NYC Marriage Bureau Wedding at the City Clerk Hall
Apollo Fields | NYC Wedding Photographers | New York Wedding Photography | Long Island Wedding Photos | City Hall Wedding Photos | New York City Hall Wedding Photos
Jess + Yi
City hall weddings will always have a place in my heart for their simplicity. Some of the couples who choose this option still host a larger celebration, while others are just happy to get a couple handfuls of friends and family together to enjoy a night on the town. It doesn’t even have to be New York City to enjoy that kind of intimate celebration. It’s the same kind of vibe of hosting a dinner party at your home.
NEw York City Wedding Photographers
When Heather and I lived in New York we didn’t tap into our love of hosting yet. I guess we were too busy taking care of people at our respective bars while pursuing our college degrees. It wasn’t until we moved to Colorado that we started putting together curated dinners where we would invite people who didn’t know each other to meet and share a meal. There was something wonderfully simple about it. I know a lot of people who get anxious at the idea of company, but I remember one particular dinner of ours when we didn’t have enough silverware for everyone! Instead of feeling ashamed we just asked the couples at the table to share. That has since become the dinner our friends talk about the most often.
New Jersey Wedding Photographers
And that’s the beautiful thing about focusing on the people rather than the things—whether we’re talking about a wedding or a dinner party. The right people can make anything work, but the right things might not meet expectations. It takes a good partnership to arrive at good decisions, big and small, the first of which is commonly either a big move or planning a wedding. It’s kind of like the “take a road trip” test with someone you’ve been dating except times 1000. Ever since we hosted that first dinner party we’ve never looked back at any of our decisions—instead—we pass the fork back to one another when we share a meal. It brings us back to that party and always brings us closer together.
Haven's Kitchen Wedding Photography in NYC
Laura and Tim's Wedding at Haven's Kitchen in NYC
Bouncing up and down in a crosstown cab, all smiles and sunshine. “I’m gonna destroy this dress—I’ll lay down in the grass, on a New York City bench, wherever!” Definitely not common words we expect to hear coming from a bride on her wedding day—but Laura was and is not your everyday bride.
In fact, everything about Laura and Tim’s winter wedding in NYC was anything but your conventional wedding experience; from only three months of planning to coordinating guests flying in from all over the globe, their heartfelt and absolutely stunning intimate wedding will have us bouncing and smiling in the sunshine for a long time to come.
You may have seen the post about Laura and Tim’s rainy NYC engagement photos, where I explained how they decided to get married on such short notice. If you haven’t, the backstory goes like this: after they got engaged in November 2019, they popped into an antique ring shop to pick out some vintage wedding bands for each other, when they stumbled across a ring with the date “2/22/30” engraved on the inside. They joked about how it would be cute to celebrate this other couple’s 90-year anniversary on 2/22/20 and thought it would end there.
It didn’t.
My experience on their wedding day began in Tim’s hotel room in the wonderfully charming Freehand Hotel in the Flatirons district of Manhattan. With only a narrow window casting sunlight into the room from the alleyway, the mood was calm and dramatic. Tim opened a small care package from Laura containing a pair of goofy socks stitched with images of ramen noodles, a silly black cat pin that read “good luck,” and the real gem of the bounty: a short, heartfelt letter that had a print of Laura posing for one of those awkward glamour shots in high school. In a perfect representation of their relationship and their wedding day, that letter carried as much lightness and levity as it did genuine care and love.
We snapped their first look in the foyer of the restaurant downstairs, occasionally holding the door for hungry New Yorkers that we dare not deprive of brunch. Afterwards, Laura and Tim shared a quick drink at the bar to coat themselves in a thick layer of liquid courage armor before we journeyed to the tourist-heavy Highline in the Meatpacking District for some intimate photos. In the cab we bounced but on the path we strutted, stopping here and there for some authentic New York City shots. As we made our way to Haven’s Kitchen we carried the same casual and light gait that Laura spoke with in her letter to Tim.
Haven’s Kitchen opens into a cozy, chic, cafe in the front, with a clean open kitchen with stainless steel tables used for teaching cooking classes in the back. On the left, a stairway bends up to the second floor with a wooden Victorian-style bannister leading the way. The second floor has a wide open dance floor on one side and a white granite bar and cozy cocktail area on the other.
Adorned into every nook and cranny were trinkets of Laura and Tim’s relationship with an eclectic mix of kangaroos (Tim is Australian), Star Wars references, and other personal keepsakes. Finally, the top floor is a pristinely white, flexible and customizable space that can double as a location for the reception and ceremony. Laura and Tim, with the help of the amazing staff used every inch of this intimate wedding venue in New York City to celebrate their love.
Despite only having three months to plan and execute their wedding, Laura and Tim have shown how a strong couple can literally and figuratively absorb the bumps in the road and come out smiling in sunshine on the other side. They have shown that you don’t have to be conventional and can instead invent tradition or celebrate love in whichever way you see fit. Embrace what the world gives you with an open mind and hard work and love will do the rest.
Enjoy these sneak peeks from Laura & Tim’s Wedding:
Also featured in: Carats & Cake Magazine
The Vendor Team:
Photography + Writing: Apollo Fields
Ceremony + Reception Venue: Haven’s Kitchen
Wedding Coordinator: Irit Oren, Events Service Manager
Officiant: John Heagney - One of Tim & Laura's best friends in NYC
Florist: Dried flowers assembled by Laura and Tim
DJ / Band : DJ Mikey Palms
Cake / Bakery : Billy’s Bakery
Dress : Jenny Yoo
Shoes: Badgley Mischka
Suit: Custom Made Navy with llama pattern lining + tailored by Suit Supply NYC
Rings: Hannah Blount + Gray & Davis
HMUA: Drybar + Ryann Jones
Stationary: The Knot with Paperless Post
Heyo! It’s us…
…with our favorite ramen-slurping, kangaroo-tossers! This was the BEST wedding to kick off our 2020 season and we are still raving about how much fun we had with Laura and Tim.
NYC City Hall Elopement Photographer
Nikolaos and Maria's NYC City Hall Elopement | DUMBO Brooklyn Eloping Portraits | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers
Like many creatives, I have to get into a certain zone to make art. Shooting weddings for me is my livelihood but it’s not my work. Replying to emails is work. Scanning receipts is work. Being in the nucleus of a crowded dance floor full is strangers with a camera is art.
I’m usually up before my alarm on wedding mornings. I’m jittery, my mind is swirling with visuals of what I want to uncover for the day. Sometimes I want to go wider, get more environment. Sometimes I want to get close, close, closer to my subject. It’s light and its energy and I’m such a visual person that if I don’t manifest it beforehand then I struggle.
I get a little freaky about my batteries, shot lists, leaving early, and every other Type A habit comes to the surface (shoutout to Terrence for keeping my head glued on because I know I’m not cute or fun on my wedding mornings).
I used to try to control this and I thought that the more I shot, the more this would go away. I’ve shot well over 100 weddings now and it’s the same story. But I’ve come to peace with this because it’s my creative muse. It means I care and I’m actually scared for the day I wake up and don’t feel this.
So I triple check my equipment and get on the road. My guilty pleasure is listening to @kendricklamar’s DAMN cover-to-cover as loud as my car can handle it (I could talk about this album for days if anyone wants to poke the bear) and then the minute I’m on location and begin shooting, it all dissipates. It’s gone- the anxiety, the jitters, the build up, the whole thing just lifts and I sink into my creative space.
So maybe this sounds a little insane and maybe it is, but it’s a little insight into my behind the scenes reality. Fellow creatives, who can relate?
Photography: Apollo Fields
Venue: City Clerk NYC
Portrait Location: DUMBO Brooklyn
Estancia 460 NYC Engagement Session
Igor and Michelle’s Engagement Photos in New York City | Estancia 460 NYC | Destination Wedding Photographers
There’s something so exciting about moving to a new city that makes you feel like everything is possible. Somehow all of the stresses, restraints, or regrets from the past are quickly forgotten and your new surroundings shine in the sunlight. Igor and Michelle just moved to New York from Los Angeles and before this engagement shoot had never even been to Central Park. I get giddy just thinking about them walking around on the winding paths I love so much. There’s something special about sharing something dear to your heart with others, and Igor and Michelle have an endless amount of avenues and streets and paths to explore. Everything is possible to them.
Igor and Michelle moved to New York with 4-year-old Harrison because Igor was offered the executive chef position at The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. Foodies through and through, they can’t wait to share delicious meals in one of the toughest cities to run a successful restaurant. Partly because rent is so damn high and partly because competition exists on every corner and down every alley—if you’re running a restaurant in New York City you have to be consistent and service-forward. With Igor’s experience at Intercontinental Hotel Downtown Los Angeles you better believe he can bring it.
The other aspect of New York that really excites Igor and Michelle is the architecture. They particularly love to go on architectural boat tours that showcase the history of Manhattan. From the quirky, cobblestone streets of the Financial District to the iconic buildings like the Flatiron or the Chrysler, the structures are almost as unique as the people. Almost.
Igor and Michelle will be getting married in Los Angeles in 2020 and we look forward to getting to know their former hometown. Heather and I love the beach almost as much as we love the mountains, as they provide us the natural sounds that we long for. These are a far cry from the horns and sirens of big cities, and give us an energy that only the natural world possesses. That was a huge reason why we moved to Denver and plan to return one day. I imagine Igor and Michelle will head out to the beaches of Long Island come summer time to fill the void of the west coast.
Everything seems possible when you move to a new place because everything is. Sometimes we forget that when we’ve been in one place for too long, but if you always welcome change you will always be allowing new possibilities. Cheers to Igor and Michelle starting the next chapter of their lives.
As seen in: Popped! Mag
NYC Apollo Fields Date Night
NYC Date Night | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers | The Standard Hotel Grill NYC | Stomp New York City
Yesterday, Heather and I’s date night in Manhattan turned into a full-fledged celebration of the relationships we have with our couples and with each other. The night began with a delicious meal at The Standard Hotel compliments of Executive Chef Igor, one of our newest clients for 2020. From there we trekked across town to St. Marks Place to catch Stomp, a rhythm-centric musical production that featured Rob Brinkkmann, a groom from one of our 2019 couples. As we walked the wintry streets of New York City we couldn’t stop gushing about the friendships we’ve made at Apollo Fields, and how important it is to us that they don’t start or stop with a shutter click.
Many people believe that the relationship with their wedding photographer ends when their wedding day is over or when their final pictures are delivered. For most of the industry this is true—as wedding photographers we provide a service that has a definite end—but the connections we make don’t have to end with the cutting of the cake. Heather and I choose to look at our couples as friends, as people we would love to formally or informally grab a beer with before their wedding day to hash out worries and logistics, or eventually invite over for dinner after they’ve tied the knot. This enriches our lives, the relationship we have to our couples, and undoubtedly elevates the final products we deliver.
By getting to know our couples on a personal level we are introduced to them as individuals, as people rather than clients. We are brought into their personal and professional worlds, whether they are badass chefs, talented performers, techies, or accountants. Whatever industry they may be in or whatever hobbies they love, we get to know them for who they are rather than what they are to our business. We choose to celebrate them because cheerleaders in our lives are hard to come by; it’s not like anyone smiles and claps for us in our morning commutes. Heather and I recognize that we enter people’s worlds in very significant moments in their lives and we believe that the responsibility to document their love does not begin and end at the altar. We believe that love lives in our couples relationships’ to their families, to their occupations and hobbies, and most readily accessible, to their friends.
I honestly couldn’t tell you how many times Heather and I looked at one another yesterday and said how lucky we are to be in our position. To gallivant around New York City with connections and friends doing their thing behind bars, in kitchens, and on stages. The friends we’ve made through Apollo Fields are constant reminders to be grateful, but more importantly, building these relationships into our business is a practice that transcends the bottom line. We may run a business to make a living but without our relationship to one another and to our couples we wouldn’t really have a life at all. Here’s to all the people in our lives who make us laugh, feed us delicious food, or pour us our favorite brews. At Apollo Fields we will continue to document your love to the best of our abilities, celebrating your highs and embracing your lows, but most of all, honoring all of you for who you already are.
Top Of The Rock Photographers in NYC
Callie & Tyler | Top of the Rock NYC | Central Park New York | Rockefeller Center | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
I’m really excited about this session for a lot of reasons but I think the biggest reason is because it really represents both of the worlds that I love – skyscrapers and mountains – since Callie & Tyler came out from Colorado to visit NYC for their anniversary! It was so fun to connect with them in the city and get to show an awesome CO couple this city that I love so much. Callie is also a wedding photographer in Colorado and runs Callie Riesling Photography. She loves to travel and has a great blog of her own about all of the places that she goes for work and play with her family!
I was so excited when I found out that they would be in NYC at the same time as me. We chatted about their itinerary and decided that we would begin the afternoon skating at Wollman Rink in Central Park and then head over to Top of the Rock for golden hour. This was the perfect blend of iconic New York without being too touristy for me and it seemed to match their styles, too.
Callie and Tyler both love skating but are used to wearing hockey skates so they had me laughing when we first began since (I didn’t know this) regular skates are different than hockey skates, so they told me that they might be super clumsy on the ice and hanging onto each other to avoid falling. Well, of course they got out there and still looked like champs, so I was happy to be on the sidelines because I would have definitely been eating the ice if that were me!
Then we walked down to Rockefeller Center and headed up to the observation deck at Top of the Rock. Our timing was perfect because the sun was just beginning to set and the golden light was approaching. It was cloudy and we didn’t get a true “golden” hour, but the light was super soft and dreamy and the city was pretty magnificent anyway! We got to watch the sun set and the city lights all begin to turn on while snapping photos away in one of NYC’s best locations. A perfect end to a session, I’d say!
I was so happy to spend the afternoon with this couple because we immediately clicked about the wedding industry, Colorado life, and the contrasts and similarities with NYC. It was great to show them around my city for a bit and play tour guide since I’m so used to seeing New York from a local’s point of view now that I forget sometimes how amazing it truly is.
New York City Photography: Apollo Fields
Locations:
Top of the Rock | NYC
Central Park | NYC
Rockefeller Center | NYC
New York Wedding Photographers on Long Island
New York City Wedding Photographers | Colorado Weddings | Apollo Fields Photojournalism | NYC Photography
“Did you guys miss New York?”
This is one of those questions we have been asked by everyone since moving back East. And it’s a good question, but the answer is complicated… When we moved to Colorado in 2016, we were veryready to move. But it wasn’t because we hated NYC, it was just time. It was time to be in nature and time to be in an unknown place together. Big moves like that can make or break a relationship, and for us I guess we got lucky.
When I first moved to New York City a few years before that, I barely knew anyone and the people that I did know were in different boroughs. Despite always having the city close by, the UWS was as much of a mystery to me as if I had moved to Los Angeles by myself. I learned a lot about myself in that first year while I was getting my MA and living in a tiny studio apartment on 105thStreet. It was just me and Riddle, a mini fridge, an oven that leaked Carbon Monoxide, and a sort-of-view of the Hudson River if you hung your head out of the prison-sized window.
I was still living in that death trap of an apartment when I met Terrence. I was riding out my lease before moving farther uptown, but I can still remember one of our first dinners together there. We were eating on the couch because I only had one dining room chair and Terrence was cautioning me about how he didn’t eat onions, fish, tomatoes, etc. I had no idea how to feed such a picky eater, so I just went ahead cooking like I normally did anyway. How far we’ve come since those days.
For as much as I learned about myself being single in NYC, I think we learned as much about each other when we made the move to the mountains together. We had very few connections in CO when we first moved and had to learn how to lean on one another in ways that we hadn’t before. Even though we had lived together in New York, we always had additional roommates (such is life in Manhattan). We had a very familiar neighborhood in New York filled to the brim with drinking buddies, walk-able pubs, and enough libations to stay busy until 4am any time we felt like it.
We landed in Colorado and everything quieted down. We only had each other and our little cottage. We found ourselves less intrigued by urban life and much more content hanging at a local brewery in town with a couple beers and a board game. We got bikes and went hiking, we spent afternoons at the dog park and evenings cuddled up on our couch. Life was good and it was hard to miss NYC at that time.
We were still flying back East multiple times a year for weddings and holidays. We were always happy to come back to familiar faces and good ethnic food. Distance helps you weed out the drinking buddies and bring family to the surface, or at least that was the case for us. Don’t get me wrong, we can still throw back a few shots at a dive bar, but suddenly, we were more interested in making a push for spending time with our siblings instead.
Our decision to move back was multidimensional. We are looking to buy a farm to turn into a wedding venue and the numbers just weren’t adding up in Colorado. The real estate market there was pretty volatile: we were part of a huge boom of fellow transplants making the Rocky Mountain move and we got in too late. By the time we were ready to look at properties, everything was selling above already-high asking prices. Zoning was a nightmare, and anything with a mountain view was just plain cost prohibitive. With the average all-in price of a CO wedding coming in at $26k and NY suburbs at roughly $65k+, we weren’t about to take that kind of business risk just to keep our beloved mountains in our backyard.
So as you all know, at the end of September we packed up our little cottage into our Highlander and drove back East. Animals and cameras in tow, we hit the ground running—getting married, wrapping up busy season, and honeymooning in Jamaica while settling into a new house. We are finally slowing down (but not for long).
We’ve moved into a cute yellow house in East Northport, five minutes from Terrence’s dad and stepmom. We went from a 550sq foot cottage to a real house, which after a few Salvation Army raids is beginning to feel like a home. We are living well by Long Island standards: fenced-in backyard, walking distance to the LIRR, and a ten-minute drive to the North Shore.
Despite being an hour train or car ride from the city, this is a very different lifestyle than when we were actually living in NYC. We are very much in a commuter / family town. The delis and pizzerias are good, but that’s about it in the way of local flavor and small town charm. It is nice to be closer to family again. We have been into the city a few times and it’s been great. We hit The Whitney for the Andy Warhol exhibit and gorged ourselves on international food. We ride the subways like nothing has changed, and traversed up and down the blocks with the sharp cold air lingering on our cheeks.
New York will always be our city, even though if we’re being honest I don’t think I’ll ever live in it again. It doesn’t fit our lifestyle, business trajectory, or relationship anymore. In a perfect world, we won’t be on Long Island for very long, either. We would love to end up on a farm in Bucks County PA or upstate NY. We have big dreams of hosting weddings, homesteading, and photographing more and more amazing couples. We envision an old barn, a big fireplace, chickens and kiddos running through the fields, and a labor-of-love property that gives us as much as we give it.
So the short answer is, yes we missed New York but we also miss Colorado. We like walking through museums as well as walking up mountains. We love our family here and love our friends in CO. We miss the big western skies and the “300 days of sunshine” that we got so used to. But we’re glad to get a decent bagel again. We are lucky because we get to experience such a range of landscapes, and because of our business, we don’t have to choose one or the other. We get to go back to the Rockies for work and play, and in the meantime we are stoked to start to look to the future to find the quirky farm venue that will turn into the biggest passion project we’ve taken on so far.
Samantha & Chase's Central Park Engagement Photography in New York City
Samantha & Chase's Central Park NYC Engagement Session | New York City Engagement Photographer | NY Wedding Photography | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographer
Central Park makes for the most iconic and epic engagement photos! You get the best of all worlds – some nature, some skyline, and the beautiful architectural details that are classically NYC. I was so excited when this awesome couple got engaged, and even more excited when it happened in the city! They were visiting family for the holiday and had traveled from their hometown in Tennessee to celebrate Christmas.
Samantha’s family owns EJ’s Luncheonette in the upper east side, so we began the afternoon catching a little snack there together and chatting about life and love :) Then we strolled over to Central Park and made our way to Bethesda Fountain. I love this area because it is just such an icon of NYC. There’s nowhere else in the world quite like it.
We did photos in the arches which can be a bit tricky to time because of foot traffic, but I was so excited when the crowd lifted for a minute and we were able to jump in and get that epic silhouette shot! I love being able to shoot on the stairs and the other embellishments there too. This couple has such a fun vibe together so it made my job easy! They had only been engaged for a few days so it was really great to piggy back on their excitement from celebrating the big news together.
NYC Engagement Photographer: Heather Huie for Apollo Fields
New York Engagement Location: Central Park
