Emily loves, loves, loves the beach. That's why she and Mike searched hard for a venue that would best express her love for the beach. They chose Anthony's Ocean View in New England and it was a beautiful event and space for the affair. It was a nice getaway from my typical New York City Wedding. It was a brilliant wedding, the couple had such wonderful and supportive friends. I could really tell how much these two meant to people. One of my favorite parts of the wedding was when the brother of the groom was giving his best man speech. He worked at ESPN, and in his speech, he was telling a story about how Emily and Mike knew a boy who LOVED ESPN. Mike and Emily work with children, so they asked the brother if he could give the boy a tour of the headquarters. So his brother, who was at first SO excited to give them a tour... show them where he worked, what he did.. instead was so super touched by the awe and excitement of the boy. It was as if instead of being excited about himself, he was pleasantly given such an opportunity to bring such joy into a another person's life. It was really inspiring. Here are some of the highlights of the day:
A Rochester New York Wedding in the Fall
Flying back up to Rochester brought back a lot of memories. One of the things I missed most was Java's Coffee. When I was in college, we had a Java's on our campus, and that was my go-to spot for caffeine and amazing cookies. They have THE best 'heath' cookies... ! To which I can only compare to Momofuku Compost Cookies... but anyways, enough about COOKIES... I was honored to be asked to photograph the wedding of two of my good friends, Elaine and Gary- whom I had known from my college fellowship at the Rochester Chinese Christian Church. It was a beautiful ceremony, with so many familiar faces. It was a blast being able to party with some old-but still great- friends. CONGRATS YOU TWO! :) Here are some highlights from the day:
Homy & Michael Wedding - Queens, New York City
Luke's Lobster, Halal and yes, Waffles & Dinges. Let us EAT! Homy & Michael got married at the Colonial Church of Bayside in Queens, New York City and had their reception in the form of Food Trucks galore. It was a beautiful and warm autumn day. Everything was beautiful! Their vows were so well written-- I was weeping while I was shooting. I think I cried the most at this wedding. I cried mostly because they cried. Take careful note to their faces in some of these shots, teardrops were falling everrrrywhere. Heehee. Cute couple!
Allaya & Damany - Union Square - New York City Wedding
So Allaya and Damany's wedding day finally came! We started the day at the Conrad Hotel in New York City out on the west side of downtown Manhattan, then made our way over to the SGI Culture Center in Union Square . Allaya and Damany are devout Buddhist. This was my first time witnessing a Buddhist wedding. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm for early March. The event was full of close friends, heart-felt speeches and loving family. We did their portraits in Union Square amongst the seas of people. Their reception was at the Blue Water Grill also right by Union Square. What an amazing true New York City wedding!
P.S: Check out their outfits! Damany has probably the coolest grooms outfit I have ever witnessed in my life.
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And of course, if you've seen and read the story about how they met you would know we HAD to do a shot in front of Starbucks to commemorate it. Cute!