I do: A day in the life of a wedding photographer
Michele and Joel were a referral from a close friend of mine. Their wedding was at The Brooklyn Botanical Garden, which admittedly, looked gorgeous. All the same, I was hesitant to take on another NYC wedding. The logistics of getting around NYC are not conducive to how we capture a wedding. We don’t travel light, so hopping around town in an Uber from hotel to church, to venue isn't an option. All the same, these two seemed so down to Earth, and the venue looked too spectacular to pass up. I decided to bring my most experienced 2nd shooter, Kyle. These days Kyle splits his time between shooting for himself, Barone Photo, and Barone Photo alumni Pat Robinson, along with owning @mugandspoonco and @glazedrehoboth, both in Rehoboth Beach, DE.
We went up the night before to get ourselves situated. Usually we don’t pre-scout a venue, but I knew getting around with all my gear and parking in NYC would be a challenge that I couldn’t risk would “work itself out”. We arrived at @podbkhotel in the early evening the night before. It’s the perfect hotel for someone just needing a place to rest their head. We stayed in a pod bunk which is 100 square feet. With all our gear, we maybe had about 5 feet of personal space left, but strangely, this place felt so well designed and hip that it didn't matter.
In the early morning, we grabbed a coffee and headed over to the venue. Once inside the gardens, we walked around to plan their first look, and check out their reception space. Apparently, we looked out of place enough to raise a few red flags with security, who even after seeing our credentials, watched us like hawks until we exited the gardens.
We were told we weren’t allowed to bring in our photo gear this early, so we kept our car loaded in their parking lot, and took an Uber back to our hotel. Once in our room, we both got showered and dressed for the wedding - no small task for two grown men in a 100 square foot room. The bride and groom’s hotel was a 5 minute Uber away, so we called a car and headed over.
From bride and groom prep we each hopped in a limo bus with our respective bridal party half and back over to the Botanical Garden for their “first look”. The Botanical Garden is huge. The plan was for the guys to walk to the first look location, while a golf cart would pick up the girls. I use the term “plan” loosely with weddings. With so many moving parts, many out of my control, things frequently go off plan. That’s honestly where we excel. Plan, assess, improvise. Three words to live by if you want to make any wedding a success. Since the golf cart wasn’t there at the planned time, I looked at the timeline, assessed our options, and improvised to get the bride where we needed her before we had run through the time we had allotted. The golf cart did meet us along the way to help us get our bride to her groom.
The “first look” and informal shots went great. We loaded up in the limo and headed to the church. The ceremony was beautiful and thankfully, went exactly as planned. We knocked out our formal family shots and then headed back to the Botanical Garden. Kyle went in with the couple to capture their cocktail hour, while I loaded in our gear and set it up. This was no small task. From where they dropped us off, I had to hoof it about 6 blocks back to the parking lot where we had left our car earlier in the day. I paid the attendant, then drove 6 blocks to the loading dock. As with many venues, hosting weddings was an afterthought, so loading in several carts of gear can be a challenge. Nonetheless, I found my way through the labyrinth of stairs, rooms, and elevators to the ballroom. I was awestruck by their all-glass conservatory space, but had no time to daydream. The venue wanted my car out of the loading area so I found myself winding back through the same maze to my car and back to the parking lot, followed by that same 6 block jog back to the loading dock, through the labyrinth, and up into the ballroom. It was a solid 90 degrees outside and with all the running around, the cool air conditioning in the sunlit ballroom was welcomed.
I looked at my watch. Thirty minutes down, thirty left until the cocktail hour was over. In that time, I had to set up dance floor lighting and photograph all the details of the reception room before the guests come in and take over the space. The physical act of setting up lights takes no more that 5 minutes. However, placing and testing the lighting to perfect it, can take another 10 minutes. Then we need power. No small task in older venues, where again, hosting a wedding was an afterthought. With 15 minutes left after lighting the space, I went around and documented every last detail that my couple had painstakingly planned out. Ten minutes left. I decided to go outside to the cocktail hour to check in on Kyle and the couple. The cocktail setting was gorgeous and the light was so perfect so Kyle and I set up a few more shots of the couple with our remaining time. That left us 5 minutes to breathe and maybe still grab an hour d'oeuvre or two to before the festivities begin. But, after we were done photographing outside, Michelle and Joel decided to go inside to practice their first dance before their guests filed in. Between the soft light cascading through the conservatory, and Michelle’s amazing dress, I knew this would be something they would want captured. Kyle and I went inside and photographed their dance for the remaining 5 minutes, and still managed to grab a handful of cheese from the cocktail hour as the guests were shuffling inside.
The reception commenced, as many do, with cheers and tears. I still couldn't get over how amazing the light was in this space. The way it danced around and reflected off the clean white walls and glass ceiling was breathtaking. I could tell from the back of my camera that this would be a wedding I would never forget.
4 hours later, the reception concluded and we broke down our gear. I loaded out with the same winding maze, loading docks, and 6 block jog to the car. I squared up again with the parking attendant, who I think recognized me by now, and drove to the loading dock. Unfortunately, one of the venue staff had blocked the loading dock gate with their car so we had to walk our gear from the dock out to the street piece by piece. After that, we headed back to our hotel. At this hour, all the garages were full so we spent 20 minutes driving around to find one with a vacancy. We parked, headed to our room to crash, all the while sharing our excitement at how we both had captured some amazing photos.
The thing is, as crazy as this day sounds, it’s actually par for the course. Many of our local weddings are every bit as chaotic. Honestly, I love the energy. I’m conditioned to handle whatever the day throws at me. I love working behind the scenes to put out the occasional fire. If our couples never know how crazy things were, that’s totally fine. It doesn’t matter how we do what we do. What does matter is that we treat every wedding like it’s the only wedding we’ll ever get to shoot. We always have to knock it out of the park. So when that email came through from Joel and Michelle saying “These are AMAZING!!!”, I knew we nailed it again.
