The View at Battery Park Wedding Photos

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Ron and Sunil’s Wedding

Jackhammers and barricades, scaffolding, and steam rising from manholes in the middle of the street. A group of men standing around with cigarettes in their mouths with varying degrees of five-o-clock shadows. Construction in New York City is as infamous as the L-train to Brooklyn and traffic on the Cross Bronx. The worst part about all of the construction is that after the crew packs up the project they were seemingly working on for years, nothing looks different at all. That being said, when Heather, Capa, and I stepped into the Oculus for the first time I was completely blown away. Somewhere between a spaceship from Star Trek and a modern shopping mall, the pristinely white subway station hub is truly a sight to behold.

Heather and I photographed Ron and Sunil’s intimate wedding ceremony in Riverside Park last August. Their story got picked up and published in the New York Times and it was one of the many fond memories we have from a year mired in stress and toil. I’ve known Ron since he was a regular at my first bartending gig in New York City many years ago, but it has been an absolute pleasure to get to know Sunil over the last year and change. Ron and Sunil’s love is light but rich, jovial and sincere. I love the way they laugh together.

Ron and Sunil, like many couples who got married in 2020, had to change their plans on the fly. Tragically, the place where they got engaged, the Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village burned down last year. They also had to change the location of their reception and wound up making an amazing choice to hold it at The View at Battery Park in downtown Manhattan. With a view of the Statue of Liberty, Ron and Sunil’s guests enjoyed a celebration that began with a renewal of their vows, and a beautiful traditional Indian dance to honor Sunil’s heritage.

Time and time again we have seen our couples adapt to the circumstances of the last year and wind up hosting a wedding for the ages. With an equal dose of anticipation and a huge exhale of relief, we watched Ron and Sunil do the same. The pandemic has forced us to not take anything for granted, including the ways we celebrate marriage. The 2020-2021 wedding season has not been easy on the wedding vendors either but it still stands as possibly the best year of my life. From a healthy pregnancy, to Heather giving birth, to us toting Capa around to 11 states (and counting) I don’t know what else we could’ve done to make this year any better!

Through all the adversity we push forward to build a better future. I can’t wait to tell Capa of all the adventures he experienced when light was first striking his retinas. To remind him of all the people he smiled at and the places he’s already danced. Our lives, like New York City, are in a constant state of construction, but with any luck, we will come out looking as clean and beautiful as the Oculus, or as light and rich as Ron and Sunil’s relationship.

Enjoy these photos from Sunil & Ron’s Wedding in NYC:

Vendors:

Photography | Apollo Fields
Reception | The View at Battery Park | New York City, NY
Cake | Cakes by Lulu
Floral | International Garden
Suit | The Black Tux

Top of the Rock NYC Engagement Session

Top of the Rock Engagement photos | nyc wedding photographer | New York City Photographers | Central Park Wedding Photography | bethesda fountain engagement | dog engagement photos New York | Apollo Fields

A good barometer for how New York is doing is to take a walk in Central Park by Bethesda Fountain. It’s usually swarmed with performers, musicians, photographers and tourists. At a wedding we did this summer we almost had the entire space to ourselves. But when we met up with Kryzia and Celestino in September for their engagement photos in NYC: the bubbles were out, musical notes floated in the air, and the shutters were clicking. It was then that we knew that New York wasn't going anywhere.

Kryzia and Celestino are a couple of born-and-bred New Yorkers. They actually live just a few blocks from where Heather used to live in Harlem. As soon as we met up with them on that beautiful fall day we could tell how kind and genuine both Kryzia and Celestino were. With the help of their adorably well-behaved Siberian Husky, Blizzard, and Celestino’s brother and his girlfriend, we broke the early jitters of doing engagement photos in such a highly trafficked place. 

From there we walked south through the park, stopping to take photos in some locations you would never believe were taken in New York City. I loved Kryzia’s choice to don a leather jacket, perfectly complimenting her gentle appearance with an edge you could tell was there. Celestino’s modern outfit exuded the calm confidence that he carried himself with--self-assured and humble. Together they glowed in the brightness of the fall day, sharing stories of how they met and how their relationship has evolved over the years.

We concluded our shoot at another iconic New York landmark: the Top of the Rock AKA the observation deck at the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Even though it’s commonplace to hate on tourist attractions, I actually will go out on a limb and defend this one. The view of Central Park to the north, the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, and the rest of downtown Manhattan to the south--combined with the eerie silence of the breeze 70 floors up--provides the perfect amount of space to reflect on the beautiful beast that New York City is. Celestino and Kryzia danced amidst the skyscrapers and had a great time doing it! I was also blown away by the photos we took inside in the all white marble setting and the absolutely stunning juxtaposition with their bold outfit choices.

Kryzia and Celestino will be getting married in Miami in 2021 but showed us how true New Yorkers are living in 2020. People may be fleeing from the concrete jungle, but the resilience and kindness of the people that remain show the city’s true colors. New York has always been a mosaic of humanity, celebrating communities of all kinds in all shapes and sizes--it’ll take more than a pandemic to change that. I’m grateful that Kryzia and Celestino reminded us of that while also disproving the misconception that New Yorkers are rough around the edges (we’re only mean if you’re blocking the subway or standing on the left of the escalator). So whether you’re from New York, Florida, or anywhere in the world—if you didn’t know, now you know—New York isn’t going anywhere.