A Wedding With New York as the Backdrop
Some weddings immediately tell you what makes them special. With Allie and Kenneth, it was the setting.
Their wedding at Maritime Parc, inside Liberty State Park in Jersey City, brought together elegant architecture, open waterfront views, and one of the most recognizable city skylines in the world. But as I photographed their day, what stayed with me wasn’t simply the location. It was the way Allie and Kenneth interacted with each other throughout the day.
There was a sense of calm between them, even with everything happening around them.
That made my approach as their professional wedding photographer fairly simple: give them enough direction when they needed it, but leave enough room for the genuine moments to happen on their own.
The Quiet Before Everything Began
The story started during getting ready.
These photographs are often some of my favorites from a wedding because nothing has happened yet. There is anticipation, small conversations, final preparations and that strange feeling of knowing that the day you’ve been planning is finally here.
Rather than treating getting ready as a checklist of details, I looked for the moments that showed Allie and Kenneth as themselves before the ceremony.
The atmosphere gradually changed as they got closer to seeing each other.
Their First Look
The first look gave us one of those moments that is difficult to manufacture.
After spending part of the day separately, Allie and Kenneth finally had the opportunity to see each other before the ceremony. I positioned myself to give them some privacy while still being able to capture their reactions.
That balance is important to me. A first look shouldn’t feel like a performance for the camera. My role is to be ready when the emotion happens—not to create it.
And once they were together, the tension of waiting seemed to disappear.
A Photo Session Around Liberty State Park
With the waterfront and the Manhattan skyline nearby, their wedding photo session naturally became an important part of the day.
Maritime Parc offers something very different from a traditional garden or countryside wedding venue. The architecture, open spaces and views across the water give the photographs a distinctly urban New Jersey character.
I wanted to use that environment without allowing it to overpower them.
Some photographs were more composed, using the surroundings to create a sense of scale. Others were much closer and quieter, focusing on the way they looked at each other or naturally moved together.
For me, that’s what makes a successful wedding session. The photographs should still feel like the couple—not like two people simply following poses.
Saying “I Do” by the Water
When the ceremony arrived, the energy shifted again.
After photographing the anticipation and intimacy of the earlier part of the day, I moved into a more documentary approach. The ceremony was about Allie and Kenneth, but also about everyone who had gathered to witness them make this commitment.
I looked for the small reactions between the bigger moments: a glance, a smile, the way they held each other’s hands, and the expressions of the people watching them.
Those photographs may not always be the ones you expect when you think about a wedding, but years later, they can become some of the most meaningful.
Looking Back at Allie & Kenneth’s Day
What I enjoyed most about photographing Allie and Kenneth was the contrast throughout their wedding day.
There were elegant surroundings, the waterfront, the city in the distance and all the visual elements that make Maritime Parc such a distinctive place to celebrate. But underneath all of that, the photographs kept coming back to something much simpler: the two of them together.
As a professional photographer, I don’t want a wedding gallery to feel like a collection of unrelated beautiful images. I want it to feel like a story.
For Allie and Kenneth, that story began quietly while they were getting ready, became personal during their first look, opened up across Liberty State Park during their photo session, and culminated with the ceremony that brought everyone together.
And with the New York skyline watching from across the water, it was a pretty memorable place to begin their next chapter.
