I met these two amazing souls eighteen months ago when I shot their Loved-Up shoot. It is still one of my most favourite Loved-Up shoots to date.
Since that afternoon awesome things happened. Not only did this shoot feature in frankie magazine, but I was then asked if I could capture their queer NEW YORK CITY destination wedding!
Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity…. And, wow! Just wow!
This wedding contained everything that I love about people and weddings. Two people that adore each other. Amazing backdrops. Fabulous energy. And friends and family banding together to make their brilliant day possible.
They lived in this fantastic city a few years ago and wanted to retrace all the spots in New York that meant something to them. Their pre-ceremony creative portraits providing the perfect opportunity to do just that.
We met up at their apartment in Brooklyn at 8am before heading out for much needed coffee and breakfast.
Once everyone was adequately caffeinated, we spent the next three hours exploring the streets. Starting at Prospect Theatre and the apartment they lived in. Before passing a bar where Rebecca was asked to do an encore. A dog park they visited regularly, to the place where Bec had her pants altered. ; ) It was so much fun watching them relive these perfect little moments.
A teacher and a journalist, they chose Housing Works in SoHo for their ceremony & reception. The wall to wall shelves of books, accompanied by a hand built Jewish Chuppah made the perfect backdrop.
6pm hit. The shop closed and everyone was in full swing working together to create their dream wedding. I had such an amazing time sharing their stories and documenting the union of their new life together!
Here is how I saw their day. I hope you ENJOY!
Words from the girls’ frankie interview about marriage….
Bec:
Well to be honest, we still feel kind of weird about using words like “married” because it comes with so much traditional, hetero-normative baggage. But, that said, there was a point at which we both decided we wanted to be with one another and only one another forever. To us, it was that decision that was more important than any label we put on it.
I think the legal rights that come with marriage are incredibly important for queer couples. Those legal rights have a huge practical impact on the lives of queer couples in various ways be it because of visa issues like we had, or hospital visitation rights, or estate tax marriage benefits as was the case with Edie Windsor who was the claimant in the DOMA case.
I personally hadn’t really thought about how important the legal rights of marriage were until I was with someone from another country and the inability to get married put us at a great disadvantage. When it comes to governments granting the word “marriage”, Rebecca and I didn’t really think that was important until we thought about what it would be like to get married in the US and then come back to Oz only to have that marriage invalidated by Australian federal law.
Now, we think the ability to use that word “marriage” if you so choose is also an important right. At the moment in Australia, marriage law actively excludes queer people and any exclusion is harmful, particularly exclusion coming from your own federal government. It is especially harmful to young queer people still in the process of coming out.
Rebecca:
Marriage as an institution was never that important to Bec or I, but we have witnessed the way in which it translates something about our relationship to the straight world that seems to hold a lot of meaning for them.
Both Bec and I have always been very confused as to why governments use the term marriage. It is so charged for so many people and for many the term has religious connotations. We have always wished that “civil unions” or “domestic partnership” was the universal status recognized by government and that “marriage” became a term that people could choose to adopt privately in their communities.
That said, we live in a world in which marriage is the privileged term and should be legally available to every committed pair of adults.
- Rebecca wore a Seed Silk top, Uniqlo pencil skirt and Anthropologie necklace while Bec wore a Zara cotton top and Banana Republic pants.
- Shoes: Vintage Sole Fitroy VIC.
- Rings: Little King NYC http://www.littlekingjewelry.com/
- Ceremony/Reception: Housing Works NYC http://www.housingworks.org/
- Catering: The Works NYC http://www.theworkscatering.com
- Cake: One Girl Bakery, Brooklyn http://www.onegirlcookies.com
- Cake topper: Etsy.
- Stationery designer: Eric Leland Etsy USA http://www.lelandmanufactory.com
- Music: Wyndham Baird http://wyndhambaird.bandcamp.com
- Celebrant: Jessie Blum – Eclectic Unions http://www.eclectic-unions.com
- Cinematographer: Dylan Latimer.
- Handmade Chuppah: made by Cate Giordano using supplies from Build It Green.