Laura + Perry // Connecticut Eolia Mansion at Harkness State Park Wedding
Laura and Perry met on Perry’s first day at NYU, started dating a couple years later, and got engaged on their ten year anniversary.
They love crazy world travel adventures that aren’t planned well enough (they were just in South Africa together), living on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village (their favorite street in the whole world), fueling and helping each other’s creative endeavors, throwing weird/fun parties, and making, eating, and discovering awesome food. They also love ice cream, movies, dancing, and going on the best honeymoon adventures.
I had such a good time shooting their engagement photos so I knew their wedding would be amazing and I was right.
Their wedding was beyond beautiful and so, so fun. Even though most of the weddings I photograph are in Austin, I do love every opportunity to photograph weddings all over the U.S. Just this month, I'll be in New York twice for two different weddings.
For this wedding, I flew to Connecticut a few days beforehand. After a few flight delays and a few airports, I made it to Waterford where I stayed at the cutest Airbnb with the best hosts who made us fresh coffee, muffins, yogurt bowls, and cookies every morning. It was basically a dream. I brought along of my favorite photo assistant Megan and my long time NYC bestie Michelle.
On the wedding day, I met up with Laura at the Airbnb where she and her friends were getting ready for the wedding. Some people were lounging on the porch, others were steaming the veil, and some were eating corndogs in the kitchen. Meeting a couple's favorite people all in place is one of my favorite parts of a wedding day.
Later on, everyone headed to Eolia, the venue, and met up with the rest of the wedding party and Megan. Eolia is a renaissance revival mansion on the water with surrounding gardens. The grounds are beautiful and open to the public. Go visit!
The ceremony was outdoors overlooking the gardens with a chuppah made of glass, twigs, and bark. Some of the groomsmen were putting the finishing touches on it when we arrived at the venue.
This wedding was old Hollywood glamour meets Laura and Perry— it was perfect.
For their reception, they partied under a white tent with string lights and chandeliers. They had their first dance while the Jurassic Park theme played in the background. There was a cotton candy machine for guests and a surprise ice cream truck showed up towards the end of the night. Their closest friends gave touching speeches and Laura's aunt oversaw the blessing of the challah. The hora was amazing. It's become a skill to simultaneously get photos of couples in the air and keep moving with the crowd.
More amazing things I loved about this wedding: The dinosaur place card holders, Instax cameras for guests, the beautiful ketubah, being next to the ocean, lobster rolls the day before the wedding, and flying out of the tiniest airport in New Haven.
They also had an incredible team of vendors that I felt lucky to work with:
Venue: Eolia Mansion
Coordinator: Stephanie Rehnberg at Atlantic Events
Tent Lighting: WT Rental
Caterer: McCue Gourmet Galley
Florist: Desert Vines
Bakery: Dagmar's Bakery
Makeup: Rouge Salon
Hair: Hair Queen
Ice Cream Truck: Flavor King
Scroll down to look through photos from this very special wedding!
Looking for a photographer for your wedding? Want to meet up and shoot some photos for your engagement, anniversary, or something else while I’m in New York? Contact me here and let’s talk.