Gantry Plaza Elopement in Long Island City

Apollo Fields | NYC Wedding Photographer | LIC Wedding Photography | Gantry Plaza Elopement | New York City Wedding Photographer

Dan & Alexis

We first met Alexis and Dan when Covid first hit in February. We met at an open, work-friendly cafe on the Upper East Side when hand sanitizer on every countertop was just becoming a thing. We sipped on some lattes and gameplanned their intimate ceremony at Gantry Plaza in Long Island City and the reception to follow at a bier garten in Astoria. As you might expect, the reception will have to wait until 2021 but Alexis and Dan still popped some champagne with a few family and friends on a gorgeous Saturday in November.

A light fall breeze accompanied by the warmth of unimpeded sunshine created a whimsicality to the afternoon. Alexis and Dan picked a shaded spot beneath a tree for a ceremony site and joggers and picnickers congratulated them in passing or at a distance. A slip-up or two in their vows and a maintenance truck added humor and levity to those precious moments; I think a ceremony for them sans silliness or laughter would be out of place. They are both such joyous souls.

Upon the conclusion of the ceremony, Alexis and Dan busted out some park-friendly personal 375ml bottles of Moët with some of the best desserts we’ve ever had. The ‘cake jars’ as they are called were from a local Astoria bakery, Cakes by Nerwan, and they blew us away with their lightness and flavor. Who needs hor d'oeuvres when you can have dessert first? Alexis and Dan 100% knew what they were doing. 

From there we waited for some shifting cloud cover to get some family formals to commemorate the day. With the skyline of Manhattan in the background, this intimate ceremony turned epic pretty quick. I had no idea the view from Long Island City was so beautiful. We then borrowed Alexis and Dan to snap a few shots of just the two of them up and down Gantry Plaza. When it comes to hosting a wedding, Alexis and Dan showed that if you host it, the vibes will come.

It’s wild to think about the places we were in those short pre-Covid 2020 days and even crazier to think about all we’ve endured since then. Sandwiched between the unpredictable events were the couples like Alexis and Dan who planned an epic day to celebrate their marriage. Most rescheduled, others pared down plans, and some cancelled altogether. Heather and I are honestly so grateful that Alexis and Dan and many others chose to host something this year because it delivered us so much joy. People like to poke fun at “smiling with your eyes” when you’re wearing a mask but Heather and I took in all the happiness that we could. 

When I look back on 2020 I will remember how trying it all was, how I experienced anxiety for the first time, and how we managed to work while Heather was pregnant with our first child; but perhaps most importantly, I will remember the moments of levity, the slip-ups doing vows, and all of the maintenance truck moments that kept us smiling with our eyes behind the mask behind the lens.

Enjoy these pics from Alexis & Dan’s Long Island City Wedding:

Long Island Wedding Photography

Long Island Wedding Photography | North Fork Wedding Photographers | Apollo Fields

Meredith & Vince

Long Island City Elopement Photography

Long Island City Elopement Photography | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers | NYC Weddings 2020

Lauren & Jayram

Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium Intimate Wedding

Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium Intimate Wedding | Centerport, New York Weddings | Long Island Microwedding Photography | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers

Meghan & Samuel

Like many other industries, photographing fellow wedding industry pros can go one way or another— either it is a total dream or the experience backfires and you end up with a micromanaging know-it-tall. Luckily for me, Meghan and Sam’s wedding was the former!! It was exactly that: a total dream!

This sweet couple unfortunately had their original wedding plans totally derailed by COVID but still wanted to honor their love by getting married this year. The plan was to postpone the big wedding to 2021, but as the year continued on, they ultimately decided that this wedding would be the wedding— and honestly, I can relate so hard to this! Planning any wedding celebration is a lot of moving parts even in non-pandemic times, and I cannot imagine how tough it must be to have everything turned upside down and then trying to reconfigure multiple weddings.

At the end of the day, the most important part of a wedding– whether it is just two people or two hundred people–is the love between the couple and their commitment to one another. Meghan summed it up best when she said, “ I work in the wedding industry and love attention to details” she started, “But for myself, I would say to ignore any pressures to deliver anything perfect! If there is anything that 2020 has taught us, it is the importance of family and health and spending it with the ones you love most”.

That is exactly how their wedding felt, too! Meghan and Samuel exchanged their vows in front of six guests at the Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium in Centerport, NY. The venue is stunning and sits right up against the water. We were lucky to have a perfect autumn morning and were able to have the ceremony at the fountain in the back of the courtyard. Their ceremony was personalized and so sentimental, and I think that because it was so intimate, their promises were that much more special.

After they exchanged the vows, rings, and “I do’s”, Meghan and Sam had their first dance in the courtyard followed by parent dances. You could just feel how light and easy the day was flowing without all the chaos of hundreds of guests and tight timelines to stick to, and I admit that it makes a big difference as a photographer, too, to be able to lean into my creativity instead of worrying about huge shot lists and complicated moving parts.

We were able to do family photos without needing a party planner, an ambassador, and an assistant all coordinating people and then I was able to steal the couple for some romantics of just the two of them without having to rush them back to cocktail hour in five minutes. Such a luxury! We wrapped up the morning with a sweet cake cutting and a quick toast before heading out and I left the venue just beaming with happiness for this amazing couple!

Enjoy these sneaks from Meghan & Samuel’s intimate wedding:

Vendors:

Photography: Apollo Fields
Venue: The Vanderbilt Museum
Rentals: Elite Party Rentals
HMUA: Hair Salon of Centerport / Genna Makeup
Florals: Cold Spring Harbor Flowers
Officiant: Michele LaRosa- LI Officiant
Videography: Purroy Video
Dress: BHLDN
Bakery: Blondies Bake Shop

Summer 2020 Wedding in Long Island, NY

Billy & Cara’s Summer Wedding in Long Island | NY Weddings on the North Shore | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography

Returning to work has felt like going back to my childhood home, rolling the garage door up, grabbing a basketball, and heading out to the hoop in the street. Even though my old hoop may be long gone; I still remember the give of the plexiglass backboard, the strange bend on the rim from when it fell during a storm, and how I used to countdown from three right before I heaved up a game-winning shot. Those memories literally feel like a physical part of me. Then this past weekend, when I walked into Billy’s mother’s house and began joking with the groomsmen as they bent their wrists as they put on their helicopter cuff links, I realized that Apollo Fields is becoming part of me in the same way.

    Billy and Cara, like many other 2020 couples, have been run through the gamut of rescheduling their wedding (twice). On top of that, Hurricane Isaias knocked power out of Cara’s parents’ house and the location where they planned to have a small reception. Resilience, patience, and kindness are the first words that come to mind when I think of the way that Cara and Billy handled all of these obstacles, but even they don’t do justice for their wonderful relationship.

    A couple of Long Island natives, their engagement story is one of my favorites. Billy planned a kayaking trip on a bay on the south shore, going beforehand to bury a small box in the sand and marking it with an ‘x.’ They brought a couple of sandwiches with them on the trip and while Billy was doing his best to nudge Cara to hunt for buried treasure, all Cara could think about was how hungry she was and that she wanted her ham sandwich. “Who passes up buried treasure for a ham sandwich?” Billy playfully asked in the questionnaire we give to our couples to get to know them better. I’m sure any groom that has taken romantic lengths like this one knows all too well the anxiety of trying to maintain the surprise while trying to play it cool. “Just hunt for the treasure, damn it!”

    You would never have guessed with Cara and Billy’s cool and calm demeanor during their wedding that they’re actually fierce competitors. Bowling and mini-golf are games in constant rotation, and Cara refuses to leave the alley until she wins a game (Heather does the same). Cara even disclosed in the questionnaire that she won’t play Clue with Billy’s family until they learn to play by the right rules (lol), showing the integrity of a competitor that we 100% respect. Whether it was from this backbone of competitiveness against the events of 2020 or the sentimentality behind buried treasure and a ham sandwich, we’re so happy that the celebration of their love prevailed.

    It’s crazy how our memories and our work entangle with our identities, reinforcing who we are even though we think we are just living our lives. I definitely err on the side of reflection and contemplation as opposed to impulsivity, and am grateful that my job, through Heather’s undeniable artistic talent, continues to shape my reality through stories of love and basketball. Cheers to the love of Cara and Billy, who helped me realize that work can be just as powerful as nostalgia. 

Wedding Vendors:

Photography: Apollo Fields
Ceremony Venue: St. Kilian Parish
Videographer: John Morelli
Officiant : Deacon Bill
Florist: Bloominous
Dress : BHLDN
Suit: Generation Tux
Rings : Blue Nile
Hair and Makeup: Luxe and Co
Invitations and Save The Dates: Minted
Transportation / Limo: All Star Limo

Crab Meadow Beach Elopement in Northport, NY

Tracy & Matt's Fourth of July Beach Elopement at Crab Meadow in Northport | Long Island Weddings | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographer

My Fourth of July began at 4:15AM (the same time that many of yours might have been ending)! I woke up to a black night with no sign of sunrise, went downstairs, drank a cup of tea, and forced my reluctant dogs to go to the bathroom outside. Even they weren’t ready to be up, but I had been stirring every fifteen minutes for the past few hours, squinting at my clock to see if it was time to go to work yet.

Go to work. A sentence that I’ve been looking forward to for MONTHS during this pandemic. While many people might have eased into this stay-at-home lifestyle, I clung to the promise that I would be able to go back to shooting on location. Working with couples, documenting their important milestones, traveling to new locations, celebrating their love— all of this is my muse and very much what keeps the gas in my tank.

None of this quarantine felt like a vacation to me, and it did not “recharge my batteries” like it has for some. I love what I do, and that is why I was especially excited for Tracy and Matt’s elopement on the Fourth. At around 4:30, I grabbed my cameras, hopped in the car, and drove to the beach.

I was the first one there and loved the idea that this location would inevitably blow up with families later that afternoon, but for that moment, it felt like mine. The air was still cool and a breeze rippled across the sand. The first light of dawn was breaking, and before long, Tracy and Matt were exchanging their vows against the still ocean, with only the company of their officiant and myself (while I doubled as their witness).

I don’t take these moments lightly. To be included in these sacred experiences is a privilege and it brings me so much purpose to capture even—or perhaps especially—the most intimate of elopements.

There is no “right” or “wrong” way to navigate reschedules as a 2020 couple-- you just have to do what is best for you guys.  But let’s be serious, that’s what weddings SHOULD be all about in the first place!  If there has been one silver lining that the coronavirus has had on the wedding industry, I believe it is that couples are having to step back and reevaluate their priorities more than they might have had to in the past.  A lot of the more frivolous parts of planning simply aren’t important anymore, and maybe they never were. 

At the end of the day, a wedding is about two people committing their love and lives to one another.  It is no secret that my favorite weddings have always been a bit non-traditional, incorporating personalized details and reimagined rituals.  This new wedding landscape is naturally conducive to these kinds of weddings, and it has been so refreshing to see couples adapting with grace and mindfulness. 

Photography: Apollo Fields
Location: Crab Meadow Beach, Northport NY