.
Dramatic fall colors!
The mill with so many neat details. Historic and old is such a great combination.
We wanted a picture by the water, but the clouds were rolling in, it was getting dark and the wind was whipping up even stronger, it was hard to stand up, but it made for a really dramatic picture. Again, Melissa was such a great sport and sacrificed her her hair getting blown to pieces for the shot.
The flash didn't fire, but the available light is dramatic and the slow shutter speed showed the movement of Melissa's great dancing dress, so I thought this image was worth saving. It looks kind of like old grainy black and white film.
Melissa and Oladele thoroughly enjoyed every minute of their wedding day, and danced and danced at their reception. I love the connection you can see between them!
Portrait Locations:
Old Westbury Gardens,
CedarmereReception:
San Souci of Sea CliffAssistant Photographer: Kathleeen MacArthur of
Candid Like Life in Bellport, NY. Thanks Kathleen!
Wedding Photography: Jan with
jan michele photography based in Arlington, VA. Contact Jan today to book her as your wedding photographer! Click
here, then the contact tab.
Next Kathleen and I started our site visits for the wedding. She lives on Long Island and would be second shooting with me so it was fun to have her along to explore with me. I always like to know where I'm going so I can make the most of each location on the wedding day when time is flying by. First stop, the regal Old Westbury Gardens. I love these kinds of places and have been looking forward to shooting wedding pictures here! It was amazing and so hard to choose only a few spots to use for wedding portraits! And the fall colors were just spectacular!
As we were driving out to the San Souci of Sea Cliff, the wedding reception location, we spotted this place and immediately pulled in to check it out. It turned out to be Cedarmere with amazing potential for wedding portraits. I couldn't wait to bring Melissa and Oladele back here! The weather and time constraints of the wedding day didn't allow us to fully use the property - Melissa was willing to climb into the old greenhouse :) - but it was beautiful and fascinating none the less.
On Sunday we went downtown New York City and walked about 90 blocks! The left picture is the arch honoring George Washington in Washington Square Park. On the right is the nearly full moon rising over Central Park. There were runners still finishing the New York City Marathon, running to the finish line in the park. Quite an accomplishment for them! It was so sweet to see the people along the road cheering them on by name (when they had their names on their shirts).
Ice skaters in Rockefeller Plaza:
Times Square:
