Running a Business with Your S.O.

Running A Business With Your Significant-Other | Husband and Wife Photographers | Destination Weddings Lifestyle Blog | Apollo Fields

I woke to the sound of a sweeping rain over Montauk Lake, spraying the French doors of our friend’s guest bedroom like the ocean smashing against a cluster of coastal rocks.  White caps shifted about the marina like tiny crowns of the sea as the wind buoyed the boats with a sort of smooth violence. Emerging from beneath the clean and warm white sheets of the bed posed a difficult task as Heather and I have been traveling up and down the eastern seaboard the past few days, but such is the hustle of the life of wedding photographers.  

Since this past Friday, Heather and I have spent over 20 hours in the car together.  As much as I love her, anyone who’s traveled that much with their significant other can imagine the frustrations that might arise.  Now imagine that your significant other is also your business partner.  Those 20 hours now sound like they could be that much more tense—and they absolutely can be. Yet as tired and frustrated as I have been (and still am) I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The sounds in our car during a road trip vary from Kendrick to talk radio, from laughter to earnestness, and business to barking dogs.  The mood shifts from conversation-to-conversation, state-to-state, and from day to night. Long road trips with a significant other are common litmus tests to see if the relationship is the real deal; but a long road trip for a professional and romantic partnership is an endless loop of perfecting the way you communicate.  Heather and I’s flare-ups range from disagreeing on something as trivial as choosing where to eat or when to stop, and something as serious as our next big business move.  But the most important thing is to keep the conversation going.

Ironically, sometimes the best way to do that is to embrace a silence.  So often we are quick to fill a void in time with mindless chatter, a podcast, or background tunes and we forget that our seemingly restless minds just wants us and our senses to shut the fuck up.  Silence can be a great teacher, and giving the space for the tensions of our relationships to dissipate into the air can prove to be much more productive than spewing whatever our egos or inner selves are dying to say.  Sometimes in a disagreement—no one person is right—and sometimes you both are. Taking the time to share a few moments of silence together has helped us more times than I can count.

This morning was one of those mornings when you wake up after you’ve traveled so much that you forget where you are.  The constant waves of rain gently splashing against the doors gave me a sense of ease amidst the chaos, reminding me that there’s always beauty to be found in any given situation.  Sometimes we don’t realize how fast we’re moving until we stop for a moment to look at how far we’ve come; then after we wipe the sweat from our brow, rest a little, and take a deep breath, we can go back to bouncing up and down in the tide, moving naturally with the wind through time with a sort of smooth violence.  

– Terrence

Anet & Ian's Engagement Photos on a Farm

Anet and Ian’s engagement photos | hunterdon county wedding photographers | apollo fields | New York wedding photography | farm wedding photographers | wedding writer

There’s something about looking out into a field from the wooden porch of a farm that makes you want to take a deep, full breath.  Maybe it’s the way that twilight seems to color the evening sky a little longer than it does in the city. Maybe it’s the smell of dinner from the stove that sweeps through the house and makes the screen door squeak.  Or maybe—it’s just the company that we find ourselves in.

Heather and I plan to create such a life on a farm together one day...but it looks like Anet and Ian are going to beat us to the punch!  We can’t wait to photograph their wedding next May at The Farmhouse at the Grand Colonial in Hunterdon County, New Jersey because we love being on farms with wandering animals, freshly cut grass, and seasonal vegetables.  And if it’s up to Heather, we’ll being feeding our horse, Limbo, through the kitchen window from the palms of our hands one day. 

Funny enough, Heather met Anet over 10 years ago in the—you guessed it—horse world.  As an equestrian novice, I’ve learned that the bond between a rider and their horse should never be underestimated; and apparently neither can the social ties between horse people.  It’s one of the everybody seems to know everybody kind of communities; a blast to be a part of and an absolute mystery to the rest of us.  In the years to come I hope to be integrated into the community through meeting people like Anet and Ian, who is also apparently a pretty deft hand at polo.  (I, on the other hand used to think that the players hit the ball with the small end of the mallet. facepalm.)

For us, one of the most alluring aspects of the living on a farm is learning to utilize fresh produce all-year round. Whether you’re storing, preserving, pickling or crunching into a spear of asparagus fresh out of the soil, there ain’t nothing quite like biting into some really fresh, homemade food.  Despite the fact that both Anet and Ian are afraid of birds, they’re also excited to start a farm and get some chickens—and we’re excited for them!  (We miss our little Colorado flock!) Anet and Ian’s plan after their wedding is to begin their family farm in the hills of Ireland and we couldn’t be happier for them.  As long as they share their vegetables.  

    Shooting weddings on farms feels like we’re part of a family or something.  Like we can hear the dinner bell and remember to hide the grass stains on our knees.  It’s the comfort of a shared table, the waves of chatter, and the clanking of glasses and silverware.  It’s the raucous bursts of laughter. There’s so much warmth in my thoughts when I think of farm life that it makes photographing weddings on farms one of my favorite things to do.  It may be because of the fresh food and long summer evenings—or maybe—it’s just the company we find ourselves in.

Our First Colorado Wedding Weekend of 2019

Colorado Outdoor Wedding Photographer | Apollo Fields | Long Island Wedding Photographer | Golden, CO | Longmont, CO | Altona Grange Hall | The Pines at Genesee | Clear Creek |

Wow. What a weekend. Two weddings, an engagement shoot, a maternity session and all of the friends, outdoors, and craft beer in between.  Back when I was bartending in New York City in my mid-twenties, my older regulars would always say, “your twenties are great—but just wait for your thirties,” and I never quite believed them because my life was dope AF.  But now as we come back to New York after this epic extended weekend of professionalism mixed with genuine connections and long-lasting friendships, I’m beginning to understand what they were talking about.

    At Apollo Fields we like to be as connected to our couples as much as possible.  That means spending time with them and their families, laughing through the embarrassing stories, and working through the inevitable bumps in the road that hosting a wedding brings. At Naomi and Johnny’s outdoor wedding in Colorado this past weekend at the Pines at Genesee, we saw some familiar faces (Naomi’s cousin is Dylan Kintish, whose wedding to Alli Bell we shot in the August 2017) and embraced new ones.  We’ve sort of become their family photographers and we’re loving every second of it!  Every wedding we shoot we get a little better at inserting ourselves into these wonderful intimate circles that envelope our couple’s lives; and every wedding we shoot our storytelling ability gets that much stronger, especially as we develop these long-lasting relationships with our couples and their families.

    Speaking of lasting relationships, we captured these maternity shots of Lindsey and her husband, Jeff, who got married in November 2017 at Grant-Humphrey’s Mansion. It humbles us to know that our previous couples trust us to continue to document the most pivotal moments of their lives. In the coming weeks, once Lindsay and Jeff’s baby is born, Heather will also be their newborn photographer and storyteller, and it’s these deeper connections that enrich our hearts long after we hear the couple say, “I Do.”    

    Another wonderful couple of ours, Casey and Thomas, had an outdoor wedding in Colorado at Altona Grange Hall in Longmont this weekend.  Our trusted photography associate, Sara, captured their destination wedding beautifully, telling us of their community-centric approach.  Casey and Thomas held a two-hour cocktail hour to offer more time to connect with their guests who traveled a long way to enjoy their special day.  They even gave a personal heartfelt toast to express their gratitude to all who made the trip. We love when our couples explore the customizations of wedding planning and cater to their values rather than outdated traditions.  

    Then there was this engagement session in Golden Gate Canyon State Park with our dear friends, Kat and Brett.  I developed a great relationship with Kat while bartending at Oasis Brewing Company in Denver, but it was this session that made me realize our friendship is in for the long haul.  Kat and Brett are goofy but professional, serious but light-hearted, and celebrate their rough edges with a self-deprecating elegance. Documenting these intimate moments brought us all closer together as we helped them conquer the shyness that freezes most couples when they pose in front of the lens.  “We couldn’t imagine anyone else taking these photos,” Kat said.  Funny thing is, I couldn’t imagine anyone else taking them either.  It made me think, who else should document these intimate moments in your life other than people who make you feel most comfortable, most yourself, and most happy?  I don’t mean to toot our own horns (OK, maybe I do), but this entire trip set in cement what Apollo Fields is all about.

    At Apollo Fields, we connect with our couples. We embrace the raw and the genuine. We don’t settle for anything other than what your soul carries. We don’t just want to be a part of your wedding day, we want to be part of your lives.

So if my twenties were about exploring the world to find myself, then my thirties are about finding who I want to spend my life with.  And I gotta admit—after this trip—our lives are looking pretty damned good.