Exquisite Small Scale Wedding on Historic Estate in Union, New Jersey

A wedding doesn't have to be big and elaborate to be memorable, gorgeous, and full of love. I recently photographed Karima and Richard's wedding, held at Liberty Hall in Union, New Jersey (where I happen to live). Liberty hall is a historical gem. First built in 1772, was once owned by the Kean family, who gave land to build Kean University, which is across the street on Morris Avenue. The University now owns the estate, and it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1972.

There are two main buildings on Liberty Hall's grounds, a museum and a fifty-room Victorian Italianate  manor house, plus several out-buildings. Karima prepared in one of the spacious out buildings, and the wedding was held under a tent. Then the reception dinner was served in the glassed-in gallery of the manor house, overlooking the gardens. Karima had made sure to decorate the windows with tiny lights, that added to the festive atmosphere.

 The bridal party standing in front of the old-growth American chestnut tree in front of the house.

The grounds of the estate are quite varied, even though as estates go, it is not particularly large, just 140 acres. A huge American chestnut tree on a mound in front of the manor house was our setting and backdrop for the formal family and bride-and-groom portraits. There is also a charming arbor with old-growth trees on the property, which could be used for photographic purposes.

 The hedge labyrinth in the rear of the Manor House.

 

After the formal portraits, including the bridal party, I took the couple around to the other side of the house, to photograph them in the hedge labyrinth, which is one of the most unique features of the estate.

Karima & Richard in front of their engagement portrait with the good wishes of their guests, recreating the pose of the portrait.

The Dulhan Expo—Big Party

I don't usually post about bridal expos (showcases), since they're mainly forums for meeting new prospective brides, and once they're over they're over. And there are so many of them. But I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the scope and the fun of the Dulhan Expo yesterday (December 6) at the Garden State Exhibition Center in Somerville.

I went prepared for a wedding showcase, but it was much more than that. It was a 6-hour-long extravaganza of South Asian culture, with great emphasis on food (supplied by master caterers like Rosewood, out of Edison, and Jashn out of New York), amazingly filigreed wedding garments, makeup artists who created beautiful henna patterns on hands, as well as doll-like face makeup, and yes, photographers and videographers. There was also a large entertainment component on a stage that was (thankfully) on the other side of the hall from our booth—255 booths in 48 categories in all.

I shared a booth with a wonderful videographer, Xiao Fen, of Fen Video Production.

Here's our booth, with Fen's video screen on the right:

As you can see, it's fairly modest, in fact, I deliberately include my 5-foot ladder, a low-tech piece of equipment, to demonstrate that I like to perch up high to get photos of everyone at the wedding—sending all that love to the couple at once. There are no back-lit still images, no large panels, other than my vertical banner on the right.

But once I bring shoppers into the booth with one of my novelty attractions, I show them my Storybook Albums, and the ones with a strong visual sense want to know more.

To my surprise, I met more parents shopping for their children's wedding than I did actual brides. And miracle of miracles, they actually answered the phone when I called to follow up!
There were also parents looking for photographers for Sweet 16 and child birthday parties.

To round out the celebration of South Asian culture, there were gorgeous women modeling garments, makeup services and a walking table by Amel "Queen of Havana."

Some of the other sources of beauty were Della of Dinesh Ramsay

and Rooma Noreen of Magnifique Brides makeup and hair artist:

The henna hand designs were made by Ash Kumar, who works with Rooma.

I also ran into the versatile and charming actor, comedian Jagdish Patel and his lovely wife Daksha

whose striking black and white outfits caught my eye.

Towards the end four beautiful women walked by in front of my booth. I couldn't let them go without offering to photograph them, and they kindly permitted me to arrange them in a "face mosaic."

I traveled to India last year, and this taste of the country so close to home only increased my desire to return. We're very lucky in New Jersey to have such a robust representation of this beautiful, historic and spiritual culture right here in our midst.

Rebecca & Josh's September Wedding

It's always a pleasure when I can photograph a wedding of the daughter or son of a dear friend. That was the case with Rebecca Levy and Josh Grossman last September. They came up from Florida to get married at the Doubletree in Tarrytown, New York, near where Rebecca's mom & dad Judith & Bruce live. I've known Judith and Bruce for over a year and had been hearing about Rebecca all along, so it was wonderful finally to meet her when she came up a few months before the wedding. She's a very solid, sensible young woman, and Josh is a warm highly competent young man. It was really a pleasure to work with them.
Of course, I usually end up feeling like a member of the family for all the couples I work with, but in this case, I had felt that long before the wedding. I even knew some of the other family members.
The dark blue dresses of Rebecca's bridesmaids were striking, as was their collective humor. I didn't have to coach them much to get into fun configurations.
Here are the best images from the day:

 I love that navy blue of the bridesmaids' dresses.

 Dad Bruce, Rebecca, and mom Judith.

 Mom Judith, Rebecca, and her grandmother, who celebrated her 100th birthday this year.

 Rebecca dances with her brother, Matthew.

 I get in on the act.

 From my 5-foot ladder.