Three Village Inn Wedding Photography in Stony Brook
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kelly & derek’s Wedding
I’ve taken 25A heading west on Long Island countless times in my life. Grandma’s house, Smithaven Mall, Port Jefferson Ferry, baseball games in St. James--it’s the kind of road that I never needed to use a GPS for. But just like the rest of this summer, I turned off of 25A towards Three Village Inn for Kelly and Derek’s wedding and stumbled across beautiful places I’ve never been to before.
First, Heather and I grabbed a snack at a local cafe tucked into Old Stony Brook Village, a charming village center of storefronts and restaurants whose timeless facades have been preserved through time. Later in the day we visited Kelly and Derek’s old apartment on Setauket Harbor and captured romantics and bridal party photos to commemorate their relationship’s beginnings as the sun set in the background.
Heather and I love traveling to places where our couples formed core memories of their relationship. It doesn’t get much more romantic than watching a couple sit down in the exact place where they used to picnic, remembering favorite meals as their bodies gradually move closer to one another. I’ve noticed that the natural state of a relationship emerges when sharing a meal; a few pilfered fries here, a sip of a drink there, each partner knowing exactly what they can and can’t get away with--sharing food turns out to be a surprisingly intimate experience.
When Heather and I eat on the road it’s not pretty: gas station snacks, Clif Bars, Starbucks sandwiches, bags of chips or nuts we forgot were in the center console. But when we have time to make a home-cooked meal, or better yet, host a dinner party, there are few things we enjoy more. Our speciality has always been fresh cooked pasta but we love to explore different cuisines, test our skills, and expand our palates. Maybe it’s because we have a lot of experience in hospitality, but we don’t quite understand when people stress about hosting others for a meal. To us, as long as you greet your guests with a drink and have some snacks ready to go, the vibes will take care of themselves. We’re actually waaay overdue on hosting so once wedding season slows down a bit we will totally be busting out our dirty aprons!
When I think about it, the best part about this summer is a lot like entertaining guests in your home: striking up a conversation with a table full of people is all about uncovering beautiful things about your guests that you didn’t already know. Just like traveling is all about discovering places you’ve never been before. We will always feel more comfortable in the familiar, in places we love and with people we know, but real connections happen by taking that extra step and finding the beautiful in the unfamiliar. So turn off your GPS, throw your cookbook away, and invite some friends over for dinner!
Enjoy these photos from Derek & Kelly’s wedding:
vendors
Photography | Apollo Fields
Venue | Three Village Inn | Stony Brook, NY
Dress | Family Heirloom made by Great Grandmother
Videography | Violet and Iris Cinematography
Event Coordinator | One of a Kind Gatherings | Cynthia Lynn
Flowers | Wildflower Touch
Makeup & Hair | Beauty Marks Spa and Bridal Studio
DJ | Todd Barrie Music
Trolley | Hampton Jitney
Limo | LIE Lite Limo
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Hamilton Hall Wedding in NYC
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Carly & Mike’s Wedding
Walking through Harlem with eight-month-old baby Capa strapped to my chest felt like a bridge between two versions of myself: the mid-twenties, student/martini-mixer and the early-thirties small business owner/infant entertainer extraordinaire. The former stayed up until six a.m. drinking and the latter currently wakes at six a.m. to help another person drink. Sleep is seldom in both versions but the idea of it is much sexier now. The link between the two is my wife, Heather, who helped elevate my life from those romantically late New York City nights to my current state of blissful, overworked, exhaustion.
I first met Carly when she was a bartender at my favorite late night jaunt, a bar fondly remembered as AmTav (Amsterdam Tavern) at 106th and Broadway. I’d walk in with my tie undone and saddle up to the bar next to other industry folk with empty shot glasses in front of them. Carly would always be finishing a story or giving somebody the business over what an idiot they were. She embodied the kind of take-no-shit NYC bartender that I always wanted to be but never had the stomach for. I met her partner, Mike, there a number of nights after he finished his shift down at St. Marks that all seem to blend together now. He was (and is) always so kind, charming, and welcoming. They really make a great pair.
Carly and Mike love hosting for all the same reasons Heather and I love hosting: fresh food, strong, well-made drinks, and gathering people around a table to share stories and laugh. They know not to freak out when guests start arriving because they know things always will come together. Just throw a drink in their hands, keep doing what you’re doing, or ask them to help. The true beauty of having good friends is that you can rely on them—the frivolous, irresponsible, and selfish ones were cut before last call.
Carly and Mike replanned their wedding more times than an Upper West Sider sends back a bone dry martini. Yet they still held an incredibly authentic celebration of their love at The Hamilton Hall in Harlem. Carly and Mike’s guests first walked into the space to find handmade seating cards made by Carly herself. Then, as they made their way past the long, wooden bar, more personalized details adorned the tables and walls: wildflower arrangements, specialized bitters from TNT Bitters (a company that Mike runs with his business partner, Anna), and printed itineraries of what to expect the rest of the evening. They held their ceremony down on a secluded outdoor patio and they entered together to the biggest ovation I have heard for a bride and groom to date.
There is absolutely a community in the late night bar scene in New York City. We grew closer as the morning grew nearer and we never seemed to care. We learned that you leave some friends at the service bar because you want something more. And there was always some epiphanic revelation about life that turned out to be nonsense in the morning. But maybe those late nights and early mornings were training us to operate on short sleep to have a family one day. Or maybe we were just rounding up a crew of misfits that we were just beginning to consider family. Either way, food and drink did bring us together.
Enjoy these photos from Mike & Car’s NYC Wedding:
vendors
Photography | Apollo Fields
Venue | Hamilton Hall
Seating Cards | Crafted by the bride, Carly
Floral | Crafted by the bride, Carly
Day-Of Coordinator | Sophie Russek
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Team Apollo with some of our faves!!
Pastures of Plenty Wedding in Boulder, CO
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Mercie and Dan’s Wedding
Coasting down route 36, the Flatirons of Boulder, Colorado, grew larger by the minute. Memories flashed like road signs in the side-view mirror: like the time Heather accidentally sat on a fire ant hill on the side of the road; or the time I biked from Arvada to Boulder and flew down this decline like the red baron in an old Charlie Brown segment; or the many trips coming back from the hospital as we endured our experience with an ectopic pregnancy in 2019. Capa riding with us in the back seat to Mercie and Dan’s wedding at Pastures of Plenty has proverbially turned this sloped road into a rotary, and as we came full circle we turned to look at him and smile.
We first met Mercie when we were living in Arvada and she was working as a hostess at the same restaurant Heather was working at. Mercie always welcomed me into the foyer with the same bright smile, full of a genuine enthusiasm that most hostesses do their best to feign. Heather and I got to know Mercie and Dan as a couple when we took their engagement photos at Rollins Pass in Nederland a couple years later. It was quickly apparent that they share a wavelength--understanding each other through an invisible yet palpable electromagnetism--as after every photo they seemed to draw closer and closer together.
Fast-forward to 2021 and Mercie and Dan had a water slide at their wedding (in case it was too hot). And also appointed their young siblings as their officiants, DJs, emcees, and baby caretakers (For real, one of them took Capa mid-ceremony so I could take pictures). Everywhere you turned there was a role that Mercie and Dan empowered one of their siblings with. Where most couples cater their event to themselves--Mercie and Dan catered it to their family. A Captain Hook shy of Neverland and a religious scripture short of the Garden of Eden, Mercie and Dan’s wedding was a beautiful fantasy of love, support, and purpose. And they all made it a reality.
There were several moments at Mercie and Dan’s wedding where I had to stand back and ask, “is this really happening?” It got to the point where if one of the bubbles floating in the air turned into a glowing fairy I wouldn’t have batted an eye. I am apt to refrain from using words like ‘magic’ or ‘miracle’ when describing a wedding, couple, or family, but Mercie, Dan, and company made it really hard to describe it as anything else. The way that they spoke to all of their various members of their extended family: in soft affirmations, playful directions, and empowering words of encouragement, they reminded me of the way that Snow White spoke to her woodland friends. The exception, of course, is that Disney is a contrived monolith and Mercie and Dan are living, breathing, beautiful humans of sensitivity and intention.
As each of our families evolve and grow I can only hope to embody the acceptance and trust that Mercie and Dan cultivate on an everyday basis. It takes great patience, an even better understanding, and a dedication to emotional communication. While Heather and I already valued each of these attributes we were and are in complete admiration of Mercie and Dan’s intention and execution. It isn’t fairy dust that creates the magic in our reality, it is our thoughts converted into action.
Enjoy these photos from Merc & Dan’s Pasture of Plenty Wedding in Boulder, Colorado:
As seen in: Couture Colorado Magazine
vendors
Photography | Apollo Fields
Videography | Glasshouse Wedding Films
Venue | Pastures of Plenty
Invitations | Minted
Dresses | Galina
This was a special one for us…
…we have SO enjoyed our friendship with Merc and Dan and feel absolutely honored to have captured their joyful day!
Princeton University Engagement Photos
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Jessica & Angelo
Every time I walk on an Ivy League university’s campus--I feel smarter. I think of the philosophy books I read during undergrad and I hear snippets of passages as little soundbytes in my head. The “collegiate gothic” architectural style of many prestigious institutions may have questionable origins, but if it doesn’t make you hear the voices of old white aristocrats then it probably conjures up the gruffly-spoken line: “You’re a wizard, Harry.” So when we met up with Jess and Angelo to take their engagement photos at Princeton University, it was no surprise that our conversation was filled with a beautiful mix of history and Hogwarts, of reminiscing and laughter.
Jess and Angelo told us a funny story about how both of their families would go to the same Christmas party when they were kids. One year Jess remembers playing with one of Angelo’s siblings but doesn’t remember Angelo being there at all. Angelo couldn’t recollect anything about where he was. We love hearing stories like these because it places our couples in a totally different context and time of their lives. Photographing Jess and Angelo’s engagement session was like we skipped to the middle of the book; but as we walked and talked it was like thumbing through their relationship’s first pages.
We got to talking about the plans for their wedding and how important it is for them to have a customizable space so they can really express who they are. We can’t emphasize enough how much we love to hear when our couples take the extra effort to curate an event that celebrates their relationship rather than what is easy (what about planning a wedding is easy?!) For us--it’s less about the minutiae and more about the moment. Embrace your wedding day because it’s truly one of the only days in your life when you can do whatever the hell you want!
Many call it the best day of our lives but we don’t believe that. We believe that our days and our stories carry us through many peaks and valleys and that our paths aren’t as linear as a mountain range at a distance. We prefer to see the days of our lives on the trail in the trees whose path eventually opens up to a big sky above the treeline. We prefer to get a little mud on our shoes, take a deep breath, and crack a beer when we reach the top. Your wedding day is but one peak of the whole mountain range.
We’re so lucky to be able to document the natural beauty of the stories that unfold before us. We get to be part of every one of our couple’s history, even if most of it is from behind the lens. Our jobs have taken us to mountains and oceans, inside mansions and cabins, and on strolls through “collegiate gothic” campuses. May we derive as much power from the jagged spires as we do from the spellbooks, for inside everyone of our minds and hearts are the magic things that make us us.
Bedford New Hampshire Winter Wedding
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Liz & Nick
Every wedding trip begins with Heather and I going through a checklist as we pack the car: light stands, extra batteries, memory cards, and camera bodies, toothpaste and toothbrush, contact lenses, a cooler for snacks and beverages, Capa. Holy shit. Our son has officially become part of the workflow. During Heather’s pregnancy we were constantly told how much our lives would change when he arrived and we always pushed back with the phrase, “oh, we’re not slowing down for him, he’s just going to have to learn to keep up.” Seasoned parents typically responded with a smirk and playful eye roll so as to say, “you have no idea what you’re getting into.” Well I’m happy to report that Capa’s first wedding, Liz and Nick’s beautiful winter wedding at the Bedford Village Inn in New Hampshire was a huge success.
We did Liz and Nick’s engagement photos in Providence this summer, but they picked the Bedford Village Inn for their wedding because of its colonial architectural charm. The hall where they held their reception was anchored with large, rustic wooden beams connected with mortise and tenon joints. Brass chandeliers lit the large room, evoking a cozy warmth on a bitterly cold New England winter day. Both Liz and Nick got to enjoy a spacious suite to comfortably get ready in, and the venue’s classy restaurant rounded out the wonderful service and amenities that every bride and groom deserve.
Heather and I were happy to see Liz and Nick take the proper health safety precautions, asking each of their guests to wear masks and provide a negative Covid test in order to attend their celebration. We’ve seen many different approaches to weddings during the pandemic but it was really comforting to see the lengths that her family and friends took to assure every one’s safety. It not only made us feel more comfortable, but it also made the coziness and overall atmosphere of the wedding feel the closest thing to pre-Covid times that I can remember.
Heather wore Capa on her chest for most of the day, handing him off to me for important events like the ceremony, family formals, and speeches. Liz and Nick’s family and friends were so sweet to Capa, welcoming him to the celebration like he received a tiny little invitation in the mail. We heard tables buzzing as we walked past and it means so much to us that our couples and their guests are as willing as we are to welcome Capa into our professional lives. We don’t intend on slowing down any time soon.
I have a feeling that I will cherish the memory of Liz and Nick’s wedding for many years to come. Whether it was because of the way they welcomed Capa, or the many friendly faces behind the masks that made the event feel like a semblance of pre-Covid life; I will always be grateful for that warm wooden room on that cold winter day.
