Garden Wedding in The Hamptons at Madoo Conservatory
Madoo Wedding Photography | Intimate Garden Wedding in The Hamptons | East Hampton, NY Wedding Photography | Dinner Party Style Wedding at Madoo Conservatory
Fernando + Michael
I’ll take an intimate garden wedding with a fancy dinner party ANY DAY over a big, ultra-traditional catering hall wedding. Really— if I can go a whole day without hearing the words “ballroom” or “banquet”, I’m a happy camper.
I get so inspired by couples who think outside the box and curate a day that truly represents them, their values, and their relationship. It’s honestly what keeps the art fresh for me, and keeps me feeling optimistic about not just my work, but society in general.
Fernando and Michael filled their wedding day with things that would really bring them joy: a lush garden setting filled with flowers and art and nature, their closest friends and family, and beautiful shared meal with drinks and rich conversation. They chose Madoo Conservatory in Sagaponack, NY as their venue which is close to their home in East Hampton, and as they walked the property with their guests, you could feel their innate connection to the people and environment around them.
The day began with a walk around the grounds to pick the flowers that they would use to decorate their own wedding cake. Now, a lot of the time when couples tell me that they are DIY-ing something like that, I get skeptical. A lot of things are better left to the pros, but let me tell you, I was blown away by this one! Fernando and Rita had a vision, one inspiration picture, and just the right amount of artistry to pull off a cake that was more like a piece of artwork than a dessert!
Their ceremony soon began, and with a live musical performance, Michael and Fernando arrived in the garden where their guests were already arranged among the fabulous yellow chairs. They were officiated by the mayor of Southampton, Jesse Warren, and exchanged their vows with their friends and family surrounding them. A beautiful cocktail hour followed, which was full of celebration and good drinks, and then sun began to fade into the horizon just in time for a beautiful golden hour.
As night approached, guests sat for a wonderful meal hosted by Janet and her talented team at Janet O’Brien Caterers. Toasts and speeches were given, cake was cut, and the wine flowed the whole evening. A spectacular way to spend the day in my opinion!
Vendors:
Reception Venue: Madoo
Party Planner / Day-Of Coordinator: Janet O'Brien
Officiant : Mayor of South Hampton: Jesse Warren
Florist: Flowers by Beth
DJ / Band : Peter Watrous (jazz band trio)
Decor / Party Rentals : Bermuda Rentals
Rings : Tiffany & Co
Invitations and Save The Dates: Calligrapher Margaret Neiman Harber
Huie, Party of Four!
Apollo Fields | Best Wedding Photos | Long Island Wedding Photographers | New York Wedding Photographers
It’s official!
Heather is pregnant with our second child due November 2022!
The baby and Capa will be just under two years apart. We are so happy to have them so close in age!
It makes me think of all the times that my little brother, Matt, and I spent playing whiffle ball in the backyard.
The nights we spent laying awake in our beds, chatting about nothing, while playing Pokemon on our Gameboys after lights out. There is such a special bond between siblings, one that I’ve grown to embrace with each of my other four over the last few years. The bond has something to do with similar circumstances on how we were raised: we went to the same schools, knew the same families, ate the same meals, and followed the same rules. Despite becoming very different people in our adult lives, we had the same base line of who we were when we were kids. So when I think of the relationship that Capa will have with his little sibling–I can’t help but get very, very excited.
At the same time I can’t shake the most likely common feeling of a parent expecting their second child–how am I going to love you as much as I love the first?
There is such a romantic unknown to doing anything for the first time–and that’s especially true when raising your first child in those first 12-18 months. For me the emotion came in little moments like in the middle of the night, when I was beyond exhausted, and attempting to rock Capa back to sleep. I’d look down at his wrinkly, pudgy face, eyes closing and opening in gentle flutters, when a realization of amazement would wash over me. You are my son. Your mother and I brought you into this world. And the fatigue would give way to a deep, deep appreciation.
And of course I will have that for our second child; but my experience as a middle child who got lost in the mix has me on high alert.
All the times I wished my dad was outside with me, helping me with my jump shot in those last minutes of daylight. Or when I was left to fend for myself when it came to self-confidence, dating, and getting started on a career track. I’ve learned to appreciate that there is an intrinsic value to finding your own way, but I want to make sure that I love and care for Capa’s little sibling as much as I care for him.
This announcement is as much a celebration as it is a reminder to hold myself accountable. To give the love and care that I shower Capa with, the love and care that I wish I had, to the eventual 4th member of our family.
I love you already, bud.
– Terrence
Eight Years Ago Today I Started My Degree At Columbia University
Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers | Long Island Photographer | Columbia University NYC | Destination Weddings | Heather Huie
Eight years ago today I started my degree at Columbia University.
I’d like to say that this was a decision that really launched my career, took my art to a new level, and set me apart from the competition– but I’d be lying. In fact, my shiny advanced ivy level education was remarkably… unremarkable.
Let’s back it up a bit here. The year was 2014 and I was two years out of my bachelors that I had completed at TCNJ. My undergrad experience was one that challenged me, kept me in the library until the lights were turned off, left me in the studio so late sometimes that the only other person in the building would be the security guard as he trailed back and forth through the hallways on his graveyard shifts. There I’d be in an otherwise dark corridor, typing away, illuminated by only the light on my laptop and his flashlight, and without saying a word he would just nod his hat in my direction, or occasionally throw me a peace sign.
Things look a lot different now
My professors had expected a lot out of me, and I happily rose to the occasion.
When I graduated magna cum laude, I felt at once a sense of pride as well as a strange solitude. Even a little disappointment, if we’re being honest… I had spent so much time reaching for perfect GPAs there that I had failed to make time for developing many true friendships. While others were fratting away with their Theta Beta Bimbos, I saw no appeal in rallies and rumbles. I felt, in many ways, that I had gotten all of that buddy buddy brethren out in boarding school, and it was time to focus on my academics. So I did.
Nevertheless, I still felt like I had something more to say (prove?) in the world of academia so two years later I threw an application at Columbia and was delighted to be accepted into their Masters program. I had always lived near the city but never in the city, and was ready to push myself again the way I had at TCNJ. Except more, naturally, because it was a more advanced degree at a more advanced school. Right? Not exactly.
On my first day, one of my professors who was old as dirt laid out a bunch of books on the table before us. She told us to thumb through them, so we did. She then informed us that these were all of her books she authored, and when we had as many publications as she did, then we were allowed to have an opinion in her class. Super, I thought, what a bitch. But of course, she had been tenured for twenty years which in her case meant that she was hungry for nothing more than a paycheck and her position was unflappable.
This was, I would come to find out, part of the problem with these celebritized professors. Either their egos had gotten so large that they were unwilling to engage in any sort of debate or rhetoric with us lowly students, or they had simply grown tired. How long can one teach the same material with believable fortitude? I don’t know. But I do know that all it took was a simple, “May I have an extension please?” to be granted one and absence meant almost nothing in terms of your grade at the end of the semester.
Hell, I decided about ten minutes into a welding class that I was terrified of welding, and flat out did not turn in a metalwork sculpture. It was one out of the three final projects we would be graded on that whole term, and I still received an A-. Trust me, my woodworking skills were not refined enough to carry me to the finish line, and I interpreted that grade as proof that I was paying for my degree, not my education.
So it has been eight years since I embarked on my ivy league journey.
Six since I graduated.
It will probably be another sixty before I’m done paying it off, and if we’re being honest, I’m not sure anyone really cares. My paycheck didn’t automatically inflate itself once my diploma was placed in my hand, and nobody came rushing to my side with job offers. I did, however, receive a bottle of Veuve from the University, which I promptly drank straight from the bottle in my light blue cap and gown walking down Broadway. That part didn’t suck…
I still believe in school and I realize that I have been very, very privileged along the way. Scholarships and fellowships and grants have given me my proverbial wings, just as student loans have given me my proverbial shackles. To that I say fuck you Sally Mae, and all your boomer comrades who told us to stay in school even though they only made it through the twelvth grade. Yeah, I’m looking at you mom and dad, because you might not remember when I was seventeen and you guys enthusiastically pushed student loans at me with the empty promise that I would graduate with a six figure job right on the other side, but I sure do.
I’m not bitter anymore (I mean, don’t ask my therapist) but I would like to end this on a positive note. My undergrad taught me that you can work yourself to death and still miss the mark on perfection – that perfect 4.0 – and you might not even have many friends to show for it in the end. But I had a great education there. I had phenomenal professors who actually gave a rat's ass about our opinions and expanding our minds. My masters taught me that sometimes you have to pay to play, and that when you’re spending $50k a year, you actually can just walk up to your teacher and say you want an extension. But freedom ain’t free, so be prepared to pony up when they come a’knockin’, and they always do.
Fast forward to 2021
New England Autumn Engagement Session
New England Autumn Engagement Session | Connecticut Foliage Engagement Photography | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers
Jacki & Tim
Timing the New England foliage is never a perfect science– anyone who has tried to chase the leaves knows that all it takes is one nasty frost or snowfall and the whole landscape can get nipped overnight. So trying to schedule engagement sessions around the leaves during busy season can be especially tricky. However, with Jacki and Tim’s session, I think we nailed it (part luck, part good timing— true for most good things in life right?)
We met up in Washington CT (fun fact, the same town that “Stars Hollow” was based on in Gilmore Girls) on a beautiful Sunday and thought that this cozy, quiet little town would be all ours. We were in for a bit of a shock when we realized that the leaf peepers had taken over and pretty much every restaurant was booked except for one, which boasted a whole lot of motorcycles out front and a pretty good burger. We had a great lunch and caught up about all things wedding planning, quarantine life, and of course horses.
The horse world happens to be the common denominator between Jacki and I. Many of you guys might know how much of a role riding has played in my life (I have been riding since I started walking) and I actually went to boarding school in CT for four years to compete on the riding circuit. Jacki and I know each other from that past life, and we both are lucky to still be riding and own our own horses. So naturally, it only took us about five minutes to start chatting about that world and her sweet fiancé, Tim, was happy to let us go on and on about horses.
Terrence has less of a bandwidth for the pony-talk and certainly does not want to spend his weekends at the shows, so Tim got major brownie points from me for being such an enthusiastic horse-hubby! After lunch we went over to Hidden Valley Preserve to shoot and got so lucky to have an amazing golden hour against the beautiful New England foliage!
Enjoy Tim & Jacki’s beautiful autumn engagement photos:
Location: Hidden Valley Preserve, Washington Depot CT
Photography: Apollo Fields
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.
Will I Still Be Grinding When I Turn 68?
Will I Still Be Grinding When I Turn 68? | Reflections on Retirement and Planning For Your Happiness | Apollo Fields
As I was picking up some lunch before shooting a wedding, the woman at the register asked a regular customer how everything has been since he wasn’t in the restaurant for about a week or so. He replied with a generic, “oh good”, then paused, “okay, I guess. I mean, things could be better”.
She was an older woman and unabashedly asked him, “How old are you?”
He goes, “Sixty eight. I’m getting old”.
She sort of snickered, “Sixty eight isn’t old… These are the best days of your life. The hard work is over. You can be retired and enjoy your life now”.
The man looks back, “I am retired. But not the way I want to be. Things didn’t really work out the way I thought”. Some silence continues before he tries to turn it into a joke again, “The only people who think I am young now— no offense— are old women”.
They laughed. She handed over his change, and he left.
It was a short conversation between two almost-strangers, acquaintances at best. But so much was said between the melancholy sadness and authentic laughter. The surface level lesson here is perspective: the “older” woman is envious of the “younger” man, although he no longer views himself as young.
On the deeper level, you have a man who is experiencing some sort of disappointment in a life that he views is past his peak. Things didn’t really work out the way I thought.
Damn dude.
I was a silent observer in this interaction, but couldn’t help wonder what their lives must be like. Could this be me someday? I’ve been thinking about retirement a lot from a practical, financial perspective but have spent less time planning for my own happiness. I sort of wove it into my career path and tend to consider it a given; given that things work out.
But what if they don’t? Nobody plans on being a callous surly crank by 68, right, we all envision ourselves on an Adirondack chair on the front porch of their house watching the sun set, holding hands with their spouse, surrounded by dogs. Lots and lots of dogs… (Or is that just me?)
Here it goes: THINGS MIGHT NOT WORK OUT. Or at least, they might not look the way they we originally envisioned. There’s a good chance that at 68, I’ll be grinding just as hard as I am now, cleaning up horse shit after dark, behind on emails, and beating myself up for not being good enough at something. I might never shake some of my own demons, and that’s okay.
Our culture is moving away from the retirement lifestyle that many of our baby booming predecessors are currently enjoying. We’re not going straight into the work force from high school and college is no longer a luxury, but an expensive prerequisite to a minimum wage job. We’re not buying houses at 23 years old and we’re not having 2.5 kids by 30. It’s just not happening.
We are paying student loans and we are negotiating multiple careers. A lot of people—like myself—are saying ‘no’ to the 9-5 commuter life in search of something that feels more sustainable, and ideally, has more meaning to us. If this “works out” for me, it will hopefully ensure some sort of happiness and sustainability that will be more fulfilling than my IRA alone and maybe keep me from bitching about my old haunts to a cashier at my lunch joint. Fingers crossed.
Photography: Apollo Fields
Location: Long Beach, NY
Theme of 2019: Bet on Yourself
Apollo Fields’ Theme of 2019: Bet on Yourself.
Sometimes you lose (see above). Sometimes you win (see above). For the last five years Heather and I have been making silly bets like the loser has to take Riddle out to pee while blindfolded, and meaningful bets like starting a business together. We have taken some losses but our gains have transcended any scale that uses a bottom line. Of course, a business has to be lucrative, but we bet on who we are because we know when we connect with a couple it isn’t just a vendor relationship it is the beginning of a friendship.
Just last night Heather and I shared a meal with one of our 2020 couples, Michelle and Igor. Michelle and Igor just moved to New York as Igor received a job as the new executive chef for the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. In a meal of delicious fresh oysters, a wonderfully rich fresh cavatelli ragu, a steaming pot of mussels, a few drinks, and two scrumptious chocolate-y desserts, I still have to say the best thing about dinner was the company we found ourselves in. With a balance of silly humor, distinct professionalism, and personal stories of our respective family and friends, we laughed and talked for hours.
This type of night was the norm for 2019. From when we photographed Rob & Lizzie’s performance-based wedding in the woods of Cazenovia, NY, to Emily & Augie’s intimate and classy backyard wedding in Cape Cod, MA, we didn’t seem to have a night where we weren’t genuinely emotionally invested in the people who surrounded us. We hosted another 20-friend Friendsgiving dinner in our home and accumulated another guest-book rolling-pin to memorialize the friendships in the room that night. Cultivating friendships is difficult but when you realize that they are the things we turn to in times of loss and of levity their worth becomes much more apparent.
We are lucky to run a business where our ideal client is also our ideal friend. Hard-working people who love to feel almost as much as they love to be themselves. The kind of people who pretend a wooden spoon is a microphone and sing into it like “the piano sounds like a carnival, and the microphone smells like a beer!” The kind of people who look you in the eye and hold a hug just a second or two longer. The kind of people who create their lives rather than let it consume them. The kind of people who bet on themselves.
We have taken our lumps this year, coming off the tragic ending of 2018, but Heather and I married one another because we will always bet on one another as individuals. We know how quickly things can turn for the worse but by hedging our bets with one another our losses will never be that great. If 2019 is any indication for the future, our gains will be less volatile and more rewarding for years to come.
Here’s to you you fine friends and fellow feelers: Here’s to the tears we shed and the hugs we hold on to. Here’s to those we lost and the future we’re creating. Here’s to betting on yourself and living with love in your heart.
Happy New Year,
Terrence & Heather
The Apollo Fields Fam
Some of our favorite 2019 venues we worked at:
The Evergreen Lake House | Evergreen CO
Granite Ridge Barn and Estate | Norway ME
Wedgewood Boulder Creek | Boulder CO
The Art Factory | Paterson NY
Top of the Rock | NYC
Normandy Farm | Blue Bell PA
Six Harbors Brewery | Huntington NY
620 Loft and Garden | NYC
Perona Farms | Anderson NJ
The Box House Hotel | Brooklyn NY
The Art Factory Wedding Photographers
Kelli & JP’s Wedding | Dawn of the Dead Themed Wedding | The Art Factory Venue | Paterson, NJ Weddings | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers
We typically like to meet our couples before their wedding to strategize day-of timelines. This meeting allows us to prioritize shot lists, identify venue logistics, and gives us an opportunity to get to know each other better over a beer. Yet a couple weeks ago because of scheduling difficulties, we defied this practice for Kelli and John Paul’s wedding at The Art Factory in Paterson, NJ. Despite the beautiful “industrial chic” labyrinth that is The Art Factory, the playfully enigmatic couple of Kelli and John Paul showed us that spontaneity really is the spice of life.
For those unfamiliar with The Art Factory, it is a 170-year-old group of warehouse-like buildings sitting on 5 acres in the crime-ridden city of Paterson, NJ. There are 21 multi-use buildings that contain 280,000 square feet that currently function as local artisan shops, photo and video studios, office space, and a wedding venue. It is Brooklyn caught between the gun-toting era of Biggie and mustache-wax-wielding hipster. The one-of-a-kind space offers a canvas for any creative mind and any creative vision. Get in before the first Whole Foods opens around the corner.
Kelli and John Paul’s aesthetic spun the Art Factory’s labyrinth of studios and corridors into a mixture of dark moodiness and playful light. Upon every warehouse window sill or broken brick wall sat a framed picture or memento of their relationship. Edison lights lit the path to the next room or memory. Kelli wore white while her bridesmaids donned black dresses with red roses. John Paul wore a custom-made old fashioned tux with long, rounded flaps, while his groomsmen boasted a classic look with red bow ties. The entire space felt uniquely them, as the bright colors of their attire and tattoos on their skin blended with the darkness and burst in the light.
The ceremony took place in a wide open room with high ceilings, brick walls, and white curtains. Exposed steel beams gave the space an industrial feel, but the wooden pews and handmade aspen tree altar rooted Kelli and John Paul’s marriage right back to earth. They welcomed many words from close friends and symbolized the union of their families as their respective mothers lit a single flame. Their guests laughed at unsuspected analogies for love and teared up during the vows. In a large room with tons of space, eyes were fixed upon the love that filled the air.
With all of the options what a wedding could be, I never imagined a couple walking into their reception to blaring heavy metal and sparklers. I never would’ve guessed that the groom’s garter belt dance would be modeled off this scene in Reservoir Dogs. I never pictured a realistic interpretation of two hearts resting upon the top of an immaculate cake instead of the plastic cookie-cutter bride-and-groom. There were so many aspects about Kelli and John Paul’s wedding that I didn’t expect and would’ve loved to plan for—but perhaps the lesson here—is that no amount of time or planning could’ve prepared me for the wedding I was lucky to experience.
Enjoy the pics from Kelli & JP’s Wedding:
Vendors:
Photography | Apollo Fields
Venue | The Art Factory, Paterson NJ
Reception Band | The Randy Haze Trio
Cocktail Band | Shawn and Big Al
DJ | Tony Saxon MC
Cake | Meredith Robinson
All Masked Up!
It’s us having a blast at Kelli & JP’s themed wedding.
Autumn Engagement Photos on Long Island
Kristen & Mike’s Engagement Photos on Long Island | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers in New York | Blydenburgh park | Smithtown, NY
“Now kick your heel out behind you,” Heather said to Kristen and Mike as they posed for their engagement photos on Long Island. Never in Apollo Fields history have we seen a man in Timberlands lift his heel off the ground instead of the woman—but Mike made AF history that day. A funny miscommunication turned candid moment, the rest of Mike and Kristen’s engagement session in Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown was a literal walk in the woods.
Kristen and Mike’s engagement session began at the beginning of a path adjacent to an outdoor horse ring and historical building, which couldn’t have been more perfect. It’s too bad that our horse, Limbo, is a diva who doesn’t do trail rides, because the serene scenery was something out of an impressionist painting. As we made our way down to the path to Stump Pond, we passed a quirky, pink dollhouse-like old home down by the water that Kristen and Mike (more likely just Kristen) wanted to snap a few pictures in front of. The fall patterns of their wardrobe choices perfectly complemented the palate of the leaves, especially contrasting nicely with the eccentric muted pink of the house.
As we moved further down the path, Heather and I were surprised with the number of fisherman posted up along the shore. They reminded us of a story from Heather’s childhood, where her animal-loving aunt Pam, freed all of her family’s bait worms on a fishing trip while they weren’t looking. Mike’s family is a big fishing family so he got a good kick out of the night crawler jailbreak. He was also very familiar with the park as his family home is just on the other side of the pond. We finished their engagement photos on a dock as the sun set behind the trees; and we even got a few shots with Mike and his favorite fishing rod.
It’s very refreshing to be shown new places in the area that you grew up. I’ve lived on Long Island for over twenty years of my life and I had never been to Stump Pond or Blydenburgh Park before. Yet because of Kristen and Mike, we now have a new place to escape stress and stroll in serenity. It made me realize that part of the fun of running a wedding photography business is being invited into places where our couples have significant memories or moments. It’s a wonderfully romantic image to imagine little Mike on the same dock with his father, learning how to fish on a starter pole. If you’re reading this and planning an engagement session of your own, take Kristen and Mike’s lead and pick a place that is not only beautiful but also makes you feel comfortable or means something to you. It will be impossible to hide your happiness.
Kind of like it was impossible not to laugh when Mike lifted his heel off the ground. Who knows, he might even be starting a wedding photo trend in this 21st century world that we live in. All I know is that I’m just happy to have shared that walk in the woods. Cheers to you, Kristen and Mike!
Enjoy Kristen & Mike’s Engagement Pics:
Photography: Apollo Fields
Great Falls Washington DC Engagement Photography
Allison & Jamie’s Engagement photos in Washington DC | Washington DC Engagements | Great Falls Potomac River | H Street Corridor | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
You know how the Best Man and Maid of Honor are supposed to hook up at a wedding? Well, that’s sort of the case with Allison and Jamie— except there was a couple of years before they actually got together! It’s hard to believe that in 2016, we were all up in Quebec for Jen & Jon’s wedding where Allison and Jamie stood up at the altar as the wedding party. Fast forward a couple of years and now they are planning their OWN wedding for June 20, 2020!
We’ve been lucky to get to know them as friends since then and I cannot wait to shoot their Brooklyn wedding at St. John St. Matthew Emmanuel Lutheran Church next year. This church also has a special meaning for them, as it is where they officially met as witnesses for Jen and Jon’s US Marriage certificate signing and is where Allison has been a member for many years since she lives close by in Park Slope. It was fitting then that Jamie asked Allison to marry him at this church and proposed with a custom ring made from two separate family rings (one from each side of their families).
They are both sentimental people who really value their family, friends, and faith but also love to explore and adventure together. Allison and Jamie have been killing the long distance relationship game, alternating weekends between NYC and DC, so it only seemed fitting to do their engagement photos down by Jamie to really round off the story of their relationship.
We started the day down in the H Street Corridor which is an energetic and artsy part of the city. I wanted to shoot in places that felt more local and less touristy, so this was the perfect urban start to the day. We detoured for a quick happy hour drink and then went to the Great Falls for a short hike. We got super lucky with the foliage and weather and were able to get some great shots down by the water. Jamie and Allison even climbed up to the top of the falls which looked way easier from the bottom (AKA where I was standing) but they were champs and it made for some epic pics! We closed out our afternoon in the theater at the school where Jamie works for a few pics that show their theater-y side.
Enjoy these photos from Allison & Jamie’s DC Engagement:
Photography: Apollo Fields
We love to travel for shoots!
We don’t just travel for weddings! We love exploring new places and cities for engagements, too.
Sapphire Point Engagement Photos in Colorado
Matt and Julie’s Sapphire Point Engagement Session | Dillon, Colorado Engagements | Lake Dillon Photography | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers
I’ve never described a view as “sticky” before, but that’s the word that came to mind after we wrapped Matt and Julie’s engagement session at Sapphire Point in Dillon, CO. It was like the feeling I got as a kid when it began to get dark and there was just one inning left in our wiffle ball game. “Just one more inning, mom!” It’s this feeling that this moment is all that exists and to leave it would be to deny yourself an experience that you will never get back. Call it juvenile or dramatic but I think 12-year-old me and 31-year-old me might be on to something.
Our first meeting with Matt and Julie happened in one of our favorite places—a brewery. Oasis Brewing Company in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver, CO, is a multi-level, exposed-brick venue with rustic wooden tables and industrial steel beams to anchor the open, charming space (I actually helped re-open it in March 2018). Once we grabbed a beer we all took a seat at one of the banquet tables along the wall and chatted about Matt and Julie’s wedding in Littleton, CO, in May 2020. The conversation mimicked the space in which we spoke: laid-back, organized, and youthful yet sophisticated.
Matt (a lawyer) and Julie (a teacher) represent the kind of couples that we are grateful to attract and meet. Matt and Julie know what they want, aren’t afraid to ask questions, and their communication is a wonderful mix of professional, candid, and casual. These conversational cornerstones allows us to navigate the complexity of wedding photography, i.e. “what do we get?” or “what are we paying for?”, with ease. Instead of bogging down the meeting in the details, we candidly ask what they are looking for in wedding photography as we all casually take a sip of our beer. This way, we can deliver a customized package based on their priorities rather than trying to sell them products or services they’re not interested in. Of course, we don’t expect every one of our couples to know what they want like Matt and Julie, but it’s definitely something we’re grateful for when it comes down to the brass tacks of wedding photography (totally thought it was “brass tax” until I Googled it).
Fast forward a few months and we’re meeting Matt and Julie at Matt’s family home in Dillon for their engagement shoot. We were welcomed by his mother and father, two dogs, and a brilliantly blue Colorado sky quickly approaching our coveted golden hour. We began by taking a stroll down by the cliffs of their home for a more casual start before we made our way up to the photographer-and-chipmunk occupied Sapphire Point (seriously, there were adorable little chipmunks scampering everywhere). Luckily, we came on a Sunday night when it wasn’t that busy, we don’t even want to imagine the amount of hikers we would have photoshop out of a picture on a Saturday afternoon.
The love was real, the mood was romantic, and the view was...sticky. Everything about Matt and Julie’s engagement session made my eyes and heart want to stay but it was starting to get dark. It was an experience I may never to get to live again exactly, but perhaps that’s the best way to appreciate a moment. To allow your desires to remain a bit unsatiated, to walk up the hiking path away from the view so that your mind clings to its pristine image in all its glory. I can still see that sunset when I close my eyes, and even though I won’t know how that wiffle ball game was supposed to end, maybe I’m not supposed to.
Enjoy Julie & Matt’s Engagement Photos:
As seen in: Couture Colorado Magazine
Breweries and happy couples… these are a few of our favorite things…
Hanging with Matt and Julie after their Sapphire Point engagement photos! What better place to connect than over a craft beer! If that makes us hipsters then you should expect handlebar mustaches on both of us shortly!
Small Business Owner Tips Wedding Photography
Running A Business With Your Significant-Other | Husband and Wife Photographers | Destination Weddings Lifestyle Blog | Apollo Fields
I woke to the sound of a sweeping rain over Montauk Lake, spraying the French doors of our friend’s guest bedroom like the ocean smashing against a cluster of coastal rocks. White caps shifted about the marina like tiny crowns of the sea as the wind buoyed the boats with a sort of smooth violence. Emerging from beneath the clean and warm white sheets of the bed posed a difficult task as Heather and I have been traveling up and down the eastern seaboard the past few days, but such is the hustle of the life of wedding photographers.
Since this past Friday, Heather and I have spent over 20 hours in the car together. As much as I love her, anyone who’s traveled that much with their significant other can imagine the frustrations that might arise. Now imagine that your significant other is also your business partner. Those 20 hours now sound like they could be that much more tense—and they absolutely can be. Yet as tired and frustrated as I have been (and still am) I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The sounds in our car during a road trip vary from Kendrick to talk radio, from laughter to earnestness, and business to barking dogs. The mood shifts from conversation-to-conversation, state-to-state, and from day to night. Long road trips with a significant other are common litmus tests to see if the relationship is the real deal; but a long road trip for a professional and romantic partnership is an endless loop of perfecting the way you communicate. Heather and I’s flare-ups range from disagreeing on something as trivial as choosing where to eat or when to stop, and something as serious as our next big business move. But the most important thing is to keep the conversation going.
Ironically, sometimes the best way to do that is to embrace a silence. So often we are quick to fill a void in time with mindless chatter, a podcast, or background tunes and we forget that our seemingly restless minds just wants us and our senses to shut the fuck up. Silence can be a great teacher, and giving the space for the tensions of our relationships to dissipate into the air can prove to be much more productive than spewing whatever our egos or inner selves are dying to say. Sometimes in a disagreement—no one person is right—and sometimes you both are. Taking the time to share a few moments of silence together has helped us more times than I can count.
This morning was one of those mornings when you wake up after you’ve traveled so much that you forget where you are. The constant waves of rain gently splashing against the doors gave me a sense of ease amidst the chaos, reminding me that there’s always beauty to be found in any given situation. Sometimes we don’t realize how fast we’re moving until we stop for a moment to look at how far we’ve come; then after we wipe the sweat from our brow, rest a little, and take a deep breath, we can go back to bouncing up and down in the tide, moving naturally with the wind through time with a sort of smooth violence.
– Terrence
Hudson Valley NY Family Photographers
The Davin’s Family Photos | Blauvelt, NY Portraits | Piermont New York Photography | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographer
I had such a great time revisiting one of my favorite couples of 2016 to do their family photos this weekend in Blauvelt, NY! It has been over three years since they’ve been on the other side of my camera and it was so much reconnecting and catching up with this fun and dynamic family! I shot their wedding in Blauvelt, NY which is where Alex grew up. Rae is a dancer from Norway and they met on the basketball court, which is one of Alex’s passions as he used to be a pro basketball player. They own and run AD3 Fitness in NYC and are a total power couple.
They are also one of the sweetest — and obviously gorgeous — couples! They have two daughters, Denise and Jackie, who are both so outgoing and fun to be around. It is definitely a house full of strong women which I obviously love, and Alex is just so in love with his family that it is great to shoot! We met up at their house in Blauvelt and Jackie was just finishing up her nap. She was so sweet when Denise woke her up to do pics because she was obviously still half asleep, but the minute we got to Piermont in the park she immediately livened up!
The girls had a great time running around and playing with the snow, and it was quickly Jackie’s favorite thing to do. She would get quickly distracted (the woes of being 2!) so we eventually realized that the best way to get her attention, get her to hold still, and smile for a pic was to have big sis Denise pretend to fall! Something about that just made Jackie crack up and became our secret weapon. Luckily, Denise was a great spot and was totally game to keep pretend falling to get a reaction out of her little sister.
Denise is also full of beauty and attitude. I was telling Rae that I’ve never photographed a 13 year old kiddo who knows their angles better and can work a camera more. I remember her bringing the same energy at their wedding when she wasn’t even 10 yet, so it’s no surprise that she’s growing up to be such a confident and photogenic young lady.
I had a great time shooting this fun, athletic, and energetic family in NY this weekend and I can’t wait to do it again soon!
Photography: Heather Huie for Apollo Fields
Location: Piermont, NY
Jamaica Honeymoon - Day 6
Apollo Fields Photojournalism | Wedding Writer | Jamaica Honeymoon | Destination Wedding Photographer | Farm Wedding Photographer | Wedding Blog
Final Day in Jamaica – Pam’s Birthday
Mid-flight en route back to New Jersey – Wednesday, November 7th, 2018
When I opened my eyes on the last full day of our honeymoon in Jamaica, the pale blue sky peered over the balcony and climbed into our four post bed into the space between dreaming and reality. Light and ethereal, each blink revealed a bit more of the world I’ve come to love, inviting me to ease down the floating wooden staircase one more time. I didn’t know then, but in those fleeting moments, the lens through which I’ve viewed the world finally lined up with the way the island of Jamaica communicates to your soul.
I started the day by setting down a steaming cup of coffee on a table right outside of Pam’s room. It was her 61st birthday and I knew that that would be the first thing on her wish list. Stepping outside into the blaring sun, we gently made our way down to the volcanically-formed cliffs of Negril at Sun Down Villa, careful not to spill any of our precious liquid energy along the way. We stumbled upon Rick and Steve lounging, plucking at a ukulele as the notes drifted and eventually faded into the warm, Caribbean air. Pam and Rick decided to take a cruise on their Vespa down to the beach where their love of the island first began over thirty years ago.
Heather, Steve, and I abruptly made a move towards Just Natural Fish and Veggies, the local food joint in the bush of Westmoreland. Our first trip there, Pam had her eyes on a locally-crafted blue canvas bag with a crudely-but-beautifully painted sunset and we knew we had to get it for her. We enjoyed another meal and chatted with our favorite hosts, Theresa and Christine, as they shared unsolicited marital advice about loving one another and your children. Our favorite anecdote was Christine’s memory of when she first got married: “oh in those times, we would make love anywhere it was dark — in the bush, in our bedroom, it didn’t matter. But remember, always lock your door and wear a nightie!” Satiated in body and mind, we scooted from the richest Jamaican experience we’d had to date.
All of us eventually regathered and began our trip to various cliffside resorts. It began at the Tensing Pen, where we were met at the gate by a security guard who stared at us like we stole her lunch money back in high school. After authoritatively mumbling into a walkie-talkie, she granted us access with a stern finger wag in the general direction of the bar. Nonetheless, the resort was cozy, kind of like the Lost Boy’s huts in Peter Pan, connected to one another by rope bridges and shaded winding cobblestone paths. We originally planned to go to there to jump from one of these wooden bridges suspended over the sea, so Pam could wave her proverbial finger to the process of aging, but we were told by the security guard that we weren’t allowed to enjoy any of the amenities. After quickly slugging our round of Red Stripes, we were on to the next one.
Lucky for us, the next stop was much more accommodating. No finger-wagging security guard, no restrictions, only a large modern lobby to welcome us like something out of Forbes magazine. We normally wouldn’t expect genuine hospitality from a place as lavish as the Cliffs Resort, but two men changed it all. Trevor, who went by Johnie Walker, and Omighty, shortened to Omight, rolled out the Jamaican equivalent of red carpets. These two healthy, young, vibrant Jamaican men made drinks while they sang to their favorite tunes like they were bartenders out of the movie Cocktail, giving us free shots and asking us if we wanted to snorkel on The Cliff’s private coral reef. Nothing like any of the other resorts we visited, we felt the camaraderie that’s typically found in Irish pubs in New York City, like you can have any conversation with the person next to you (for better or worse), all while gazing out at a pink Caribbean sunset.
Our final stop on our invasion of all-inclusive resorts was a place called Xtabi. The dining patio was sprawling with empty candlelit tables and vacant chairs, making the space seem sad with lost opportunities of romance. A small cat meandered between the legs of our chairs, quietly mewing and purring with the hopes of a free meal. Pam and Rick ordered their favorite dish, lobster thermidore, which I consider a cheap (albeit expensive) favorite, because anything would be delicious smothered in butter, garlic, and cheese. Steve ordered the shrimp scampi which strangely came with rice and it made me wonder how available pasta is on the Caribbean islands. I ordered fried chicken because my ambition at trying local cuisine hit the roadblock of Americanized resort food. The best part of the meal was walking beneath the resort in the caves, listening to the waves slam against the tunneled walls, echoing their strength into our ears. I felt like I was in a scene from the Goonies.
The first couple days in our AirBnB we were a little hesitant to walk the streets as motorcyclists tore by the vendors and local restaurants with reckless pride. We wanted to engage with the real Jamaican culture, but were not sure of a proper access point for two under-informed tourists. Yet like those hummingbirds in Barney’s garden, Heather and I hovered from place to place, learning to stop and trust the people inside those brightly colored shacks one at a time. We made friends at resorts, Johnie Walker and Omight, and local spots, Theresa and Christine, learning that there are friends all around us if only we are open enough to look. Upon our initial arrival, we stayed behind the high gated walls of Sun Down Villa, but in the end, we saw that the sunrise and sunset, in all of their naturally beautiful glory, were just as welcoming as the pairs of eyes that greeted us behind all of those brightly colored doors.
Our Mala Bead Ceremony: A Non-Traditional Wedding Idea
Mala Bead Ceremony | Rehearsal Dinner Ideas | Non-Traditional Wedding Idea | Apollo Fields | Yoga Weddings
PSA to all couples who are getting married and looking for non-traditional wedding ideas: do a Mala Bead Ceremony! Originally a suggestion from a close hippie friend of ours (we love you, C!), we decided to do it for our wedding and everyone loved it! It was a heartfelt, engaging experience that was perfect for our rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding.
We first decided to do a Mala bead ceremony because neither of us were raised with any religious beliefs and we wanted to find traditions that resonated with us. The basic idea is this: ask your closest friends and family to obtain beads of any make, whether natural stone, wood, decorative, or otherwise. Then ask them to charge each of their beads with their intentions for your marriage and write them down. When everyone is together the night before the wedding, have each person present their beads and written intentions to you, describing why they chose those beads. Now, one-by-one string them onto your Mala bead necklace, beginning with a guru bead of your own.
The Guru Bead
The guru or anchor bead acts as the center of the necklace just as you will stand at the center of your family and friends during your wedding ceremony. In total, a traditional mala bead necklace contains 108 beads (not including the guru bead). After everyone has shared their beads and intentions, tie off the necklace. This personalized piece of jewelry is now ready for you to give to your officiant to wear during the ceremony.
Heather and I had no idea how our family and friends would respond to the ceremony, but their participation far exceeded our expectations. Our families aren’t particularly open with emotional conversations but somehow the subtlety and genuine nature of the mala bead ceremony created a comfortable space for them to share their feelings (so much feels, so much safe space). Some spoke with tongue-in-cheek comedy, while others stumbled through words that are usually left unspoken, but they all spoke.
They all shared their thoughts on love and what they think makes a good relationship. Unexpectedly insightful and heartfelt, I’d never felt closer to everyone in attendance. It was like one of those icebreaker team-building activities but with more on the line and less bullshit. I can’t recommend the ceremony enough.
Incorporating the Mala into our Ceremony
The day of the wedding we gave the necklace to our officiant, David “Killer” Miller, and he explained the significance of it to our guests while it gently hung around his neck. He also passed our wedding rings around in little nests for everyone to see, feel, and put their thoughts upon. Heather and I really wanted our wedding ceremony to be as interactive as possible because we feel most ceremonies are too exclusive rather than inclusive of those in attendance.
After all, why would you invite all these people to your wedding if you didn’t want them to participate in one way or another. We are the communities we are part of and I’ve never felt more in place than when I looked around at the faces in ours. Let this message be a reminder that your wedding day is whatever you want it to be, even if, especially if, it includes some random hippie ceremony.
The Intentions That Everyone Charged Our Beads With:
May you be LOVE (blood stone)
May you be LIGHT (amazonite)
May you be TRUTH (smoky quartz)
May you be COMPASSION (jasper)
Live today like there is no tomorrow.
Trust yourself to do the right thing!
Be truthful and honest in all that you do!
Have faith in yourself because you’re a good person and can solve anything that you encounter.
May you appreciate and encourage one another.
May you realize every moment is a gift.
May you have an open heart and therefore, an open mind.
To cherish your creativity and originality. It is hard to get it back (unicorn bead)
To live healthy and balanced. Everything in moderation (heart bead)
To be resilient at all times. Like a dragon (dragon bead)
To continue adventuring, thriving, and having a good time (flower bead)
The football shaped bead is pretty and reminds me of Heather
The barrel shape: Keep laughter in your lives. “A barrel of laughs”
Round cherry: From a necklace Heather made me. I wish you many happy days in your future
Yellow bead: Mom, Nana, and Pop all have this same bead to represent the strength in family
Stay classy
Be kind before being nice
Rosary Bead: May the breeze blow new strength into your beings
White Rosary Bead: May the moon softly restore you both by night
Brown flower bead: Was picked by me in a bead ceremony to represent RESILIENCE
Red squiggle bead: Keep traditions + make new traditions. It’s a Christmas bead. Believe in order to receive.
Strength: Although the nuts are individuals, they are strongest when they come home and are joined by the bolt.
Longevity: The darker nuts are from my fathers tool box. He understood partnership. M & D celebrated 66 years together last year.
Happiness: It has many components – Humor, Honesty, Humility
Growth: You are just starting your journey. You may need a bigger bolt as you grow more nuts!
Red beads from a necklace Heather made me. Makes me think of a ruby, represents my love for you both.
Teal bead: From a necklace Gram gave me. My intentions to keep the Girls Club alive forever.
Yellow bead: Dad, Nan, and Pop have this same bead to represent the strength in family.
Oval Silver: From a bracelet Heather made me. Silver represents sophisticated and modern, riches and wealth. May you have it all.
Black bead: Keep negative energy out of your life.
Yellow bead: To show strength in family.
Lead barrel: Like a bullet with gunpowder, continue to chase your dreams.
Black and white: Remember there are many other colors in the world.
For Nature
For Passion
For Play
Take time to listen with the mind and the heart
May you have patience with each other through the hard moments.
I will ALWAYS remember that I am strong and have the support of my extended family (we love you guys)
I will not do hard to others and accept the moment for what it is.
I will not end my day on an angry note; I have much to be grateful for.
I will have the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
I took this from Nana’s necklace. Like Nana, always find goodness in all people (Turquoise and Silver)
Pop, your father, and mom have the yellow bead to represent the strength in family.
This was from a necklace Heather made Nana. Hold the memories of both Gram and Nana (Teal)
Keep a transparent window of your future (Glass Bead)
What ever your wishes are!
Go forward.
My mom’s love of family.
Honeymoon Acres.
For memories.
For love.
To hold space for love even if it is small.
For a long, happy, ever-growing bond that gets stronger with time.
For you to find the joy even when you have to look for it.
For you to keep your uniqueness as individuals and as a couple.
May you have kind words, a loving heart, and good intentions.
May you take time every day to sit and quietly listen.
May you live in a constant state of amazement.
May you march to the beat of your own drum.
Winter – Teamwork. It takes two to build a snowman (snowman bead)
Spring – Pace, don’t rush through life like a speedy bunny. Slow down, enjoy the moments (bunny bead)
Summer – Freshness, a happy and fulfilling relationship (strawberry)
Fall – Harvest, enjoying the benefits of a long commitment (yellow tube)
Jade Tear: Jade is for luck and fortune.
The Bull: Bulls are strong. Willed with stronger personalities. Be mindful to see the bull in yourself and moo-ve on :)
The Frog: Frogs, while seemingly adaptable, are in reality quite fragile. Remember to nurture your relationships so it doesn’t dry out and be willing to shed your skin and try new things.
Flower on a White Background: This was the first bead I chose. It reminded me of traditional European embroidery motifs, which makes me think of our families as they have moved across this world, allowing for so many things, like you two getting to meet. Flowers make me think of spring and regrowth. The blank background is for possibility. I hope only the best in your new family, and everything that will come from it.
Venue: Honeymoon Acres, Private Farm | Ramsey NJ
Officiant: David Miller
HMUA: Jennifer Belle // Sandra Wittner
Photography: Alexis Cohen shooting for Apollo Fields
Buena Vista Destination Wedding in Colorado Photography
David & Sadie’s Wedding | Buena Vista, Colorado | Rocky Mountain Weddings | Destination Photographer | Apollo Fields
It was 6:00am last Saturday and I was driving on the long empty roads through the Colorado countryside. After spending the last few weeks in the cramped and crowded boroughs of New York and New Jersey, I felt the stark contrast of the open plains even more than usual. It was unseasonably cold that morning: a chilling 21 degrees when I first set out, and I watched the dashboard temperature rise with the sun as I cruised along the foothills.
I got to Buena Vista ahead of schedule and was able to pop into a local coffee shop before the wedding kicked off. The sleepy little town was enjoying it’s off-season, but the cafe was busier than ever with locals. I pulled up a seat next to a stranger because there were no empty tables, and got to enjoy a little old-fashioned small talk with a bundled-up hiker who was about to hit the mountains for the day.
Our day began at 9:30am at Spring Canyon, a quiet venue tucked away past the hot springs. Everybody was happily abuzz with last minute wedding prep, and I settled right into shooting details and scouting our first look location. The property boasts epic mountain views, but the sun was already high and with no clouds whatsoever, I had to be a little more creative with our locations.
I consider myself a bit of a light-junkie and I really felt the different between the East Coast light (which had been ultra-diffused from days of nonstop rain and heavy grey clouds) versus the big Colorado skies (at altitude with no atmosphere or humidity to break up the strong rays).
Sometimes you have to work with what you got, so we took advantage of the aspens that were still boasting their gold leaves and leaned into the full sun. I’m so happy we did, because we got those truly epic autumn mountain shots! I hadn’t seen any aspens with their leaves still on the whole trip, so it was the best surprise to find these groves still going strong! Colorado had a big snow storm later that night, and I have a feeling that we captured their last hoorah which makes the shots that much better to me.
David and Sadie had a sweet and tender way about their relationship. Amidst the bustle of the wedding morning, they still found time to have these long quiet hugs as if nobody else was around. I spend a lot of time watching my couple’s body language during their first looks to see how they naturally interact with one another and try to capture that throughout the day. David and Sadie were so fun because they would share these sentimental moments with each other, but then be able to goof around and be silly at the same time. They balanced these lighthearted fun times with the seriousness of a wedding perfectly.
Their families were also gracious and loving. I felt as much like a photographer and vender as I did a guest, and those are the days that make me love my job as much as I do. I was especially excited to photograph this wedding because there were going to be a few familiar faces in the crowd — one of my favorite couples from last year was family and the whole reason that I crossed paths with David and Sadie! In this business, referrals and word-of-mouth are everything, and I am so grateful for my clients who carry the Apollo Fields name from season to season. I’d like to give a big shoutout to the Danielson family for the connection, and also throw in a little vendor love to their awesome companies, Tentrix and Poc-a-Poc Catering who kept me happily in a cheese-coma for the reception.
Venue: Spring Canyon, Buena Vista CO
Photography: Apollo Fields
Published on Wedding Wire: Sadie & David’s Wedding
Heather loves to travel – especially to the mountains – for weddings! Get in touch for your photography needs: CONTACT
We're Making Big Moves!
To our dinner guests, climbers, fellow hikers, and craft beer drinkers,
...consider this our farewell, our “see you later” and the remorseful announcement of our departure from Arvada, Colorado.
To those of you in the front range of the Rockies, expect an invite to our going away party on Sunday, September 23rd, 2018, location and time TBD. Our official push off date will be September 28, 2018.
Huge transitions like these always make me feel dramatic, like it will be the last time I have this beer or hike this trail or do any of the other quintessential-and-eventually nostalgic activities of Denver that I will long for once I’m gone. Anytime my life changes this drastically my body fills with nerves, like I’m tiptoeing towards the edge of the high dive at the public pool all over again. The fear is real and paralyzing, “you should just turn back,” it says, but part of growing up is hearing that voice and diving head first into the deep end anyway.
Of course I will miss the breweries, the tubing trips, the dinner parties, and the lifelong friends we’ve met out here, but when a logical opportunity brings growth, family, and financial viability to the forefront, it’s hard to turn it down. I’ll think on these last two years in Colorado as the time where Heather and I mastered our ability to work together, both professionally and personally, while laughing up the roads into the mountains and floating down the rivers in between. I will think of the friends who we’ve hosted and the friends who’ve hosted us, especially the ones who took care of our canine and equine counterparts when we were away and kept them safe (the chickens were a different story…we still love you!!) Perhaps most of all I will miss having the silhouette of the Rockies as an everyday backdrop, always there to gaze upon while I let out an “it-gon’-be-alright” sigh as I listen to Kendrick on I-70.
And I know everything is going to be all right because it always is. Any of you who’ve spent any amount of time with me know that my optimism is as incessant as it is annoying because my positivity has all the love and no fucks to give. Heather and I will road trip across the country, get married in October, and then move to Long Island for a pit stop as we property hunt for a farm with a stone house and a fireplace. The idea of creating a wedding venue to celebrate love in all its forms while being surrounded by our animals and family is as close to a storybook as I think our lives can get. We aren’t just going to be all right, we’re going to continue being happy.
When Heather and I created The Immeasurable Cookbook we learned that the storytelling and photography was just as important as the recipes. It gave us the idea to combine her photography with my writing to launch Apollo Fields, our holistic approach to documenting weddings. As we now begin the search for our venue, Apollo Fields will evolve from capturing weddings to hosting them: planning everything from logistics to the shot list and all the unforgettable moments in between. Just like The Immeasurable Cookbook, the storytelling and photography at Apollo Fields will be just as important as the recipe, only this time we’re looking for the right couples rather than the right ingredients.
We invite you all to celebrate the things in life that make you happy even if this decision puts some geography between us. We invite you to follow us on our journey as we celebrate artistry, communication, love, and hard work in ours. Finally, we invite you to embark on your own trek into the unknown where nothing is familiar and everything is exciting.
To our next adventure,
Terrence, Heather, Rumor, Riddle, & Limbo
P.S. We've already booked weddings under Apollo Fields in Colorado next year. We will be back! If you are one of those couples, DO NOT WORRY, we're not tacking on travel fees or forgetting about you guys :)
P.P.S. We love traveling! Destination weddings are our jam. We are happy to work with your budget, so don't let our home-base keep you from reaching out! It doesn't matter if your wedding is in NYC, Denver, San Fran, The Italian Countryside, or The South Of France (a girl can dream, right) hit us up. We have some sweet connects in a lot of places that allow us to work as locals, which saves everyone money.
P.P.P.S. If anyone wants to buy our chicken coop, let us know. We put a lot of hard work into that bad boy and would love to see it go to a good home. Not joking...
Photo cred / magic goes to the unbeatable Sam Hines
Highlands Ranch Mansion Wedding Photography
Allison & Michael's Wedding | Highlands Ranch Mansion | Colorado Mountain Weddings | Denver Photographer
Alli & Mike didn't miss a beat with their beautiful Highlands Ranch Mansion wedding. Everything was gorgeously planned and executed, and the day was spent amongst friends and family. They had a first touch where they prayed, back-to-back and hand-in-hand, with the sweetest whispers of their love for each other. The ceremony was just as beautiful. Alli and Mike exchanged their handwritten vows in front of the people who mean the most to them. They made promises to each other, and held hands while tears fell silently.
Their reception was so much fun. You could feel the love from all of their guests and family members, as heartfelt speeches filled the space, and they lovingly cut the cake with a little smash to top of the fun. They danced and partied, and when the sun begin to set into the mountains, I snagged them for the most epic golden hour light. The way the beams of light fell through the tree leaves was magical, and Allison and Michael enjoyed their own private dance out behind the mansion while the light began to fade.
This fun couple met in the Air Force and are devoted to their service work. They lived in Colorado Springs while finishing their degrees from the Air Force Academy. I don't know how she pulled it off, but Alli actually graduated just a few days before their wedding! Impressive, to say the least. They honeymooned at Disney Land and then made their way off to Hawaii to soak up the beach and sunshine. Seeing their pictures in Hawaii made me so jealous and now I'm dying to visit myself! What a dream...
Allison's big, bubbly personality shined throughout the day. She just beamed with joy amongst her bridesmaids. You could tell that their bond is tight, the whole group was smiling and laughing the whole day. Michael is more stoic, but it was easy to see how is quieter bond with his groomsmen was just as genuine. Their family members showered them with well-wishes, and the love was palpable. They had the most fun dancing, mingling, and making silly faces in the Photo Booth. An epic day to say the least!
VENDOR TEAM:
Photography: Apollo Fields
Venue: Highlands Ranch Mansion | Highlands Ranch Colorado
Event Planning: Jennifer Wetterlin | Denver Event Pros
Videography: Lavender Haze Wedding Films
Florals: Kimball Floral
DJ: Encore Events & Entertainment
Catering: All Love Catering
Dress: Something New Boutique
What's In My Camera Bag (That's Not Camera Equipment): Capturing Smiles Instead of Stresses
A little behind-the-scenes of me attaching the sleeves to a wedding dress in the midst of photographing my bride getting ready.
Being a wedding photographer doesn't necessarily mean shooting pictures throughout the whole day.
It means getting the shot no matter what it takes.
Sometimes that means putting the camera down for a second to help my brides get into their wedding dresses. Sometimes it's folding pocket squares, opening bottles of wine, showing them where to sign their marriage certificates, or bustling a train. The reality is, I am with my couples all day, and very much so on the front lines of whatever action takes place. Weddings have a way of bringing out the best and worst in people – emotions are high, sometimes there is family tension, a lot of opinions, and various moving parts.
My job is to take beautiful and compelling pictures.
It is also to make sure that my couples feel excited, at ease, and most of all PRESENT in the moment. The day goes by so quickly, and it is easy to get wrapped up in greeting guests, checking on the caterer, and obsessing about timelines. Now, I am by no means a wedding planner. I am not a day-of coordinator. And I have no intentions of ever becoming one... but sometimes the planners are busy doing their jobs and situations arise. In those moments, it's about serving my couple. Sometimes that means taking pictures and sometimes that means lending support to keep things running smoothly, camera-in-hand.
The Importance of Hospitality...
I've worked as a bartender while building my wedding business cause you know, girl's gotta eat, and I do believe that it helped me become a better photographer. It has made me more sensitive to my client's needs. It could be as simple as realizing that my out-of-town couple from sea level is getting dehydrated up on top of a mountain in the Rockies and grabbing them a few waters. Basic needs sometimes go out the window when weddings are in motion and catching small stuff like that can prevent much bigger problems. It has given me a better sense of where the action is at in a busy room while only visually seeing things through my small viewfinder on my camera.
Additionally, being a great wedding photographer also means caring about your couples. So many of our clients have become friends, and this has just as much to do with the pictures themselves as it does with the ability to provide good service. It's also about empathy, understanding, and the ability to listen closely and read between the lines. Being able to put small fires out as the day unfolds is oftentimes what sticks out to couples as above-and-beyond the call of duty. It is something that really shows that we care about them as much as we care about making beautiful pictures. As a result, I always throw a few things in my camera bag to keep the day running smoothly:
What's in my camera bag besides camera equipment?
- A wine key. No, I'm not a raging alcoholic.. this is actually out of utility. I've had countless couples want to pop a bottle to celebrate or toast with, and find themselves without a bottle opener. Pulling one of these out on a whim is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and keeps the good times rolling! Also, the knife edge on them has come in handy for a myriad of non-alcohol related tasks.
- A lighter. Another crowd-pleaser! Sometimes, it is as simple as somebody wanting to step outside for a quick smoke. But mostly, I find this super helpful for staging my detail shots before the room is actually set. Venues and rental companies usually prefer to light the candles last (because they don't last that long), but I cannot wait until last minute to do my room shots and details because it is already too late. So I'll light a few candles on the table, snap the shot, and then blow them out. No hassle and no harm.
- Oil blotting sheets. Summers are hot and sometimes wedding dresses are even hotter. Nothing ruins a shot like a shiny face, but after your makeup is set, the last thing you want to do is take a tissue or cloth to your face. Oil blotters are easy, compact, and so helpful in these moments.
- A sewing kit. Why would a wedding photographer need a sewing kit? You wouldn't believe me if I told you how many dresses that I have last-minute mended! Nothing puts out a fire like being able to repair a dress right before the ceremony is about to begin. Buttons pop off, beads snag, zippers jam. Knowing how to solve these mishaps can prevent a full blown crisis in the moment.
- Bobby pins, hair spray, safety pins, small scissors, and rubber bands, fashion tape, and white duct tape. I literally wear half of these on my expodisc around my neck when I shoot! This is how frequently I find myself needing these items. Hair pops out, wind takes over, bow-ties are too big, tags need to get cut off... And the white duct tape? Let's just say that sometimes wedding dresses are more see-through than we realize and the built-in bra doesn't do the trick ;) A little square of duct tape can work wonders.
Again, stuff happens. To be able to put these fires out quickly keeps my couples happy and on schedule. If they are happy, the pictures are better. If we stay on the timeline, we have more time for pictures and we capture smiles instead of stresses.
Cherry Blossom Engagement Session at City Park in Denver
Eve & Bobby's Cherry Blossom Engagement Session | City Park, Denver | Spring Engagement Photos | Colorado Wedding Photographer | Apollo Photojournalism
Eve and Bobby and are fun loving couple who are able to roll with the punches. They wanted their engagement session to be outdoors and since they live close to City Park in Denver, shooting there seemed to perfectly reflect their lifestyles. They are laid back and go-with-the-flow, which was great when the weather was freezing cold, overcast, and rainy on the day of their engagement session.
Rescheduling wasn't an option, so we crossed our fingers for a break in the weather and met up in the park. I'm so glad we did, because the shots are so beautiful! It never warmed up and the sun never poked through, but you can't even tell in the pictures. And we had the cherry blossoms all to ourselves, an almost unheard of luxury this time of year because their season is so short.
This was my first cherry blossom session that I have done and I was surprised by how much I love the color palate. I am usually more drawn to earthier tones than pastels, but I found that Eve and Bobby's outfits worked so well with the setting that I really enjoyed the pinks, whites, yellows, and light greens of the grove that we shot in.
We moved quickly through the session because the skies kept threatening a harder rain, and with frozen fingers and no golden light to play with, I wanted to get these lovebirds back in their warm car as quick as possible! They made my job easy because they have such a great balance of playfulness and tenderness. They were just as happy to be dancing under the trees as they were to cuddle up with each other and have a quiet moment together.
Peaking at my viewfinder on my camera and I knew that despite the weather (and the cranky geese) we had some gems to work with! I was so excited to get home to warm up and offload all these beautiful pictures from their engagement session. I'm so excited to shoot their wedding this season!
Denver Engagement Photographer: Erny Photo CO | Apollo Fields
Wedding Coordinator: Jennifer Wetterlin | Denver Event Pros
Location: Denver, Colorado | City Park