News Years Eve Wedding in Nashville at the Union Station Hotel
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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.
Jackson Lake Lodge Wedding Photos at Grand Teton National Park
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Ross & MIchelle’s Wedding
Flying back from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I look over to see Capa pulling at Heather’s mask as she nurses him. When the mask snaps back it hits Heather in the face and she playfully whips her head back against the seat. Capa laughs. It’s his fourth flight in eight months and he’s been a doll through three of them: Falls asleep at takeoff, naps for two hours, then wakes up playing and trying to make friends. The one he struggled through we were taxi-ing for over an hour and a half. You learn to take the good times with the bad when you have a baby, and with Capa there’s been plenty more of the former.
We first met Ross and Michelle at Six Harbors Brewing Company in Huntington on Long Island. Heather was filling in for a bartender and I came in to keep her company with one of our favorite board games, Azul. Ross and Michelle sat right next to us and laughed at the way Heather and I talked smack to each other. We quickly invited them to play with us and we wound up laughing all night and closing the brewery down together.
Ross and Michelle are the kind of people you want to go on vacation with. They always bring a bunch of energy, love to goof around, and don’t take things too seriously. They know how to keep it loose while putting things in motion and they never lose sight of the big picture. When Heather and I met Ross and Michelle they weren’t sure what kind of wedding they wanted—actually—they weren’t even engaged yet. But once we told them about one of our couples eloping in Grand Teton National Park, their eyes lit up. “Now that’s something I can imagine us doing, Michelley” Ross said.
Ross and Michelle wound up holding an intimate wedding in Grand Teton National Park at the Jackson Lake Lodge. The morning of the wedding, Heather, Capa, Ross, Michelle and I piled into our rental car at sunrise and we headed for a few overlooks off the main road. Unfortunately, smoke from forest fires to the west clouded the atmosphere, hiding most of the national park’s dramatic peaks. We adjusted on the fly and hoped for a clearer afternoon.
The haze hung in the air through Ross and Michelle’s ceremony but we came up with a game plan to get them a view of the mountains. Once again we all piled into the car to head for Jenny Lake. Windows down, we blasted the radio as the mountains grew closer and closer. We all whooped and hollered as we climbed out of the car to get the shots that we all came here for. We then took Ross and Michelle to a secluded field to share their vows in private.
As we made our way back to their wedding at Jackson Lake Lodge, we all couldn’t believe that our connection came from a game of Azul. To share such a special time together in a place so far away from our homes. We were all riding high, enjoying an adventure with friends who decided to create a good time when the bad tried to cloud the experience. If Ross and Michelle’s wedding was any indication, there there will plenty more of the former rather than the latter. After all, another adventure awaits.
Enjoy these photos from Ross & Michelle’s Grand Teton microwedding:
Vendors
Photography | Apollo Fields
Venue | Jackson Lake Lodge | Moran, WY