Valley Rock Inn Wedding : Emily & Brendan : Sloatsburg, NY

Emily and Brendan got married on a crisp, clear day in mid-August at Valley Rock Inn — my third time shooting there, and it keeps earning the trip up.

Valley Rock is a strange, wonderful thing to describe. Walled in on all four sides, you step through the gate and the outside world just goes away — leafy green, hydrangeas everywhere, rustic and sleek weaved together in a perfect type of synergy. The cocktail hour space is an old ivy-trimmed garden patio, stone walls on every side, with a reflecting pool at its center. It's one of my favorite cocktail hour settings, period.

Emily's family is from Los Angeles, and there was something fitting about the venue as a landing spot for them — it's about as close as upstate New York gets to a slice of California.

The morning started separately, each side getting ready in their own guest house on the property. Emily's dad had his moment in the mirror — the kind you can't direct, just be ready for.

I'm always trying to get atmosphere and emotion into the same frame rather than treating them as two separate jobs — the light, the setting, and the actual feeling of the moment, all doing work at once. Valley Rock just hands you that chance over and over. First look was tucked against an old stone outbuilding on the property, ferns and dappled light, and it set the tone for the rest of the portraits — genuinely happy, not posed-happy. The ceremony ran under a rose-covered arch with Brendan's brother officiating, which is not a role you see filled by family very often, and it changed the whole feel of the vows.

Wedding party portraits happened poolside, reflecting pool fountains going the whole time, the old stone wall behind everyone catching the last of the afternoon light. Cocktail hour moved into that garden I mentioned — string lights just starting to come on as the sky did its thing.

Reception was under a sailcloth tent strung with bistro lights, dinner tables dressed simply — white roses, daisies, burlap runners, the kind of florals that don't try to compete with the room. Ignition had the floor moving from the first song, sunset landed right on schedule, and the night went the way these nights go: dancing, a cake cutting, more dancing.

Congratulations, Emily and Brendan.

Vendor Credits:

Venue: Valley Rock Inn

Planning: WedWell (Claire Letourneau)

Florals: Anthony and Sage Event Design

Music: Ignition / Hank Lane Music

Cake: Lulu Cake Boutique

Photo Booth: Oh Snap Smile

Tent: Sperry Tents

Hair: Hair by Arden

Makeup: Yuby Leoce

Transportation: Ramstar Transportation

Photography: Brian Hatton Photography

Bangkok Supper Club Wedding : Emily & Anthony : New York, NY

When the inquiry came in, I almost didn't answer it. A full day booking for a Monday in December has a certain too-good-to-be-true shape to it, and between the volume of blast emails photographers get, I've learned to be wary. I asked my wife if I should even bother responding. She told me to just answer the email. Good call — Emily and Anthony were about as real as it gets, contract signed months out, the usual back-and-forth about COIs and hotel room numbers, all of it leading to an actual wedding on an actual Monday.

Thirty guests, a wedding party of ten, and when I asked them to describe the vibe they wanted for the day, they wrote back two words: relaxed, intimate. That's exactly what it was, even with a cathedral in the mix.

The day started at the Plaza. Emily got ready in a suite with the kind of light that makes a hotel room worth getting married out of — floor-to-ceiling windows, the Midtown skyline doubled in the glass, her dress catching the last of the afternoon sun before anyone else was even dressed. Down the hall, Anthony was doing the same in a tux and bow tie. When they finally crossed paths by a dark wood armoire in the suite, both of them just lost it laughing. No trying to hold it together, no composed first-look face — genuine, doubled-over laughing.

I've photographed a handful of NYC churches over the years, but nothing quite prepares you for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It's the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, longer than two football fields, with a rose window that swallows the whole west facade. Thirty guests in a nave built for over a thousand makes for a strange and kind of wonderful scale — everyone huddled into a few rows of chairs under a ceiling that disappears into the dark, candles the only real light besides the stained glass. A string trio played them in. And at some point during portraits on the altar steps, Emily and Anthony's dog — a fluffy white Samoyed on a blue leash — got walked up to join them for a photo, completely unbothered by the size of the room.

Outside, the light was doing that low winter gold thing New York does so well in December, and the wedding party gathered on the cathedral's bronze doors for a group shot — twenty-some friends and family, someone in a yellow puffer coat off to the side still taking photos on his own phone, everybody cracking up about something I never got the full story on.

From there we went downtown to Bangkok Supper Club in the West Village, which is doing genuinely great work — they'd just picked up a Michelin Guide Exceptional Cocktails Award, and the trophy was sitting proudly on a shelf near the kitchen when I walked in. A chef was finishing the wedding cake tableside as guests started arriving, tucking fresh purple anemones and blue hyacinth into the base of the buttercream one stem at a time.

The food kept coming all night — uni tartlets nested in black rice, tuna tartare in butter lettuce cups over crushed ice, crispy wings, cocktails poured tableside under a glowing orange ceiling panel that lit up the whole bar. Guests took selfies with their drinks held high. The green velvet booths in the back room turned into an unofficial photo booth, Emily cracking up at something Anthony said, both of them completely unposed.

Cake got cut, more photos happened, and at some point Emily changed into a second dress — floral, tea-length, gold heels — before the group headed over to the Baccarat Hotel to keep the night going. Because why not have two great outfits in one night.

Congratulations, Emily and Anthony.

Vendor Credits:
Ceremony Venue: Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Reception Venue: Bangkok Supper Club
Getting Ready Location: The Plaza Hotel
After Party: The Baccarat Hotel
Cake: From Lucie
Hair: SKA Hair 
Bride's Shoes: Manolo Blahnik
Rings: Graff / Michael Herman Fine Jewelry
Groom's Attire: Reeves Bespoke Tailors

The Roundhouse Wedding : Joanna & Jared : Beacon, NY

The Roundhouse sits right on Fishkill Creek in Beacon, old brick and timber wrapped around a waterfall loud enough to hear from the cocktail patio. Joanna got ready in the penthouse suite — mid-century sunburst chandelier, concrete beams, that low golden light sheer curtains do around midday — while her hair and makeup team worked through the room one chair at a time.

Jared's reaction to seeing her, out on the metal-railed deck overlooking the water, was the kind you can't coach: mouth open, hand already reaching for her arm before she'd even turned all the way around. From there it was just the two of them for portraits — down Main Street past the brick Roundhouse sign, then to the falls themselves.

Family and immediate family photos happened next, ahead of guest arrival — blue and floral gowns breaking up all the black tie under a stand of birches, everyone gathered and ready before the ketubah signing got underway downstairs.

Ceremony was inside the venue's glass-walled room — greenery hung from the beams straight down over the chuppah, olive branches and allium and white roses built up at the base the way Athabold does everything: full, a little wild, like it grew there instead of being installed. Joanna came down the aisle on her parents' arms to that specific kind of noise a room makes right before it goes quiet — her mom mid-shout, both of them grinning before the tallit even came out. Under the chuppah, sunlight through the windows behind them, her dad off to the side laughing through happy tears.

Cocktail hour spilled onto the patio right at the water's edge, that late-afternoon light doing the thing where everyone looks a little bit gold. Vision Event Co. ran the day — my first wedding with Laura and her team goes back to 2017, and it's always good to be back working alongside them.

Toasts ran warm — Jackie held a hand to her chest through most of hers. The parent dances split the difference between formal and not: a proper waltz hold for the mother-son dance, then Monte throwing both arms straight up mid-spin with Joanna for the father-daughter. Cafe Wha Entertainment's ten-piece kept the floor full well past dinner, and by the time the night got dark and loose, Joanna had her arms around Jared's neck and both feet off the ground while half the room cheered them on.

Congratulations, Joanna and Jared.

Vendor Credits:

Photography: Brian Hatton Photography
Venue & Cake: The Roundhouse
Planning: Vision Event Co.
Entertainment: Cafe Wha Entertainment
Videography: NST Pictures
Florist: Athabold
Hair: Lauren Baxter Beauty
Makeup: Michelle Stern Beauty
Rentals: BBJ La Tavola
Favors: Sweetie Pies
Officiant: Rabbi Dena Klein
Transportation: Rolling V Bus Corp

NY Athletic Club Wedding : Jackie & Mike : New York, Ny

The New York Athletic Club sits at the southeast corner of Central Park — 180 Central Park South — and it does not understate itself. The ballroom has a coffered and painted ceiling that runs the full length of the room, a dozen chandeliers, and windows that look directly into the park. It's the kind of room that sets an expectation for the evening before anyone sits down.

Jackie and Mike were married on a Saturday in June. Both got ready at the NYAC itself, on separate floors. The first look happened on the outdoor terrace. Mike had his back to her, turned around, saw her, and wiped his eye.

The ceremony was at St. Paul the Apostle on 59th Street — full Catholic Mass, tall nave, white orchid arrangements on pedestals at the altar. Jackie walked in on her father's arm to the Bridal Chorus, pink peonies in hand. Father Chris Krall officiated. There's a frame from the middle of the ceremony — the two of them seated side by side on the altar, turned slightly toward each other, congregation a blur behind them — that I kept coming back to in the edit.

After the ceremony it was time to hop in the iconic vintage checkered cab from Film Cars NY. These cars have been working the roads of NYC for decades including in countless movies like Home Alone 2. We drove across to Central Park and went straight down to Bethesda Terrace. The arcade tunnel frames the fountain through the arch and the light was hitting the stonework right for that time of afternoon. Then up to Bow Bridge — where Mike had proposed — which from the right distance reduces two people in a ballgown and a tuxedo to a very small detail against a lot of summer green. The veil was doing its own thing the entire time.

Lauren Zizza had the evening running exactly the way a room this size needs to run. Cocktail hour in the Card Room with the East Coast Band's piano and saxophone setup, then the full nine-piece for the reception. Jackie and Mike came in to "Jubel" — Mike's arm was up before he was fully through the door — and danced their first dance to Natalie Cole. There was a lift at the end. The room had circled the floor and it stayed there.

Venue: New York Athletic Club

Ceremony: St. Paul the Apostle

Planning: Lauren Zizza Events

Florals: Ariston Flowers

Band: East Coast Band

Cake: Empire Cake

Videography: First Day Films

Photobooth: Flux Photobooth

Hair: Jvalldi Styling

Makeup: Karla Duarte 

Pendry Natirar Wedding : Jamie & Jordan : Peapack, NJ

Some ceremonies feel written for their setting, and this one was. As the sun dropped low over the Somerset County hills, mist settling into the valley below, Jamie and Jordan stood beneath a chuppah heavy with garden roses, hydrangea, and delphinium, the kind of arrangement that looked like it had grown there. Rabbi Ethan Prosnit officiated, guests in yarmulkes filling rows of white folding chairs on the terrace, the view behind them doing most of the talking. Before the ceremony, the two signed the ketubah with their families gathered close, laughing through the nerves. They walked back out as married to "For Once in My Life," a Stevie Wonder recessional that set the tone for the night that followed.

Cocktail hour brought smoked salmon canapés stacked on crisps and scattered with microgreens and edible flowers, and portraits on the property while the light held. Then it was into the ballroom, where greenery and string lights hung low over long tables dressed in blush and lavender, candlelight doing the rest of the work. Every detail in that room ran on schedule and without a hitch, courtesy of Carrie Gold. Troy Curtis Entertainment kept the room moving from the first dance on — "How Sweet It Is" for Jamie and Jordan, "Blue Sky" for the father-daughter dance, Tina Turner for mother and son. Toasts landed somewhere between funny and full of feeling, the kind that get quoted back at Thanksgiving for years.

The hora took over the floor not long after, guests circling and lifting chairs, and by the time the night wound down into the mezinka, flower crowns were making their way around the room — laughter, not tradition, driving most of it. A three-tier cake, simple and pearled, waited its turn at the edge of the dance floor. Signature drinks made their rounds all night: a dirty vodka martini for Jordan, a paloma for Jamie, both a fitting shorthand for two people who know exactly what they like.

By the end of the night, the ballroom had that particular kind of chaos that means a wedding went well — ties loosened, shoes off, everyone still on the floor. Somerset County obliged with a soft, pink sky to send them off.

Vendor Credits

Photography: Brian Hatton Photography

Videography: Frank Ahn Films

Venue: Pendry Natirar

Florist & Decor: David Mitchell Fine Events

Band: Troy Curtis Entertainment

Lighting & Planning: Carrie Gold Events

Hair: Brittany Roveda

Makeup: Cara Gardner

Photo Booth: BNEvent Group

Rentals: Broadway Party Rental

Stationery: Etched in Sloane