Iconic NYC wedding with vibrant colors and a modern, city feel…
Gina and Kyle contacted me looking for unique, colorful, creative wedding & engagement photography that would capture their fun personalities and bold style. I took time to get to know them through our initial meeting, Times Square engagement session & dinner where we talked through all of their wedding day details together.
I knew how important New York City is to these two, it was even the location of Kyle’s wedding proposal! He proposed in Madison Square Garden after taking Gina to see Wicked on Broadway. They selected their wedding venue, Liberty House, for it’s stunning views of iconic views of NYC from the Manhattan skyline to the Statue of Liberty.
I noticed that this magazine in the hotel had their *exact* wedding colors! It literally said “In New York August 2015” in the top corner, so I knew I had to incorporate it into their wedding photos somehow:
Gina and Kyle began their wedding day preparations at the Hyatt Regency. It had the same modern aesthetic that they wanted for their wedding day and stunning views of Manhattan, too.
You can even see One World Trade Center, New York City’s newest icon, in the background of this photo of the groom. I chose to share this photo because I think it captures the scenery as well as Kyle’s confidence & strength. It was such a proud day for Kyle and I believe you can feel that coming through this photo:
Gina and her maid of Honor, Cassie (who is Kyle’s sister), went shoe shopping in New York City looking for the perfect wedding shoe. Gina loves sparkle and was absolutely captivated by these crystal studded Louboutin pumps. I wanted to show off the way the crystals caught the light here:
Neither Gina or Cassie have a sister, so they both felt so blessed when they “hit it off” from the beginning when Kyle introduced them.
This day was important to their relationship as well as they also officially became sisters through marriage. Gina said she couldn’t have asked for a better maid of honor. 🙂
I really like how these two ladies are beautifully silhouetted in the window light and the reflection below:
Gina and Kyle love to have fun, laugh and don’t take them selves too seriously. I like this photo of Gina because you can see how joyful and excited that she was feeling during her wedding day preparations. I love this photograph in black and white as it really makes her bright smile and “bling” pop!
Gina and Kyle chose to have a “first look” before their ceremony so that they could spend all of cocktail hour with their friends and family and so they could spend plenty of time exploring Liberty Park alone together in a relaxed way before all of their guests arrived.
Here Kyle is waiting to see Gina as “his bride.” Looking at this image I can almost feel his nerves!
All the nerves are gone, and have been replaced with total and utter joy! I love this photograph because it really shows how joyful these two are! They are always joking around, laughing and just enjoying life together. They shared that they loved having that time together and the view of NYC was icing on the cake!
While we were walking in Liberty State Park, we stopped at the Empty Sky Memorial which showed where the twin towers would have stood in the Manhattan skyline. Being there was surreal and emotional to say the least.
I love reflections and caught this one on our way out:
Gina and Kyle had a pretty huge bridal party– 19 people to be exact, but that was no problem ;). I loved working with them, they were fun, enthusiastic and totally rocked their group portrait. I was inspired by fashion spreads in Vogue Magazine for this image and used the epic Manhattan Skyline as the background:
While I am a fan of crisp, clear, colorful photos, I’m very flexible with my coverage and use my understanding of photography to “break the rules” sometimes. Gina was a flurry of excitement before the ceremony and I wanted to capture the movement of her dress and bouquet as she climbed the stairs to go into hiding before the start of her Liberty House wedding ceremony.
Gina’s dad has always been there for her in times of need and she knows she can always count on him. It meant the world to her to have him escort her to Kyle. The sun was streaming into my lens as it slowly set for the processional. I like the warm, organic, emotional tone it gave to this image of Gina and her father as he walked her down the aisle.
Rev John Graf lead the wedding ceremony and did an absolutely phenomenal job. He was very thoughtful and experienced and lead a ceremony that was heartfelt, personal and joy-filled. Gina and Kyle could not have found a more perfect fit!
During their traditional vows, Gina and Kyle also promised to be each ther’s best friend…
The view from Liberty House was absolutely spectacular…
Gina and Kyle chose to have a sand ceremony symbolizing their union, and invited Gina’s son, Justin, to participate. They wanted to show all of their freinds an family that the three of them were officially joining as a family.
Kyle & Justin have always had a great relationship and it meant a lot to him to be able to participate in this way!
While Gina and Kyle are very lighthearted, fun-loving people, they took the ministers words and their vows very seriously. I snuck behind the hedges (ninja style hehe) to be able to have a view of the bride and groom’s face during this point. I love how they are rim-lit and the light is so soft and gently passing through Gina’s veil here…
Confetti Celebration! Gina said that when Rev. John pronounced them husband and wife it was like a breath of fresh air. They used sparkly pom-poms rather than bubbles or rose petals for their processional.
It fit them and their fun-loving taste perfectly! Gina was something that was unique and got creative with using these purple glittery puff balls!
I like to get creative, too, and wanted to show off the cute “Mr & Mrs” cake topper while also showing off the dramatic skyline that Gina & Kyle were so excited about hainvg during thier wedding reception.
The reception decor was lovely. Gina chose to have lavender roses and purple hydrangeas in her centerpieces and used metallic accents for the table numbers, plates and chiavari chairs. I like the extra sparkle that the metallic elements and glassware brought and used a shallow depth of field to show that off:
Gina and Kyle enjoy good food and like exploring different restaurants. They love the food at Liberty House Restaurant (literally below the ballroom) and have eaten there several times, so they knew that the food at their wedding would be delicious.
Here you can see Citrus Jumbo Lump Crab, muscles, and bacon wrapped mac-and-cheese.
There were so many incredible images from Gina & Kyle’s reception that it was really hard narrowing down a few to blog.
I’ll start with this photo of Kyle dancing with his mother because the two of them are so close and it really shows. Kyle said his mom has a knack of making people feel special and unique and that she taught him to be strong, yet caring, like she is.
I like the joy and love on thier faces and how the lights from the New York City skyline create pretty orbs of light in this photo…
Here Kyle and Gina are listening to Kyle’s brother’s toast. They are laughing because Joe is joking about how he introduced them and they all hung out together, but then how Gina & Kyle eventually ended up “ditching him” to spend time alone. He also was very sweet and welcomed Gina to the family :).
I chose to focus on Gina and Kyle’s expressions for this image, but have many of him in focus as well 😉 — I just thought it was a fun look and brought attention to them and how much they enjoyed his speech :).
Party time…
On the dance floor…
I cannot look at this photo without laughing!!! It totally shows Kyle’s out-going, fun-loving nature and his all-in attitude!
Kyle literally removed the garter with his teeth(!) it got caught on some of the crystals from Gina’s Louboutins, so he had to give it a pull, I like how you can see the flash from Joe’s iphone and him laughing the background!
Group photo!!! I captured this aerial photo of all of Kyle and Gina’s guests out on the dance floor.
They said it was so awesome to have everyone together to celebrate their marriage. It was incredible to get both families together and get to know each other. They felt so blessed to have people come from out of state that capturing a photo like this for them was absolutely priceless…
I had a few photos that would have worked well to end this set of photographs, but chose to save one from earlier at Empty Sky. The sun created a circle of light around Gina and Kyle and I thought it was beautiful, epic and an said “happily ever after.” It had vibrant color, a bold, modern feel, and sparkle, just what they were looking for!
Gina and Kyle– thank you so much for choosing to work with me as your engagement and wedding photographer. You are so much fun to be around, authentic and kind-hearted. It was a real pleasure to spend the day at your side and with your closest friends and family!
I am incredibly happy for you both and hope that you will be able to re-live your wedding day for many years to come by looking at your wedding photos!
