Terrence Takeover | Farm Dinner at Honeymoon Acres in Ramsey, NJ
Apollo Fields | Best Wedding Photos | New York Wedding Photographer | Long Island Wedding Photographer | New Jersey Wedding Photographer | Honeymoon Acres | Ramsey, NJ | Terrence Huie | Writer
How does a guy go from surviving on late night halal to cooking and hosting multi-course farm fresh dinners? From “extra white sauce, please” to garnishing butter-poached scallops with pickled apple and fennel? I’m convinced cooking wasn’t part of my DNA until the first time Heather and I made fresh pasta together in Harlem; and I don’t think Heather knew of her penchant for hosting until we held a casual picnic with a few friends shortly thereafter. But now looking back at our almost ten-year path to this pilot dinner at our family farm, every step of the way falls into place like silverware surrounding a place setting.
Heather and I first met in 2014 while shaking light pink cosmos in neighboring restaurants on the Upper West Side. Ever since then hospitality has always been and always will be a through-line for everything that we do. Being three-deep at the bar while the expo machine cranks in the background was the training ground for the weeds that we now navigate in our everyday lives. Whether it’s meeting the demands of our two under three, being the steady rock for our couples who just need to take a deep breath, or serving 20 guests five courses–we will always hold the line.
The orange wax cascading down the side of the candle is reaching the point of splashing onto the champagne colored tablecloth. Dessert is about to drop with a chilled amaro-coffee cocktail. I’m trying to call words to the forefront of my mind but only see a faucet running with a sink full of dishes that we need to turn.
“First off, I want to thank you for coming…” I begin.
My mind is black like the trees all around us.
“I also want to thank Heather, who always keeps me reaching…”
Still blank.
“When I think about hosting dinners I think about how I get into a flow state, how the whole world shrinks down to your candlelit faces, like nothing else exists.”
A spark is happening.
“And it makes me think of the phrase, “the grass is always greener,” how you know, a lot of us are always looking to the future or the past, and we fail to appreciate what is right in front of us. Well, I just wanted to say that if you look beneath your feet right now, the grass is pretty fucking green, so here’s to that. Cheers everyone!”
My mind is still empty as I scurry back to the house to start firing the dessert course. Orange wax is all over the table.
Our guests are wiping whipped cream from their mouths and it’s our first opportunity to sit down and pour ourselves a drink. I guess not much has changed since our bartending days yet everything has changed. I can trust Heather to make sure things never stay the same and she can trust me to make them feel like they are. It’s our secret sauce. Photography, dinner parties, we are the same people we have always been and always will be–and we will always keep reaching. I will never stop crushing a styrofoam container packed with halal but it’s no longer necessary for my survival.
Rocky Mountain National Park Wedding
Apollo Fields | Colorado Wedding Photographers | Rocky Mountain National Park Wedding Photos | Estes Park Wedding Photographer | Outdoor Wedding Ideas | Best Wedding Photos
Kelly + Evan
Coasting down that final stretch of road into Estes Park, the sun poured through the clouds onto the mountaintops like spotlights on a stage. Mountain weather tends to have a flair for the dramatic: passing storms, ominous thunder and lightning in the distance, plummeting temperature once the sun falls below the earth’s natural curtain. Such are the concerns for couples who choose to stage the ceremony of their love in the heart of nature’s beauty.
Rocky Mountain National Park Wedding
Kelly and Evan are east coasters like us, hailing from Connecticut and most recently Maryland. But having just moved to the Mile High City a month ago, they decided to host their ceremony in Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the (many) natural Crown Jewels of the beautiful state of Colorado. Inviting some of their closest friends and family, we gathered at a trail head, a party of around 20, to listen to their vows with green meadows, chirping birds, and jaw-dropping views all around.
One Couple, Two Locations
A growing trend for our couples is to host an engagement shoot or ceremony in one adventurous destination, and a more accessible reception in another. This allows them to travel to a place they’ve always wanted to visit, or commemorate a certain chapter of their relationship, while also providing a celebration for the larger group of loved ones in their lives. WE ARE ALL ABOUT IT. Truth be told, Heather and I wanted to elope on a mountaintop when we lived in Colorado, but opted to have our wedding on her aunt and uncle’s beautiful farm in northern New Jersey.
Destination Wedding Photographers Based in New York
I’m sure many could see multiple locations for a wedding celebration as too much hassle for Heather, Capa, and I (even if we weren’t expecting!), but that’s not how we see it. We see it as an opportunity to travel to amazing places, document authentic parts of our couple’s relationships, and have fun while doing it. Admittedly, I may get a bit neurotic when packing for the airport and boarding the plane, but once we hop in a rental car, we crank the tunes and we’re on our way!
Connecticut Wedding Photographers
Part two of Kelly and Evan’s wedding celebration will be at Shuttle Meadow Country Club in Kensington, Connecticut. The venue is only 30 minutes from where Heather and Kelly went to high school together at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, CT. It’s funny how consistent the overlap of values that Heather has with her former classmates over the years. It seems that everyone we meet or every couple’s wedding we photograph, we unearth a little bit of that bond that they all forged together. Not to mention all of the amazing partners they’ve chosen to marry; Evan being no exception.
National Park Wedding Photographer
So when I closed my eyes and heard Kelly and Evan speak their vows to each other in one of the most serene places I’ve ever been to, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of something akin to imposter syndrome. Something about all of these beautiful couples in all of these stunning locations makes me question why I deserve it. I’m so lucky to be part of this business, with a partner who could make both a board room and modeling runway bend to her will without saying a word. When speaking to Mercie and Danika—a magical couple whose wedding we photographed last year and coincidentally were in Estes Park and made themselves available to us to take care of Capa while we worked—I said that my heart is so full that I almost need to invent something to reach for. It’s not complacency; it’s marrying ambition with fulfillment and remembering that I deserve it—just like every other human being on this planet.
Mountain Elopement in Boulder CO
Apollo Fields | Lost Gulch Wedding Photography | Boulder Wedding Photographer | Boulder Colorado Weddings | Best Boulder Wedding Photos | Colorado Wedding Ideas
Logan & RJ
Driving by the Flatirons of Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado, will always remind me of one of the first weddings Heather and I photographed as Apollo Fields. I remember being so nervous that I was going to miss a shot or drop a piece of equipment; I remember watching in admiration as Heather wrangled people from their drinks for family formals—but perhaps most importantly—I remember the couple. They taught me the invaluable lesson that the better you know your couple the better you will be at telling their story. So as the Flatirons moved from our periphery into the rear view, we headed up to Flagstaff Mountain and I kept getting more and more excited to begin to tell the story of Logan and RJ.
Logan and RJ decided to elope at Lost Gulch because their original wedding plans were spoiled by the pandemic. Their intimate ceremony was attended by their closest friends and family and streamed online. Unfortunately, RJ’s sisters and mother couldn’t attend the event, so Logan went out of her way to invite two of RJ’s best friends to surprise him and still make it feel special. They plan to host a full wedding in Fall 2021 at the house they will be buying in the next few months!
Logan and RJ’s first date involved a Phish Stream and a bunch of beers—and that sounds pretty awesome (Heather and I subbed Phish for an ice hockey game in Central Park for ours). We’re all about keeping it simple; it actually has been one of the silver linings of the weddings of 2020. It has loosened the formalities of what can or should be done at weddings and invited a whole slew of thoughtful creativity. For instance, Logan decided to rock a pair of badass boots and white stunner shades and we were all about it! If you’re not doing what you wanna do when it comes to your wedding then what are you doing?!
Logan and RJ will be sharing their vows at their celebration next year and we’re encouraging everyone to do what feels right for them! It’s another angle of the silver lining of this year: you get to cut out the parts out of weddings that you don’t like and no relative or friend can say a damn thing about it! We do think it is important to anchor each celebration with something intentional; whether it is sharing your vows, a vow renewal, or a full ceremony, the more feelings the better.
As we descended the switch backs of Flagstaff Mountain we stopped in pull-offs to take a few more impromptu shots of Logan and RJ along the way. They ran through the brush, jumped into each other’s arms, and allowed one another to be happy. It’s a feeling that has been hard to come by this year, as it seems like every other day we have some other problem that is heaped upon our shoulders—but it is up to us to unplug—throw on some kick ass boots and stunner shades, and step into the sunshine.
Enjoy these photos from Logan & RJ’s wedding celebration:
As seen in: Mountainside Bride
Intimate Wedding in Colorado Springs, CO
Apollo Fields | Candid Wedding Photos | Wedding Photographers in Colorado Springs | Intimate Wedding Photos | Best Wedding Photos in Colorado Springs
Igor & Michelle
I know Heather is tough, but even I didn’t think she would be climbing through barbed-wire fencing at 30 weeks pregnant to get a shot. After reading that sentence--some may question how I allowed it to happen--but that just means you don’t know Heather and I well enough. Anyone that knows us knows that I would never tell my wife what she can and can’t do, especially when it comes to her body. That doesn’t mean I didn’t raise an eyebrow and say, “you sure?” before she bent down and climbed through the fence like a professional wrestler climbing through the ropes into the ring. I will always love her and Igor and Michelle for being up for an adventure.
We actually met Igor and Michelle in New York City where Heather did their engagement photos in Tribeca. Igor was the Executive Chef at The Standard Hotel at the time before Covid turned Manhattan into a shell of its culinary self. I’m happy that Igor’s confident that the bustling scene will come back in a few years. Michelle is his perfect powerful complement, and their son, Harrison, has a better palate than I do at five-years-old. They are actually in the process of uprooting to Arkansas for an amazing career opportunity and we can’t wait to visit them in an outdoorsy paradise that is increasing in popularity.
Michelle and Igor were supposed to get married in Los Angeles at one of Igor’s former spots, but pivoted to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Michelle grew up because of the pandemic. We started their day with a short photo session of the two of them at one of Michelle’s family friend’s ranches. It was so windy that I was legitimately worried that a branch was going to come down on our heads. Then Heather decided to climb through the fence. We never know what mother nature is going to give us on wedding days but we are always thankful when our couples like Igor and Michelle bring their A-game no matter what.
After that Igor and Michelle planned for some down time before the ceremony and reception. We love when our couples take the time to honor the pace of the day that is all too often scripted down to the minute. Igor said he took the time to play spades with one of his soon-to-be relatives. Michelle and the girls took the opportunity for some self-care with a luxurious, airy spa day at Blush - Dry Spa Bar. I always say that mental health is the most important thing and it has never been more true than in the year 2020.
Next year the plan is to go “back, back to Cali, Cali” (thanks Biggie) and finish the celebration in full swing. The intimate ceremony and reception this year at Prime25 set the stage for one hell of a party. Between Igor getting emotional waiting for Michelle at the first look, and the many toasts, some translated from Igor’s native Russian tongue, there is so much to look forward to. Sometimes we just have to throw caution to the wind, climb through some barbed wire, and have a day for ourselves--that’s what life’s all about!
Enjoy these photos from Michelle & Igor’s Micro-wedding:
Sapphire Point Engagement Photos in Dillon CO
Sapphire Point Engagement | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers in Colorado | Travel Wedding Photographers | Candid Engagement Photography | Best Wedding Photos | Mountain Engagements
“Hey, hi,” I said to the illuminated frozen-over Starbucks drive thru sign at 6:30 a.m., “I’ll have a double-shot Cortado with almond milk and a bacon, egg and cheese, please.”
“Ok, great, uh, I, is a Cortado the one with the chocolate in it?” A voice on the other end responded.
“Um, no, it’s a shot of espresso with some steamed milk--more than a macchiato but less than a latte,” I replied.
“Ok great, no problem! First window, please.”
I’m still not sure why Starbucks decided to invent their own interpretations of coffee and espresso drinks, but the truth is all I want is the caffeine before a sunrise photo session--who cares what the drinks are called. I was actually pleasantly surprised how engaging and friendly this particular barista was in the dark early hours of that fall day in Silverthorne, CO; taking the time to teach me how to properly order from their overly complicated menu. It was honestly a great start to the day as we made our way up to Sapphire Point for Paige and John’s engagement session.
I knew it was going to be cold but I did not expect the mountainside to be covered in snow. Neither did Paige and John. We all went into this shoot expecting it to be golden Aspens and fall and cute and it wound up being a frigid winter wonderland. The other day, someone asked me about our couples keep warm during these chilly sunrise sessions, “do they wear huge coats or how do they not look cold?!”
“Nope, no coats,” I replied, “I’m not quite sure how not to look cold, honestly.”
But Paige and John, whatever they did to keep themselves warm that morning, were troopers. They even had an outfit change where Paige’s arms were bare! I was totally impressed while drinking my macchiato, Cortado or whatever the hell it was. They were riding high coming down from a visit in Telluride, one of our favorite Colorado mountain towns. We had been trying to get them on our crazy 2020 calendar and meeting at Sapphire Point worked out perfectly.
Paige and John are getting married at Wedgewood-Boulder Creek in September 2021 and we are confident that fall weather will still be around that time next year, haha. The beautiful thing is that even if it isn’t, now we know Paige and John will roll with the punches and still be happy and beautiful. Heather and I love to do these engagement sessions because they are opportunities for us to get some face time and get to know each other. We totally understand that most people are not comfortable in front of the camera, nor can they easily overcome quick weather changes, but we do our best to keep it light and fun.
In the case of Paige and John--they did it for us--and we just got to laugh, enjoy the beauty of the view, and drink a hot frappuccino while doing it.
Enjoy these photos from Paige & John’s Sapphire Point Engagement:
Photography: Apollo Fields
Arvada, CO Wedding Photographers Apollo Fields
Frances & Bryce’s Engagement Session | Wheat Ridge, Colorado | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
The current of Clear Creek typically slows in the final weeks of summer, where the chilly melted remnants of winter finally give way to the warmth of the relentless sun. But this year—the water level that usually sinks to reveal the high water marks of the season— where the different layers of soil look like little horizons in the riverbanks—was still flowing strong in mid-August. As Bryce and Frances laughed and danced creekside during their outdoor engagement session, I couldn’t help but think of the parallels of their relationship and Heather and I’s, and the Colorado current that brought us all together.
The first time I met Bryce was at his family cabin in the mountains in Eldora, where Heather was doing a quick photo session for Frances’ family. I remember his firm handshake and the way he maintained eye contact when he spoke to me, like the way humans used to interact before texting became our primary mode of communication. Somewhere between a paternal, uncle, and a brother’s relationship, I knew from the beginning that Bryce and I would see eye-to-eye—and this was before I knew how similar Frances and Heather are.
To give you an idea about Frances, during this family session in Eldora, she wanted to get some badass shots of her in a leather jacket riding her motorcycle down a dirt road. We did. It was badass. Frances—like Heather—has a way about smiling through you while she controls a situation; like, “ohhh, you thought it was going to go that way?, haha, it isn’t.” It’s the part of their characters that Bryce and I respectively butt heads with but ironically is most likely the same reason we chose them as partners. They’re strong—like really strong. Heather’s the kind of girl that can sit alone at a rowdy bar and take care of herself; and I haven’t seen Frances sit alone at a bar but I can imagine she’d be juuust fine, too. But more than their drive or their individuality, they are both beautiful women who can recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and address them rationally and logically.
When we all got dinner together at the Arvada Tavern (one of our fave local spots for cocktails) after the engagement session—just like every other time we get together—the parallels of our relationships immediately flow into conversation. In the presence of another couple “who gets it,” we all kind of take turns playfully ripping on our significant other, using the forum as a soundboard and opportunity for catharsis (or I do at least :)). It might get a little dicey at times when someone pushes it too far, but that’s what’s great about our dynamic—one or two of us will be able to pull it back to center. Spending time or having drinks with Frances and Bryce means learning about their relationship as we explore our own.
Somewhere between mentors and friends we are able to speak candidly and personally, professionally and with a business mindset. Through our friendship we add to our souls just as much as we add to our business. No one is ever afraid to speak their mind and we are all stronger for it. We’re so grateful to swim in the came current as you two. Thank you for all that you do and all that you are, Frances and Bryce.
Colorado Engagement Photography | Apollo Fields
Wardrobe | Glenn & Glenn
Hey! That’s us!
Like what you saw or read? Drop us a line and lets talk wedding photography and writing! Or food! Or ponies and puppies! Just click the photo for our contact info!
Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
August 13, 2019
As we conclude another busy stretch that included: a wedding near the artsy town Hudson in upstate NY, a studio collaboration in Philly with a badass industry professional and friend, Dylan Crossley, and a boudoir shoot on Long Island—we’re ready to pack up our gear and start our next leg in Boulder, Colorado. Our rigorous schedule can be demanding, stressful, and scattered all over the place, but we find that it’s better to push ourselves rather than rest on our laurels because 1. our future selves will thank us; and 2. We have each other.
Heather has been on site for wedding days more often than myself this season, so when I got to shoot with her at the wedding in Ghent, NY, this past weekend, it reminded me of all the great parts of being a wedding photographer. From celebrating a couple’s love, to hearing people speak directly from the heart, and bearing witness to reunion after reunion and hug after hug—there’s so much going on in a wedding to be grateful for.
One thing I cannot emphasize enough for a couple who’s seeking a wedding photographer is to meet with your candidates before the wedding. You don’t realize how intimate the relationship is with your wedding photographer until the day of; when your mother or maid of honor is helping you slip into your dress, or your best man or father is helping you adjust your bow tie in the mirror—and just over your shoulder is a person with a camera. Yes, we’re professionals and can still do our job without really getting to know one another, but when we know what makes you comfortable or the backstory for the details that mean something to you, we can do our jobs that much better. At Apollo Fields, we prefer to be close to our couples, crying with them from behind our cameras rather than maintaining a safe distance from the connections and emotions that make a wedding day so special.
Traveling can be a lot. Personalities can be huge. Energy might not be there. There are so many variables that surround weddings that have stress written all over them, but just like any other obstacles or adversities, sometimes the best thing we can do is control the way we react to them. Better still, we can look at the current circumstances and pull from them the most positive things, choosing the silver lining of our experiences rather than the copper-colored rust of regrets or frustrations. Some say that life is a playground, others say it is a test—I believe it’s somewhere in the middle—with plenty of space for somersaults, self-improvement, and a craft beer in between.
As we zip up our luggage and secure our gear, I am energized by these words alone. They contain my reflections on the choices that I make everyday. I don’t run from difficulty and I am not afraid of the future. I pursue my goals with Heather, my partner who drives me mad at times but always helps to keep the course of this crooked ship. Here’s to the adventures that shape us along the way and the destination best left unknown.
Colorado Wedding Photographers
We Just Landed in CO for a Rad Wedding Weekend!
Wedding Photography Lifestyle and Travel Blog | Destination Wedding Photographers in Colorado and NYC | Terrence and Heather Huie | Apollo Fields Weddings
Well it’s finally here. Wedding season.
We’re so pumped that we feel like Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers—well except the fact that we’re actually invited to the weddings we’re attending!
I like to say we are invited because that’s how we feel about the relationship with our couples, how each of them welcome us into their lives and give us the responsibility and privilege of documenting some of their life’s most precious moments. Of course, we take great pride in the professional service that we provide, but it’s the families and friends that we meet along the way that make us grateful to no end. Jes and Emma got our season off to a heart melting start a couple weeks ago, but we just landed in Colorado to officially kick it off with a bang!
Aaand it’s snowing...in May. Well it’s actually not all that unheard of in Colorado this time of year, but we planned to hit the ground running and make our way to Boulder to meet up with one of our couples, Kelly and Alec, for an outdoor engagement session today but mother nature had other ideas (usually we are all for weather but this is all gray, freezing rain, no mountain views, and no light whatsoever). So we’ll be rescheduling that for later this trip! Kelly and Alec are a wonderfully thoughtful couple who got engaged on a picturesque bridge in Amsterdam and will be hosting their outdoor wedding in Boulder this August at Wedgewood! (Let’s hope it doesn’t snow :) ) Shout out to our close friends, Matt and Kerry, who will be hosting us while we make the most of our time in one of our favorite places!
Tomorrow we head back down to Denver to begin the wedding weekend for Naomi and Johnny. Their rehearsal dinner is at New Terrain Brewing Company (hell yeah!) in Golden and we can’t wait. We just shot their engagement session in Norfolk, Virginia at a gorgeous trail head and brewery (finding a theme? :)) a couple months back and we’re so excited to meet their friends and family. If they’re anything like Naomi and Johnny we’re in for a heartfelt weekend. On Saturday, they’re hosting their wedding at The Pines at Genesee, a gorgeous outdoor wedding venue in Golden that we’re very familiar with. We can’t wait!
The same night, Casey and Thomas are getting married at Altona Grange Hall up in Longmont and we’re so excited for them! Our awesome associate, Sarah, is covering their wedding while we kick some ass in Golden and I know she’s going to do a killer job as always. They are a couple who dated in high school, lost touch, then eventually serendipitously reconnected in Chicago five years later. It’s funny how love seems to find us in the strangest ways. Here’s to the mysterious machinations that bring us all together!
Finally, we finish the trip with our dear friends Kat and Brett. Kat and I met working together at Oasis Brewing Company where we immediately connected over our unique blend of dark humor and entrepreneurial professionalism. I’m stoked to shoot their outdoor engagement session in Golden Gate Canyon State Park and look forward to sharing a laugh or twelve while we catch up over a beer (okay—there’s definitely a theme here).
All we ask as your wedding photojournalists is to show us your true selves. Unapologetic and unflinching, embrace the relationships that you’ve all deemed worthy to invest your life into. After all, these people are your partners, your secret-keepers, and your livelihood. Open your eyes and hearts and we will be there to capture it all.
Our Travel Dates:
Thursday, May 9: Boulder
Friday, May 10: Golden
Saturday, May 11: Longmont + Golden
Sunday, May 12: Arvada
Monday, May 13: Denver
Tuesday, May 14: Arvada >> FLY BACK TO NYC
We have a lot of weddings and shoots, but since we like to work hard + play hard, we are loosely planning on having a meetup Monday evening at Oasis Brewery to see some of our favorite faces. All are welcome, as usual :)
XO,
Terrence & Heather
The Best of 2018 Wedding Photography
Apollo Fields Wedding Photography | Best of 2018 | Colorado and New York Weddings
Happy Times Lift All Spirits, Sad Times Fortify Them
As the rain continued to fall on that foggy, cool, northeastern October day, all I could feel was Heather’s cold hands. I remember holding them as our dear friend and wedding officiant, David Miller, recounted Heather and I’s relationship with his warm, welcoming voice. I can still see him smiling when I think about it. I can still imagine being hoisted up by my friends during the horah, even though neither Heather or I are the slightest bit Jewish. When I think back on it, every height we reached on our wedding day seems untouchable—like your most nostalgic childhood memory—only we were just a couple of adults in love.
Two months later and we were back in sunny Colorado but Heather’s hands were still cold. Only this time I looked into her shivering eyes and watched as she tried to speak through her quivering lips, still blue from the anesthesia. “I’m sooo cold,” she muttered, as tears ran down my cheeks like warm little streams of gratitude. “We’re going to be all right,” I told her. The laparoscopic surgery to remove the ectopic pregnancy from Heather’s Fallopian tube was a success, but it ran longer than expected, and just fifteen minutes earlier I was pacing in an empty hospital waiting room like I needed to be admitted to a psych ward. It was 6:00 am on Christmas morning and I’d never felt so devoid of emotion—my heart as vacant as that waiting room—yet there we were, still just a couple of adults in love.
As 2019 begins I can’t help but ruminate on these highs and lows and think of the constant, unshakeable love that saw us through all of it. The end of 2018 dragged my heart through depths that I never wanted to know, but just a month prior we were literally leaping with joy from cliffs into the aquamarine waters of Negril, Jamaica on our honeymoon. Life apparently has a funny way of teaching us important lessons—and by funny I mean unforgiving and agonizing. If it’s anything I learned in 2018 is how important it is to cultivate and maintain a steady love as much as possible—because one minute you can be celebrating with ease—and the next minute you can be holding the hand of the person you love in a hospital bed. It is only with a constant love that you can weather the harshest storms and ride the highest highs and always come out on top.
The rest of 2018 was filled with a medley of moments, both big and small, that made us grateful for everyone in our lives. From launching Apollo Fields, shooting Hailey & Mark’s, Don & Aaliyah’s, and Kate & Jeff’s weddings in Colorado, to joining all of them on their dance floors afterwards. To seeing my first moose and calf on a hike to Lake Isabelle near Nederland, Colorado! Not to mention the friends who came to see us off at our going away party at Sloan’s Lake and Oasis Brewing Company, affirming the quality of people that we are attracting into our lives right now. This was further proven in the endless red carpets that were rolled out during our traumatic December in Colorado while we were working through our ectopic pregnancy. I don’t know if we will ever be able to appropriately thank you all.
What I can promise you is that I will be there for all of you like you were there for us. Where happy times lift all spirits, sad times fortify them. Heather and I have never been stronger and for that I am thankful—to her, to all of you—I will hold your hands tightly when they are cold, and I will let them go to fly into the air when they are good and warm. I love you all.
Here’s some of our awesome couples this year! Ranging from Colorado to New York to Pennsylvania to Connecticut
Some of our 2018 Venues:
Boettcher Mansion | Golden, CO
Ten Mile Station | Breckenridge, CO
The Riverview | Simsbury, CT
Skylight | Sante Fe Art District, Denver, CO
Garden of The Gods | Colorado Springs, CO
The Hudson Gardens Event Center | Littleton, CO
Wedgewood Boulder Creek | Boulder, CO
The Four Seasons Hotel | Philadelphia, PA
Western Riviera | Grand Lake, CO
The Barn at Raccoon Creek | Littleton, CO
The Ritz-Carlton, Beaver Creek Resort | Bachelor Gulch, CO
Lookout Mountain | Golden, CO
Archetype Distillery | Denver, CO
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art | Boulder, CO
The Four Seasons | Vail, CO
Brookside Gardens | Berthoud, CO
Spring Canyon | Buena Vista, CO
Donovan Pavillion | Vail, CO
Saddleback Golf Course | Longmont, CO
Evergreen Lake House, Evergreen, CO
Wedgewood Brittany Hill | Thornton, CO
Glen Eyrie Castle | Colorado Springs, CO
Chief Hosa Lodge | Golden, CO
Folino Estate Vineyard | Kutztown, PA
Chautauqua Dining Hall | Boulder, CO
The Broadmoor | Colorado Springs, CO
Perfection is a Fiction: NYC and The Andy Warhol Exhibit
NYC Museums | Andy Warhol, The Whitney | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
Most of my trips to modern art museums are filled with artful dances around statuesque ponderers and remembering to check the arch of my eyebrows as my eyes learn what’s in in fashion right now. With each brightly colored cube, broken television set, or inflatable animal made of metal, my mind is thrown into a metaphysical whirlwind at the hands and mercy of Dadaism and all of its absurdist descendants. Trying to make sense of art when conventional aesthetics is thrown out the window is like walking through a busy foreign marketplace – you know something is being said, you just have no idea what it is. It’s an uncomfortable feeling until you stumble across a piece that makes you stop and tilt your head at different angles as you try to understand a language you do not yet know.
The piece in the background at the top of this post was from my most recent trip to the Andy Warhol exhibit at The Whitney in New York titled Before and After. It’s been said that it’s Warhol’s self-criticism of his own plastic surgery, while others remark that the original magazine advertisement that Warhol borrowed from was inherently anti-Semitic and that that was his intent. It makes me think that perhaps the most beautiful (or tragic) thing about modern art is that we don’t have to understand the intent of the artist and that we can create an entirely new meaning of our own. As I wandered through Warhol’s life of work, I began to learn more and more about the man behind the Campbells can – and to my surprise, something about the lens through which I view the world as well.
When I saw Warhol’s Before and After it made me think of the world of appearances of social media. It made me think, “this is the way we all want to look” (the person on the right), but in reality most of us look like the person on the left. It made me think that perfection is a fiction we want so badly to be true that we curate our lives into Snaps and Instas. That with every filter and post we draw further from reality and the sanity that comes with embracing the hooked-nose image staring back at us in the mirror. Who knows what Warhol actually meant but that’s how it made me feel.
I realized that good art gives you a license to create. It makes you think, but above all it validates all of the crazy ideas that run through your head. If before the Campbells print became famous, Warhol were try to explain that idea to someone else, it would’ve sounded asinine. And perhaps it is. But because Warhol bypassed the potentially paralyzing explain-the-craziness-inside-your-head-to-someone-else-stage of creation, we have a piece of art that makes us, or at least me, sit and think for a second. It eventually spurred me to organize my thoughts and put them onto this paper.
I guess the lesson is that perfection is a fiction and I prefer to live in reality. When I stood like any of the other entitled museum-goers at Warhol’s Before and After I immediately liked the image on the right more. You can’t help the urge to like what is aesthetically more pleasing, but learning to accept and appreciate our imperfections confronts the real rather than filtering it out.
Farewell Colorado (For Now)
Farewell Colorado (For Now) | Apollo Fields Heads Eastward | NYC Wedding Photographers
Both of our going away parties began on picnic blankets in parks, surrounded by fresh fruit, local beer, and our closest friends. There were games and laughs, children, and sunshine. But as the days wore on, Heather and I grew closer to the reality of leaving with each farewell embrace. Lucky for me, this time around, I managed to avoid the emotional minefield of “this is the last time I will [insert memorable experience ‘x’] in [insert city ‘y’],” recognizing it as a self-imposed trap set on disturbing the logic of ambition and transition. Despite my valiant effort, both parties ended with me in tears.
I’m a long way from being ashamed of crying in public and even further from trying to hide it. I mean, what’s wrong with coming toe-to-toe with your emotions and ceding to their validity when they creep up behind your eyes? I actually find a problem in trying to suppress them. Because if we try to hide our feelings from our closest friends, then who can we be vulnerable with? In times of happiness and sadness alike, it is in our best interest to try to understand why we feel the way we feel.
In Colorado, my tears finally came when I hugged my friend, Brandon. Although only a friendship of a couple of years, the density and depth of our interactions has stretched our connection over what seems like many more. There is a candor in our exchanges that reflects contemplation and curiosity, the bedrock of understanding. If there’s anything I’ve learned from him, it’s that homemade bread will always be better than store bought. Making goods by hand is more than artistry, it is a source of value beyond our taste buds and aesthetic eyes. Thank you for teaching me this and for your friendship, Brandon.
To all of the others who came to see us off, I’ll never forget those last couple of weeks in Colorado. The Great American Beer Festival, Lake Street Dive at Red Rocks, the Rockies game, and finding a home for all of our beloved furniture. Carya and Thomas, Andy and Elaina, and Shane and Lexi, you all showed up when we needed you most and we barely had to ask. Large events like moving or weddings always bring people together and we aren’t just lucky or #blessed, we are #inyourdebt. Not like the bad kind of debt like student loans but the good kind of debt like owing your neighbor a cup of sugar or carton of eggs. The kind of debt that includes open door policies, late night pickups, and sending you home with a Tupperware of leftovers despite a bevy of polite refusals. I hope to be in debt to you all for a long time to come.
Finally, thank you to Frances & Bryce for sending us on the road with delicious food in our bellies. Whenever I think of Denver I will think of the mountains we climbed and the friends we climbed them with. Here’s to the friendships in our lives that make the Rockies look like molehills.
This One's For You, Colorado
September is here…
For someone who’s moving across the country and getting married in the next few weeks, I’m surprisingly calm. The opposite of having cold feet, Heather and I are inching towards our departure from Colorado with equal parts celebration and anticipation. Of course, leaving will be hard, but our two years in Arvada has only shown us that our ambition cannot be contained in our cozy cottage on Cody Street.
The friends we’ve made here caught us at a pivotal developmental phase of our relationship, and because of that they mean that much more to us. From the dinner parties to dancing like idiots at Red Rocks, Heather and I have never quite had the community that we’ve fallen into here. I’ve never felt more like myself than when Heather’s sampling sauce from her wooden spoon and I’m welcoming friends in through the front door. To know that our Colorado friends have helped us realize that – these core parts of who we are – is to understand an achievement of friendship that we will never feel worthy for.
It would be scarier to leave if we didn’t have such a solid plan in place. When we land in New York on October 1st, 2018, we are emptying Joey (our car) into our interim home in East Northport, NY, on Long Island, and scooting over to Ramsey, NJ, to prepare Honeymoon Acres for our wedding. It will be a week of tedious logistics where we will transform inevitable accidents and miscues into laughter and memories. After that, we get married, cry, and party. It’s that easy.
From there, we will take our wedding brand, Apollo Fields, into its next iteration: a wedding venue. We dream of a lush green piece of land with a barn and a farmhouse with a long, wrap-around porch, complete with a swinging bench that creaks as you reminisce in those long moments before dinner is ready. We see hard work and love coexisting in a space where relationships are honored as partnerships, and where friendship is built into the bones. The best part about this dream is that we cannot only see it, but that it is fully within our grasp.
I’m not going to pretend to say that I won’t cry when we leave (mainly because I already have), but I will say that the hit won’t be as hard because we have so much to look forward to. When we left New York for Colorado two years ago, we packed everything we cared about into Sacajawea (our now deceased Subaru), and now as we return we will be doing the same with Joey. With Riddle, Rumor, (and Limbo living the luxury life in a commercial trailer) in tow, Heather and I are turning the music up and making our way back home. Who knows when it will hit us, as the tears began to pour as we drove over the George Washington Bridge last time, but I know that I’m ready for them. This one’s for you Colorado.
Your Immeasurably Grateful Friends,
Terrence & Heather
(The Apollo Fields Family )
Cookbook Sale!
We’re also having a dope sale on our books to lighten our moving load! Click HERE.
Some of Our Favorite Memories in Colorado:
Photos Credited to our wonderful and talented friends:
Sam Hines
Kim Klein
Sarah Valencia
We're Making Big Moves!
To our dinner guests, climbers, fellow hikers, and craft beer drinkers,
...consider this our farewell, our “see you later” and the remorseful announcement of our departure from Arvada, Colorado.
To those of you in the front range of the Rockies, expect an invite to our going away party on Sunday, September 23rd, 2018, location and time TBD. Our official push off date will be September 28, 2018.
Huge transitions like these always make me feel dramatic, like it will be the last time I have this beer or hike this trail or do any of the other quintessential-and-eventually nostalgic activities of Denver that I will long for once I’m gone. Anytime my life changes this drastically my body fills with nerves, like I’m tiptoeing towards the edge of the high dive at the public pool all over again. The fear is real and paralyzing, “you should just turn back,” it says, but part of growing up is hearing that voice and diving head first into the deep end anyway.
Of course I will miss the breweries, the tubing trips, the dinner parties, and the lifelong friends we’ve met out here, but when a logical opportunity brings growth, family, and financial viability to the forefront, it’s hard to turn it down. I’ll think on these last two years in Colorado as the time where Heather and I mastered our ability to work together, both professionally and personally, while laughing up the roads into the mountains and floating down the rivers in between. I will think of the friends who we’ve hosted and the friends who’ve hosted us, especially the ones who took care of our canine and equine counterparts when we were away and kept them safe (the chickens were a different story…we still love you!!) Perhaps most of all I will miss having the silhouette of the Rockies as an everyday backdrop, always there to gaze upon while I let out an “it-gon’-be-alright” sigh as I listen to Kendrick on I-70.
And I know everything is going to be all right because it always is. Any of you who’ve spent any amount of time with me know that my optimism is as incessant as it is annoying because my positivity has all the love and no fucks to give. Heather and I will road trip across the country, get married in October, and then move to Long Island for a pit stop as we property hunt for a farm with a stone house and a fireplace. The idea of creating a wedding venue to celebrate love in all its forms while being surrounded by our animals and family is as close to a storybook as I think our lives can get. We aren’t just going to be all right, we’re going to continue being happy.
When Heather and I created The Immeasurable Cookbook we learned that the storytelling and photography was just as important as the recipes. It gave us the idea to combine her photography with my writing to launch Apollo Fields, our holistic approach to documenting weddings. As we now begin the search for our venue, Apollo Fields will evolve from capturing weddings to hosting them: planning everything from logistics to the shot list and all the unforgettable moments in between. Just like The Immeasurable Cookbook, the storytelling and photography at Apollo Fields will be just as important as the recipe, only this time we’re looking for the right couples rather than the right ingredients.
We invite you all to celebrate the things in life that make you happy even if this decision puts some geography between us. We invite you to follow us on our journey as we celebrate artistry, communication, love, and hard work in ours. Finally, we invite you to embark on your own trek into the unknown where nothing is familiar and everything is exciting.
To our next adventure,
Terrence, Heather, Rumor, Riddle, & Limbo
P.S. We've already booked weddings under Apollo Fields in Colorado next year. We will be back! If you are one of those couples, DO NOT WORRY, we're not tacking on travel fees or forgetting about you guys :)
P.P.S. We love traveling! Destination weddings are our jam. We are happy to work with your budget, so don't let our home-base keep you from reaching out! It doesn't matter if your wedding is in NYC, Denver, San Fran, The Italian Countryside, or The South Of France (a girl can dream, right) hit us up. We have some sweet connects in a lot of places that allow us to work as locals, which saves everyone money.
P.P.P.S. If anyone wants to buy our chicken coop, let us know. We put a lot of hard work into that bad boy and would love to see it go to a good home. Not joking...
Photo cred / magic goes to the unbeatable Sam Hines
Turning 30 - "Am I Where I Expected Myself to Be?"
30 is one of those milestone ages that makes us question every decision we’ve made in our lives. Trapped inside our own heads we look at our regrets under a microscope, taking stock of the growth and decay of our insecurities. 30 forces us to be honest with ourselves because between all the excuses we’ve made over the years, the time has kept on ticking. We finally ask ourselves: Am I where I expected myself to be at 30?
I think most of us would say, “hell no! I expected to have a stable job, a significant other, and maybe even a house that would soon become a home.” Turning 30 feels like a slap in the face to our youth and the mistakes we’ve made but in reality it’s a valuable signpost for the measure of our progress. We need reality checks like 30 because otherwise we could go on making excuses while nobody listens.
I personally stopped making excuses early, probably around 19 when I was academically suspended from my first university, SUNY Cortland. Ironically enough, I still consider this mistake one of the best things that happened to me because it gave me a reality check that I very much needed. For the next couple years, I proceeded to take time off from school, eventually enrolling back in a community college while taking on various jobs to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I would later get accepted into an Ivy League institution only to turn them down and finish my undergraduate studies at the top of my class at CUNY Hunter in New York City. The whole arc of those 11 years began with a reality check and now I’m taking stock of my choices.
The only promise I made to myself by 30 was to become an internationally known poet. Well, in November 2017, with the help of my fiancé, Heather, that became a reality when we published The Immeasurable Cookbook and sent copies to readers in Austria, Paraguay, and Portugal. It was a high bar to set but I cleared it because I chose a good partner in Heather and always used writing as a platform to express my thoughts and channel my creativity.
Despite this achievement, the thing I’m most proud of at the age of 30 is my peace of mind. Through my study of philosophy and my ten years of experience in hospitality I have recognized that mental health is our crown achievement given the complexity and perplexity of the human mind. I’ve made most of my decisions from a rational disposition, but I’ve always consulted my conscience as a valuable litmus test for my happiness. I believe that without our conscience, rationality can lead to cold, steely, logical conclusions; yet without our rationality, our emotions can steer us towards the volatile polarities in life. My peace of mind comes from a drive to strike a balance, harkening to the doctrine of the mean from Aristotle and remembering that a happy life depends on a steady ship in rough waters.
By 30 I have lived all around the United States, experienced love and heartbreak, success and failure, and the boring stuff in between. I’m getting married in October 2018 to a partner who helps me stay focused on long term goals while I keep the ship steady. With our eyes on the horizon we’re charting a course ready for a storm, yet carrying the reflection of the sunset in our eyes. A reality check doesn’t have to be a bad thing as long as you realize you have to adjust your sails.
Colorado Adventures That Make My Heart Smile
4.5.18 - Vital Root on Tennyson ~ 12 PM MT
We’re sitting at Vital Root after enjoying a well-crafted, fresh, lunch filled with flavor and crunch. There’s a woman breast-feeding out in the open and it’s kind of hard for me to focus, but here we go. Heather thinks that breast-feeding in public should be less stigmatized and a more common practice, and it does make sense in the same way that we should be more in tune with where our food comes from. As we distance ourselves or create social stigmas around human practices that have gotten us to where we are as a society, we are very literally losing some of the community associated with our humanity.
The last three days have felt like a vacation in Colorado: on Monday Heather and I lounged in the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs outside of Buena Vista; on Tuesday Heather rode Limbo and I climbed at Earth Treks in Golden; and on Wednesday David Miller and I carved down the slopes at Keystone and smiled and laughed in our descent. Each day contained moments of levity that are within a couple hours of our home in Arvada, providing us places of refuge and relaxation to panoramic summits and high speed descents with meandering roads and adventures in between.
The common thread running through all of them was a sense of gratitude that continuously left our lips. Heather and I were borderline tripping balls as we gazed to the sky in a creek side hot springs pool, thinking upon where we are both literally and psychologically. The strong sunrays, the quickly drifting clouds and the smell of the fresh green pines combined with the sound of the constant trickle of the cold creek over the warm rocks lured our minds towards serenity. The next day, clinking our glasses together at Kline’s Beer Hall after each of our endorphin sessions on horseback and climbing wall, respectively, made the pints go down that much easier. On the chair lifts and on the slopes, Miller and I smiled and laughed, asked and answered, and thought, felt and shared stories. When we plopped down into lounge chairs beneath the blinding high-noon sun we were billionaires, basking between snowcapped mountaintops gazing upon the best that the world has to offer. There is luxury and then there is gratitude and appreciation – without the latter, the former is empty and broken, but without the former, the heart can still smile.
It’s weird to think about a person meaning more to you than your longest friends, but David Miller has achieved such status. There is significance in the way he approaches conversations, welcoming the mundane and the magnanimous with an equal hand as if each holds equal importance. In a paradoxical way there is wisdom in understanding the whole spectrum and listening to each wavelength as you try to hone in on someone’s frequency. We all walk around with our own thoughts, suffering through our troughs and celebrating our crests, and it’s easy to forget that everyone around us has their own path but when you talk to Miller you feel like he’s listening in an attempt to sync up. Being completely in concert with another’s wavelength is more than likely impossible, but that’s how I felt on the mountain with Miller – and that’s what happens when you listen to a song that resonates with you; or when you somehow spend an hour or two in front of a piece in a museum. What I’m trying to say is when you find someone who tries to sync up with your wavelength, don’t let them go, because they don’t come around that often, and human connection is invaluable.