Shuttle Meadow Country Club Wedding Photos
Apollo Fields | Shuttle Meadow Country Club Wedding Photos | Connecticut Wedding Photographer | Best Wedding Photos
Kelly + Evan
One of the first things couples realize when planning a wedding is that their opinions on the event are not the only ones that matter. Whether it’s their parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, or extended family, someone has a monkey wrench to throw into the best laid plans! It can lead to difficult conversations and even harder decisions, but Kelly and Evan’s intimate wedding ceremony in Rocky Mountain National Park followed by their reception at Shuttle Meadow Country Club in Kensington, Connecticut, clearly echoed not only their own values, but also the ones they learned from their refreshingly supportive families.
Family Values
Marriage, like anything else, is an institution that is evolving over time. Heather and I have noticed how marriage preserves some generational values, while it distances itself from others. For example, just a generation ago, getting married in a church by a pastor or priest was the norm, but now couples are opting to get married in beautiful backyards (raises hand) and scenic parks by one of their closest friends or family members. Antiquated reasons for a father walking their daughter down the aisle have given way to a deeper emotional connection that is one of my favorite things to witness. Perhaps the most modern and honorable aspect of the evolution of marriage is when parents who have parted ways come together at the wedding to pay respect to one another as partners and parents while also acknowledging the newer partners and parents in their children’s lives. Emotional intelligence may not always seem like it’s on the rise, but believe me if you were at Kelly and Evan’s wedding in Connecticut you wouldn’t have had dry eyes either.
Family Tradition
Kelly’s grandparents belonged to the Shuttle Meadow Country Club before her parents did and it meant a lot to her family for her and Evan to host their reception there. I don’t typically think about deep family ties and emotions when speaking about country clubs but it was apparent in the way Kelly and her family interacted with the property and staff. Family traditions take many forms and whenever possible you should try to embrace them when planning for your wedding!
Apollo Fields Family Values & Traditions
After Heather and I had Capa it changed the way I looked at my childhood and the choices my parents made. My five siblings and I were pretty much free range chickens in our cluttered house, finding our way home for dinner after playing with neighborhood kids until dusk. The only problem was that I didn’t know that I had autonomy and power over my own decisions until I left for college, whereupon I learned of my lack of discipline and returned home shortly thereafter. I consider it one of the best things that ever happened to me because it made me really analyze what decisions I was making and why.
So when I saw Evan and Kelly’s families and the connection and respect that they all have for one another; it made me think of providing Capa the guiding hand that I did not have, while at the same time giving him the power of his own decisions as early as possible. For our families are the ones who show us our values, but it is up to us as individuals to choose the ones that we wish to celebrate.
Vendors
Apollo Fields | Photography
Venue | Shuttle Meadow Country Club | Kensington, CT
Floral | Kellie Rose Florals
Band | The Parachute Brigade
Dress | Lee-Ann Belter
Dress 2 | BHLDN
Suit | Bonobos
Rings | Traynham’s Jewelers
Hair and Makeup | Opal
Invitations | Minted
News Years Eve Wedding in Nashville at the Union Station Hotel
Apollo Fields | Destination Wedding Photographers | New York Wedding Photographers | Best Wedding Photos | Photographers Near Me | Union Station Nashville Wedding Photos
Mike + Robyn
We Say Goodbye to 2021 with…country music?!
I’ve never liked country music, but Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver BANGS. And I’m not sure which genre you place Johnny Cash or John Prine in, but they’re good in my book, too. For the last wedding of the year Heather and I found ourselves in Nashville, Tennessee, on New Years Eve for my friend Mike's (henceforth known as Skeats) wedding. Skeats met Robyn in Nashville shortly after he moved down from New York several years ago, and everytime I’ve met up with them I’ve known that they found great partners in each other. Robyn loves country music and Skeats is coming around.
Traveling During Omicron: Making Things Happen
Unfortunately for Skeats and Robyn, the surge in Covid cases due to the Omicron variant threw a last minute monkey wrench into their plans. They pressed forward and still held the best New Year’s Eve party and wedding that I’ve ever been to! We all took the proper precautions to the best of our ability and knew the risks involved. So much has been made of Covid over the last two+ years that it’s hard to separate opinions from politics, but in Heather and I’s experience, just add this to the list of events that we were grateful to be a part of. Even in pre-pandemic times, there were always a million reasons to not do something, or be somewhere. We were totally stretched to our limits the past two years and time-and-time again the choice to just make things happen and show up put smiles on all of our faces.
Union Station Nashville Yards Wedding Photos
Holy beautiful, Batman. The clean large tile floors, plush leather furniture, vaulted ceilings, and massive crystal chandeliers. The tall christmas tree at the center of the lobby with woodcraft classic board games set up at every table gave this luxuriously welcoming space a homemade vibe. Skeats and Robyn’s ceremony was held at one end of the looming hall, right in front of a stone fireplace with a clean mantle. Robyn particularly loved descending the original wooden stairs of the building, holding onto a handcrafted handrail that has stood the test of time. It’s crazy how time can change a space from a place full of commuters to a venue to celebrate the commencement of love.
Broadway Doesn’t Disappoint
If you like to party and haven’t been to Nashville–get there. The main strip of Broadway is lined with live music bars with wide open windows, so every 15 feet you walk you hear a new tune. We didn’t get to get as crazy as a younger me would’ve liked, but we did stroll Capa down the block and watch as he marveled at every sparkling, blinking, banging, iota of stimuli. Heather went to the Country Music Hall of Fame with her aunt, Pam, then, the next day, Heather and I went to the Johnny Cash Museum. I didn’t know that Johnny Cash grew up listening to his 2nd wife, June Carter, on the radio. I also didn’t know that she was the one who wrote the song, Ring of Fire.
2022 and Beyond
Heather and I had one more wedding this past weekend on Long Island; and with that, our wedding season finally comes to an end. From here we plan on catching up on studio work, taking a vacation or two, and continue booking all the way through 2023! We are going to Aruba and Mexico City so please share with us any recommendations you might have! To a happy and healthy 2022, make sure you make the effort to make things happen.
Photography: Apollo Fields
Venue: Union Station Hotel
Day-Of Coordinator + Florist: Olive & Birch
HMUA: The Agency of Beauty
Band: For a Good Time Call
Cake: Nashville Sweets
Ringing In The New Year
It’s going to be hard to top this NYE for us! Nashville brought all the energy and good vibes.
Apollo Fields 2021: 54 Weddings and 1 Baby
For the most part, our job as wedding photographers is to blend in, not stand out.
To move throughout the day like inconspicuous flies on the wall, floating through rooms and in and out of moments like a steady breeze through an open window. We take great pride in being given the opportunity to navigate the intimate spaces of wedding days, playing off the principle that stepping on a truly genuine moment is a cardinal sin. Year-in-and-year-out we flutter from venue-to-venue, unpacking and repacking our camera bags as quickly and commonly as the shutter clicks on our cameras. I am writing this blog to give a glimpse of what it is like to document a commencement of love 50 times a year in the span of six or seven months. It is with great love and appreciation that I say—it is our time to stand out.
From Brandon and Lia’s Wedding in September 2021 in Little Compton, Rhode Island.
2021 Still Wasn’t “Normal.”
We try to avoid using the word normal because it’s one of those “non-words” that doesn’t really mean anything. What exactly does it mean for a person or a year to be “normal”? As it pertains to people: the quirkier the better; but as it goes for wedding seasons, we’ll take predictable. Like the idea of a wedding happening on a specified date and location. Of course we have empathized with every couple for the last two years but can you imagine what our Google calendar has looked like? Think Charlie Kelly in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia vibes. Now picture him in a wedding dress.
And yet, it was the best year of my life.
I like to joke that having a kid feels like you’re playing the game of life on hard mode. Every activity of everyday or every trip is just that much harder. Mornings feel earlier and nights feel longer, but in between extended bouts of exhaustion there are pristine moments of overtired bliss. Like the walk Heather and I took at midnight in Montauk after a wedding as we watched the crests of waves hover and crash on the coast over and over again in the bright moonlight. Or when I held Capa just above the surface of the rooftop pool in West Palm Beach, pushing him through the water like the dorsal fin of a dolphin swimming in the Caribbean. For everything that being a parent takes away from you it gives it back in moments of overwhelming joy.
And also the busiest.
Between our 54 weddings in 13 states plus an unspecified amount of family and engagement sessions we changed diapers, spoon-fed, walked, drove, and nursed our baby Capa. The crazy part is that despite all of the time Heather and I spent together we often felt like we never saw each other. We developed a workflow where I would take Capa in the morning and let Heather catch up on sleep after nursing him all night. Then we’d have breakfast together and one of us would take him for the next stretch while the other person works. It was like a game of hot potato if that potato was adorable and could poop and pee. And despite developing the habit popular to babies of rubbing my eyes when I’m tired, I have no regrets about how we handled everything.
Ron and Sunil’s wedding in August 2021 at The Battery on the southern tip of Manhattan.
a reminder to Change over time.
I was just talking to Heather this morning about how I can’t imagine both of us still bartending full-time like we did in our twenties. It’s not that we couldn’t or we shouldn’t but rather that we value the current iteration of Terrence-and-Heather (-and-Capa) over the one at the beginning of our relationship. In a funny way, our 2021 wedding season felt like a full bartending shift spent “in the weeds” where we never got to look up and kept going from one thing to the next. As the years pass I can’t help but notice the trajectory of our lives and how the previous events prepared us for what came next. Who knows what Capa will mean for our future but if this year was any indication of what’s to come, I can’t fucking wait.
NYE 2015 - One of Heather and I’s first photos together. Taken at a diner on the UWS at ~ 5:00am.
Sapphire Point Engagement Photos in Colorado
Matt and Julie’s Sapphire Point Engagement Session | Dillon, Colorado Engagements | Lake Dillon Photography | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers
I’ve never described a view as “sticky” before, but that’s the word that came to mind after we wrapped Matt and Julie’s engagement session at Sapphire Point in Dillon, CO. It was like the feeling I got as a kid when it began to get dark and there was just one inning left in our wiffle ball game. “Just one more inning, mom!” It’s this feeling that this moment is all that exists and to leave it would be to deny yourself an experience that you will never get back. Call it juvenile or dramatic but I think 12-year-old me and 31-year-old me might be on to something.
Our first meeting with Matt and Julie happened in one of our favorite places—a brewery. Oasis Brewing Company in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver, CO, is a multi-level, exposed-brick venue with rustic wooden tables and industrial steel beams to anchor the open, charming space (I actually helped re-open it in March 2018). Once we grabbed a beer we all took a seat at one of the banquet tables along the wall and chatted about Matt and Julie’s wedding in Littleton, CO, in May 2020. The conversation mimicked the space in which we spoke: laid-back, organized, and youthful yet sophisticated.
Matt (a lawyer) and Julie (a teacher) represent the kind of couples that we are grateful to attract and meet. Matt and Julie know what they want, aren’t afraid to ask questions, and their communication is a wonderful mix of professional, candid, and casual. These conversational cornerstones allows us to navigate the complexity of wedding photography, i.e. “what do we get?” or “what are we paying for?”, with ease. Instead of bogging down the meeting in the details, we candidly ask what they are looking for in wedding photography as we all casually take a sip of our beer. This way, we can deliver a customized package based on their priorities rather than trying to sell them products or services they’re not interested in. Of course, we don’t expect every one of our couples to know what they want like Matt and Julie, but it’s definitely something we’re grateful for when it comes down to the brass tacks of wedding photography (totally thought it was “brass tax” until I Googled it).
Fast forward a few months and we’re meeting Matt and Julie at Matt’s family home in Dillon for their engagement shoot. We were welcomed by his mother and father, two dogs, and a brilliantly blue Colorado sky quickly approaching our coveted golden hour. We began by taking a stroll down by the cliffs of their home for a more casual start before we made our way up to the photographer-and-chipmunk occupied Sapphire Point (seriously, there were adorable little chipmunks scampering everywhere). Luckily, we came on a Sunday night when it wasn’t that busy, we don’t even want to imagine the amount of hikers we would have photoshop out of a picture on a Saturday afternoon.
The love was real, the mood was romantic, and the view was...sticky. Everything about Matt and Julie’s engagement session made my eyes and heart want to stay but it was starting to get dark. It was an experience I may never to get to live again exactly, but perhaps that’s the best way to appreciate a moment. To allow your desires to remain a bit unsatiated, to walk up the hiking path away from the view so that your mind clings to its pristine image in all its glory. I can still see that sunset when I close my eyes, and even though I won’t know how that wiffle ball game was supposed to end, maybe I’m not supposed to.
Enjoy Julie & Matt’s Engagement Photos:
As seen in: Couture Colorado Magazine
Breweries and happy couples… these are a few of our favorite things…
Hanging with Matt and Julie after their Sapphire Point engagement photos! What better place to connect than over a craft beer! If that makes us hipsters then you should expect handlebar mustaches on both of us shortly!
Montauk NY Engagement Photographers
Bri & Tyler’s Engagement Session | Montauk NY | The Hamptons Destination Weddings | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers
An early evening summer breeze coming off the Atlantic reminds the Montauk locals of the sun and the salt on their skin, but that same breeze that warms a beach bum’s heart can chill a Texan to the bone. A kind memory of home to Bri is a reminder to Tyler just how far he is from his, but come October 2020 their families will join to celebrate their love in a half-homegrown, half-destination wedding.
Many would consider it a luxury to grow up in a destination wedding town, embracing the lifestyle and culture that seems as light as a day on the beach. Others might say that the summer months that bring tourists and city slickers who clog the one road, two-lane streets like the sidewalks in Manhattan are killing their vibes. The reality is that the sun shines no matter what and despite the traffic we are all going to enjoy our drink of choice on the beach for one reason or another.
For Bri, hosting her wedding in Montauk will be like having her own personal welcoming parade of family and neighbors, smiling faces lining either side of the aisle like a beach version of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. While Tyler and his family, although no strangers to coastal waters, will mostly likely be dipping their toes into the Atlantic a bit more timidly than they do in the Gulf of Mexico. The thing about the locations of weddings is—whether a new or familiar experience—the love in the room is all the same.
Weddings offer us wonderful opportunities to connect with groups of people we might not speak to in our daily lives. Too often our occupations and locations restrict us to familiar routines that can limit our world experience, but when love is the accepted common ground all conversations and connections are possible. There is simply no space for judgment when love is in the air. Breathe it in, take it in, and clink glasses with someone you might otherwise not meet.
Heather and I are so lucky to share these spaces in places all over the world, snapping photos and writing down all of the emotions that we see. I’ve said before that our emotions are our secrets until we share them with someone, but on wedding days most people wear them as proudly as their finest suit or most elegant dress. Restraining the contents of our hearts would be like putting those garments back in the closet and throwing on the wrinkled clothes that adorn the floor. Instead we see tears trickle down cheeks like rain down window panes and eyes well up like dams that are about to burst.
A forum to express the version of ourselves that is too often buttoned up and hidden away is one of the many reasons that make our jobs more than an occupation or service. According to our tax documents we are wedding photographers, but according to ourselves we are photojournalists who never settle for the surface, always scanning the room for people to show us the best version of themselves.
Enjoy these pics from Bri & Tyler’s Montauk Engagement Session:
Hi! We’re Terrence & Heather…
…we are the husband-and-wife duo of Apollo Fields! Thanks for checking out Bri & Tyler’s engagement photos. We are so stoked to shoot their 2020 Wedding at Gosman’s Dock in Montauk!
Small Business Owner Tips Wedding Photography
Running A Business With Your Significant-Other | Husband and Wife Photographers | Destination Weddings Lifestyle Blog | Apollo Fields
I woke to the sound of a sweeping rain over Montauk Lake, spraying the French doors of our friend’s guest bedroom like the ocean smashing against a cluster of coastal rocks. White caps shifted about the marina like tiny crowns of the sea as the wind buoyed the boats with a sort of smooth violence. Emerging from beneath the clean and warm white sheets of the bed posed a difficult task as Heather and I have been traveling up and down the eastern seaboard the past few days, but such is the hustle of the life of wedding photographers.
Since this past Friday, Heather and I have spent over 20 hours in the car together. As much as I love her, anyone who’s traveled that much with their significant other can imagine the frustrations that might arise. Now imagine that your significant other is also your business partner. Those 20 hours now sound like they could be that much more tense—and they absolutely can be. Yet as tired and frustrated as I have been (and still am) I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The sounds in our car during a road trip vary from Kendrick to talk radio, from laughter to earnestness, and business to barking dogs. The mood shifts from conversation-to-conversation, state-to-state, and from day to night. Long road trips with a significant other are common litmus tests to see if the relationship is the real deal; but a long road trip for a professional and romantic partnership is an endless loop of perfecting the way you communicate. Heather and I’s flare-ups range from disagreeing on something as trivial as choosing where to eat or when to stop, and something as serious as our next big business move. But the most important thing is to keep the conversation going.
Ironically, sometimes the best way to do that is to embrace a silence. So often we are quick to fill a void in time with mindless chatter, a podcast, or background tunes and we forget that our seemingly restless minds just wants us and our senses to shut the fuck up. Silence can be a great teacher, and giving the space for the tensions of our relationships to dissipate into the air can prove to be much more productive than spewing whatever our egos or inner selves are dying to say. Sometimes in a disagreement—no one person is right—and sometimes you both are. Taking the time to share a few moments of silence together has helped us more times than I can count.
This morning was one of those mornings when you wake up after you’ve traveled so much that you forget where you are. The constant waves of rain gently splashing against the doors gave me a sense of ease amidst the chaos, reminding me that there’s always beauty to be found in any given situation. Sometimes we don’t realize how fast we’re moving until we stop for a moment to look at how far we’ve come; then after we wipe the sweat from our brow, rest a little, and take a deep breath, we can go back to bouncing up and down in the tide, moving naturally with the wind through time with a sort of smooth violence.
– Terrence
Jamaica Honeymoon - Day 6
Apollo Fields Photojournalism | Wedding Writer | Jamaica Honeymoon | Destination Wedding Photographer | Farm Wedding Photographer | Wedding Blog
Final Day in Jamaica – Pam’s Birthday
Mid-flight en route back to New Jersey – Wednesday, November 7th, 2018
When I opened my eyes on the last full day of our honeymoon in Jamaica, the pale blue sky peered over the balcony and climbed into our four post bed into the space between dreaming and reality. Light and ethereal, each blink revealed a bit more of the world I’ve come to love, inviting me to ease down the floating wooden staircase one more time. I didn’t know then, but in those fleeting moments, the lens through which I’ve viewed the world finally lined up with the way the island of Jamaica communicates to your soul.
I started the day by setting down a steaming cup of coffee on a table right outside of Pam’s room. It was her 61st birthday and I knew that that would be the first thing on her wish list. Stepping outside into the blaring sun, we gently made our way down to the volcanically-formed cliffs of Negril at Sun Down Villa, careful not to spill any of our precious liquid energy along the way. We stumbled upon Rick and Steve lounging, plucking at a ukulele as the notes drifted and eventually faded into the warm, Caribbean air. Pam and Rick decided to take a cruise on their Vespa down to the beach where their love of the island first began over thirty years ago.
Heather, Steve, and I abruptly made a move towards Just Natural Fish and Veggies, the local food joint in the bush of Westmoreland. Our first trip there, Pam had her eyes on a locally-crafted blue canvas bag with a crudely-but-beautifully painted sunset and we knew we had to get it for her. We enjoyed another meal and chatted with our favorite hosts, Theresa and Christine, as they shared unsolicited marital advice about loving one another and your children. Our favorite anecdote was Christine’s memory of when she first got married: “oh in those times, we would make love anywhere it was dark — in the bush, in our bedroom, it didn’t matter. But remember, always lock your door and wear a nightie!” Satiated in body and mind, we scooted from the richest Jamaican experience we’d had to date.
All of us eventually regathered and began our trip to various cliffside resorts. It began at the Tensing Pen, where we were met at the gate by a security guard who stared at us like we stole her lunch money back in high school. After authoritatively mumbling into a walkie-talkie, she granted us access with a stern finger wag in the general direction of the bar. Nonetheless, the resort was cozy, kind of like the Lost Boy’s huts in Peter Pan, connected to one another by rope bridges and shaded winding cobblestone paths. We originally planned to go to there to jump from one of these wooden bridges suspended over the sea, so Pam could wave her proverbial finger to the process of aging, but we were told by the security guard that we weren’t allowed to enjoy any of the amenities. After quickly slugging our round of Red Stripes, we were on to the next one.
Lucky for us, the next stop was much more accommodating. No finger-wagging security guard, no restrictions, only a large modern lobby to welcome us like something out of Forbes magazine. We normally wouldn’t expect genuine hospitality from a place as lavish as the Cliffs Resort, but two men changed it all. Trevor, who went by Johnie Walker, and Omighty, shortened to Omight, rolled out the Jamaican equivalent of red carpets. These two healthy, young, vibrant Jamaican men made drinks while they sang to their favorite tunes like they were bartenders out of the movie Cocktail, giving us free shots and asking us if we wanted to snorkel on The Cliff’s private coral reef. Nothing like any of the other resorts we visited, we felt the camaraderie that’s typically found in Irish pubs in New York City, like you can have any conversation with the person next to you (for better or worse), all while gazing out at a pink Caribbean sunset.
Our final stop on our invasion of all-inclusive resorts was a place called Xtabi. The dining patio was sprawling with empty candlelit tables and vacant chairs, making the space seem sad with lost opportunities of romance. A small cat meandered between the legs of our chairs, quietly mewing and purring with the hopes of a free meal. Pam and Rick ordered their favorite dish, lobster thermidore, which I consider a cheap (albeit expensive) favorite, because anything would be delicious smothered in butter, garlic, and cheese. Steve ordered the shrimp scampi which strangely came with rice and it made me wonder how available pasta is on the Caribbean islands. I ordered fried chicken because my ambition at trying local cuisine hit the roadblock of Americanized resort food. The best part of the meal was walking beneath the resort in the caves, listening to the waves slam against the tunneled walls, echoing their strength into our ears. I felt like I was in a scene from the Goonies.
The first couple days in our AirBnB we were a little hesitant to walk the streets as motorcyclists tore by the vendors and local restaurants with reckless pride. We wanted to engage with the real Jamaican culture, but were not sure of a proper access point for two under-informed tourists. Yet like those hummingbirds in Barney’s garden, Heather and I hovered from place to place, learning to stop and trust the people inside those brightly colored shacks one at a time. We made friends at resorts, Johnie Walker and Omight, and local spots, Theresa and Christine, learning that there are friends all around us if only we are open enough to look. Upon our initial arrival, we stayed behind the high gated walls of Sun Down Villa, but in the end, we saw that the sunrise and sunset, in all of their naturally beautiful glory, were just as welcoming as the pairs of eyes that greeted us behind all of those brightly colored doors.
Jamaica Honeymoon - Day 5
Apollo Fields Photojournalism | Wedding Writer | Destination Wedding Photographer | Jamaica Honeymoon | Farm Wedding Photographer
Jamaica Honeymoon – Day 5 ~9:40 am, local time
Day five of the honeymoon felt like the first step back towards the Montego Bay airport and our beloved animals that wait for us back in New Jersey. As the trip comes to a close, I sink just a little deeper into my lounge chair, holding onto the sunshine and the view of the sea for just a little longer. Six days is a healthy length for a trip where lounging is the default, any longer and you might get a little too used to it.
We’ve taken a dip off the cliffs every morning we’ve been here, partly because it’s available, but mostly because it takes the edge off the heat. You kind of form this relationship with the water in tropical climates, using it as a sort of reset button for your body to reach a more comfortable operating temperature for the next few hours. The residual salt in your hair clings to your follicles like a natural hair product, maintaining its shape while the wind blows through it bringing salt crystals back to the sea from whence it came.
One of our hosts, Tom, recommended a local lobster joint, Sips n Dips, for the freshest catch in town for lunch. We strolled up around opening time and were greeted by an elderly man who’d informed us it’d be about 40 minutes. He spoke with the familiar island intonation, carrying a nonchalance as relaxed as the wind and waves. In Jamaica, you either embrace the speed or hurriedly wait, because the beach doesn’t differentiate between footprints in the sand. Heather and I welcomed the idle time, knowing the service industry well and the importance of proper food preparation. When our cook/server came by with our tray of fresh lobster, we started by prying the tails out with our forks, eventually resorting to our fingertips to finish the job. At one point I looked down at my hands and wondered how people keep this operation clean in white tablecloth restaurants and thought that beneath the shade of a tree is the better place to be.
Climbing back onto the Vespa and pulling out onto the main road, we coincidentally caught Pam, Rick, and Steve cruising by. We decided to take a ride up the coast a bit to see some more of the island but it didn’t last long as every hundred feet past the last Americanized resort the road turned into a minefield of potholes. Driving a Vespa with Heather on the back was like having a computer update you with every potential danger in the area: “You’re going too fast, but don’t hit that pothole, wait, watch out for that sand patch!” All the while the wind moves past us keeping us cool and comfortable.
We stopped at Rick’s Café on the way back, the tourist trap of tourist traps in Negril. Large, fake stone patios, a big stage, one of those rectangular picture frames that you can stand in and more overweight white people than a Red Lobster in Texas. Institutions like these undermine the culture in which they operate when people travel hundreds of miles to have a chicken club on the cliffs of Negril.
Of course it’s a choice and risking your hunger on unfamiliar cuisine creates a risk for a rumbling stomach, but I can’t help but think when I visit these places that this is what’s wrong with our culture. Heather and I have already made the mistake twice: once in the Dominican Republic shooting a wedding and the other time in Cancun, where you experience such an Americanized version of a country that it’s offensive to even say that you visited it. I guess places like Rick’s are inevitable in highly trafficked vacation spots, but it does both of our cultures a disservice with their sheer existence.
Everyday of my life I want to make a connection. Whether its person-to-person or person-to-culture, connections are bridges of understanding that can conquer ignorance one experience at a time. A relationship with the water and the wind will sweep us into a more united future much quicker than any resort or tourist trap ever could.
Jamaica Honeymoon - Day 3
Apollo Fields Destination Wedding Photographers | Negril, Jamaica | Honeymoon Adventures
Jamaica – Day 3
Sunday, November 4th, 2018 ~7:35 am, local time
Another morning waking to the ebbs and flows of the Caribbean Sea. There’s something about the sound of waves crashing that lures your mind into the rhythm of nature, reminding you that everything that comes will also go. The whitewater that sprays into the air, jettisoning from the sharp rock face, shows no concern for my presence, or for any of the other creatures that cling to their cratered homes on this violently-formed beautiful façade. Yet it’s these wall-dwelling sea creatures — these Jamaican mussels and crabs — that taught me that we need to carve a small niche for ourselves, where we can brave the onslaught of life’s elements, if we want to survive in this otherwise unforgiving world.
We took a right out of Sundown Villa this morning for the first time on our Vespa, passing Rick’s Café among the other horribly named Americanized resorts like ‘The Palms’ and ‘Lover’s Paradise” as the wind whipped around our bodies on our way to a place called “Barney’s Hummingbird and Flower Sanctuary.” Heather clung to my back like a baby koala as we veered off the pavement onto a dirt road, her lips stammering through the worried words of her mind like mental pot holes. We passed a man walking down the road, sharpening a machete and were reminded of our cab driver who told us that all the goats that roam the island are owned by someone — and if you were to say, pick one up — you will find yourself on the wrong end of one of those blades. We swerved around the man and slowed as we approached two large, faded green doors that hung on rusted hinges.
“Hello!” Said a thin pale-skinned old man donning a worn trousers-and-suspenders outfit as he swung the gates open. “Welcome to my hummingbird and flower sanctuary. I am Barney, the proud German-Jamaican-English owner of this place,” he added. As he led us through the narrow walkways of his garden, the flutter of hummingbirds moved all around us, kind of like the sound of tiny handheld toy fans. Palms and large leaves hung down as geckos and other insects fed from the vibrant pink, red, and yellow flowers that boomed in contrast to the blue sky. Barney gave us all tiny bottles with punctured red caps that dripped with sugar water to lure the hummingbirds in. We held our outstretched arms in the air, mimicking the branches that reached over the garden’s pathways, hoping that the birds would come feed from our “flowers.” Patiently walking around, the birds began to trust us one at a time, holding fast in midair right in front of our faces, mother nature’s natural helicopters, hovering in place, wings effortlessly flapping seventy times a second. Barney grinned a grin that only a hummingbird expert could grin, or maybe it was because of the six-pack of Red Stripe.
Eager for local cuisine we stopped just up the road at a place called Just Natural Veggies. Simple enough, I thought. From there we ordered rum punch, a vegetable plate, lobster salad, sweet potato and plantain, and a bean and rice burrito. As we walked to the side of the restaurant we followed a path into the jungle, tables and chairs scattered about like a diner inside the woods. There were checker board tables that used plastic bottle caps and Red Stripe caps as checkers and each table had an orange bottle of locally made hot habanero hot sauce. We ate our freshly made dishes in the middle of the jungle, no one around but the smiling faces of the restaurant, who laughed and joked as they set down our plates. They could’ve been feeding us fried gecko for all we knew as we sat mesmerized in this restaurant that made rustic concepts back home look like four-star hotels. In the jungle and of the jungle, we walked out of there happy and full.
There are niches to be carved, if only we are wise enough to see them. These experiences will stick to my heart like the geckos on the flowers and the mussels on the rock wall. As the trip continues, I can only hope to unearth more things that I can learn from and grow closer to carving out my own crater I can call home.
Andrea & Arash's Destination Wedding in Punta Cana, DR
Andrea & Arash | A Story of Connection and A Relaxed Destination Wedding in the Dominican Republic
The first time you meet someone you have no idea how big a role (if any) they are going to play in your life. When I met my friend Mitch at SUNY Cortland, a state college in upstate New York, who would’ve guessed that several years later my fiancé and I would be the photographers for his wife’s sister’s wedding in the Dominican Republic—but as Kurt Vonnegut would’ve said about life’s unpredictability, “and so it goes.”
In February 2017 Heather and I stepped off a plane into an overcast, muggy day in Punta Cana to head towards a resort complete with the canopied huts and aquamarine waters that define vacation prizes on game shows. Eager to dip our toes into the warm water, we made it to our air-conditioned room, dropped off our stuff, threw on some flip-flops and swimming trunks and headed to the beach. As we approached, Andrea and Arash were standing among family and friends, laughing and smiling in a relaxed circle of reclined beach chairs.
Between the telling of stories, their eyes lifted to meet ours and they gently drifted towards us with open arms. I remember their skin being sandy and a little sticky but when you meet someone for the first time and their first move is to hug you rather than shake hands—you know you’re in good company. We grabbed a couple of drinks from the poolside cabana and joined the circle as we quickly felt like part of the family.
We captured Andrea and Arash’s first look beneath an opal dome made of stone, it’s curves and edges as clean and crisp as the vest hugging Arash’s body. Andrea’s smile shone like the bright glare reflecting off of the white granite floor—almost too beautiful and overwhelming to look at directly. When they embraced and his arms wrapped around her lower back they whispered into each other’s ears the words reserved for lovers and their eyes slowly drew closed as their smiles pushed their eyelids into a happy recession.
Andrea and Arash carried this intimate gentle air all around the resort, strolling on scorching hot stones with the lightness of a breeze flowing across a rippling pool of water. When they stood at the altar during their ceremony, the guitar strums of Somewhere Over the Rainbow followed suit and the stride of passersby slowed in relaxed admiration of a scene so serene.
To think that we would’ve never been in attendance of such an occasion without the meeting of two 18-year-old college kids in upstate New York over ten years ago is an idea that’s hard to wrap your head around. It shows that life can bring you all sorts of places if you are mindful about the connections you make and the people you decide to keep in your life.
Dedicated to Andrea, Arash, and Kayla; Mitch, Diana and Maya.
We love you all.
Caribbean Destination Weddings | Andrea and Arash have their winter wedding in the Dominican Republic
I'm always up for a good destination wedding, but *especially* one in the Dominican Republic during the winter! The weather was perfection and the company even better. No better way to break up the cold months than a trip to the islands.
The best part about a destination wedding is that you are surrounded with the friends and family that you will probably have for life. People make that extra effort to be there, and literally go the distance with you. Plus you get multiple days with the people you are closest to, rather than just one day with everything packed into the course of a few hours.
Planning a destination wedding can be surprisingly easy! Andrea and Arash had an intimate wedding with small wedding parties. The resort took care of a lot of the moving parts that usually weigh down the planning process. Catering, cake, decor, room rentals, hotel blocks, DJ, and other vendors were essentially taken care of.
Hiring their wedding photographer was one of the few vendors that they did not want to use the venue for, however. It was really important to them to have timeless wedding photography and beautiful albums to look back on, and this was not one of the areas that they wanted to compromise on! I couldn't agree more.
Terrence and I flew down a few days early to ensure that we wouldn't have any problems with travel since international flights in the winter can sometimes get a little tricky. Lucky for us because that is exactly what happened to a few traveling guests. We flew from Denver International Airport to JFK to Punta Cana. Little did we know, we just missed the big snow storm in New York! Unfortunately, a few guests did get stuck in NYC airports and missed the ceremony.
PLANNING AN INTERNATIONAL DESTINATION WEDDING?
Always leave extra time for travel! Flight delays, rental cars, all of these moving parts can go wrong. We were so glad that we got down there early! And it meant that we got extra time hanging on the beach and going snorkeling so that was also a bonus!
Enjoy some of our favorite shots from the day!
Destination Wedding Photography: Erny Photo CO | Apollo Fields Photojournalism
Venue: Melia Caribe Tropical Resort | Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
AS SEEN IN THE BUDGET SAVVY BRIDE MAGAZINE:
Jon & Jen's Destination Wedding at the Chateau De Frontenac in Quebec City
Heather and I love road trips. Being trapped in a car with someone for several hours is the ultimate make-it-or-break-it for a relationship and after the first one you pretty much know how the relationship is going to go. We like to fill ours with silly games to pass time with the occasional deep talk about various human rights issues or whether we’d prefer to be a reincarnated as a carrot or an apple. Our eight-plus hour drive from New York City to Quebec City was no different.
Jon & Jen's Destination Wedding | Chateau Fronenac | Old Quebec City, Canada | International Wedding Photography
Heather and I love road trips. Being trapped in a car with someone for several hours is the ultimate make-it-or-break-it for a relationship and after the first one you pretty much know how the relationship is going to go. We like to fill ours with silly games to pass time with the occasional deep talk about various human rights issues or whether we’d prefer to be a reincarnated as a carrot or an apple. Our eight-plus hour drive from New York City to Quebec City was no different.
We were originally going as guests for Heather’s friend, Jon, but wound up as on-call photographers for his French-inspired wedding in the Chateau de Frontenac overlooking the St. Lawrence River. I’ve never been to Europe or France but the rustic buildings that hug one another over the cobblestone streets of Old Quebec City had me saying “bonjour” in a dreadful attempt at honoring Quebecois culture between mouthfuls of savory and sweet crepes (we had them every morning we were there, no regrets).
The first time I met Jon and Jen was an annual old time Jazz celebration on Governor’s Island, a short Ferry ride away from New York City. They’re the kind of couple that is as artistic as they are lovingly humble, welcoming you into their lives with their eyes and smiles as well as their paintbrushes. Jon hand-painted their wedding invitations with a night portrait of the Chateau de Frontenac with scattered windows warmly lit up in a yellowish hue that cued that bedtime was nearing for each room’s lucky inhabitants. I remember picking up the card and feeling and knowing that it came from Jon’s home rather than some massive production facility.
Jon and Jen’s ceremony took place in the wine cellar of the chateau and I remember their officiant singing both the man and woman’s roles in various songs that they handpicked. The child in me thought it was hilarious and came close to laughing out loud but the adult in me knew better. You could tell that Jon and Jen had an intimate relationship with this man and have probably laughed harder together than I would’ve that day but I’m glad that my maturity won the battle for once.
For their first dance Jen choreographed a sequence that swept them from corner-to-corner of the lavish ballroom floor with swift dips, spins, and smiles in between. Jon had been excited to show us this number for months, sure that he would falter or stumble somewhere, but I’ve noticed that when love has the wheel the bumps in the road magically disappear one after the other in the rearview mirror. If I didn’t know them I would call their movements graceful because they are, but because I do [know them], I just see them as familiar actions of Jon and Jen.
Here’s to a couple that anyone would be lucky to call friends that just had their first child, Shea, who will carry on a tradition of artistic love and humility.
Venue: Chateau Frontenac | Old Quebec City, Canada
International Destination Photographer: Erny Photo CO | Apollo Photo