Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium Intimate Wedding

Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium Intimate Wedding | Centerport, New York Weddings | Long Island Microwedding Photography | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographers

Meghan & Samuel

Like many other industries, photographing fellow wedding industry pros can go one way or another— either it is a total dream or the experience backfires and you end up with a micromanaging know-it-tall. Luckily for me, Meghan and Sam’s wedding was the former!! It was exactly that: a total dream!

This sweet couple unfortunately had their original wedding plans totally derailed by COVID but still wanted to honor their love by getting married this year. The plan was to postpone the big wedding to 2021, but as the year continued on, they ultimately decided that this wedding would be the wedding— and honestly, I can relate so hard to this! Planning any wedding celebration is a lot of moving parts even in non-pandemic times, and I cannot imagine how tough it must be to have everything turned upside down and then trying to reconfigure multiple weddings.

At the end of the day, the most important part of a wedding– whether it is just two people or two hundred people–is the love between the couple and their commitment to one another. Meghan summed it up best when she said, “ I work in the wedding industry and love attention to details” she started, “But for myself, I would say to ignore any pressures to deliver anything perfect! If there is anything that 2020 has taught us, it is the importance of family and health and spending it with the ones you love most”.

That is exactly how their wedding felt, too! Meghan and Samuel exchanged their vows in front of six guests at the Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium in Centerport, NY. The venue is stunning and sits right up against the water. We were lucky to have a perfect autumn morning and were able to have the ceremony at the fountain in the back of the courtyard. Their ceremony was personalized and so sentimental, and I think that because it was so intimate, their promises were that much more special.

After they exchanged the vows, rings, and “I do’s”, Meghan and Sam had their first dance in the courtyard followed by parent dances. You could just feel how light and easy the day was flowing without all the chaos of hundreds of guests and tight timelines to stick to, and I admit that it makes a big difference as a photographer, too, to be able to lean into my creativity instead of worrying about huge shot lists and complicated moving parts.

We were able to do family photos without needing a party planner, an ambassador, and an assistant all coordinating people and then I was able to steal the couple for some romantics of just the two of them without having to rush them back to cocktail hour in five minutes. Such a luxury! We wrapped up the morning with a sweet cake cutting and a quick toast before heading out and I left the venue just beaming with happiness for this amazing couple!