Morgan and Tyler: New Orleans Wedding Photograhy
New Orleans Wedding Photography
Morgan and Tyler tie the knot at the Arts Estuary
New Orleans is a know-who city. That doesn’t mean you don’t need know-how too. But word-of-mouth is the absolute best advertisement for a New Orleans Wedding Photographer. It was word-of-mouth that brought me to Morgan and Tyler.
Morgan and one of her bridesmaids-to-be, Sam, in Costa Rica
A few years ago, I stepped in super last minute to photograph Amber and Tatum’s wedding in Costa Rica (there once existed a blog post on that incredible destination wedding but it got destroyed in a giant wordpress firey disaster. I’ll have to recreate it one of these days! The photos are so good!). Their photographer had bailed and they had less than two weeks to find someone who could fly down there and capture their day. My neighbor was a friend of theirs and on a sleepy Ash Wednesday (the day after Mardi Gras), she put us in touch. Thankfully they waited until they’d slept off their revelry to look at my portfolio. Not two weeks later I was in Jaco, Costa Rica photographing my first Destination Wedding abroad.
I did a little saving-of-the-day at that wedding where Morgan and Tyler were guests. So when it came time to hire someone for theirs they knew they wanted to work with me. We met for coffee with their two dogs and they told me about the incredible wedding they were DIY’ing at the Arts Estuary. There were in leadership positions with Krewe DeLune and weren’t strangers to throwing massive parties for thousands. Fortunately, their guest list was closer to 150. The explained how they planned to transform the Arts Estuary (which was a shell of a warehouse behind a big beautiful house on Elysian Fields. Trees were growing up through the old warehouse frame and the whole place was lined by brick walls covered in vines. Cute!) into multiple lounges and a dance floor as well as an elegant ceremony space. Their date was late September which could go any which way in terms of weather. There was no rain contingency. So we all crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.
A flawless engagement session
After an incredible Engagement Session in City Park (I will blog about it I promise!) I had to wait almost a year for the wedding! But it proved to be well worth the wait. I met Morgan and her ladies at a spot they’d rented in the Treme. Watching her mother and grandmother tear up when she revealed herself in her STUNNING gown was enough to melt the coldest of hearts. The deep V illusion neckline and mermaid silhouette were a daring choice but she wore it amazingly well. The bridal party was huge and included a few bridesmen (which you know I love) but just the gals were hanging out at the house.
We staged their first look downstairs in the courtyard. I went ahead and gave myself a blister sweeping all of the fall debris from the bricks and my second photographer, Traven Stout, helped me move about a million gourds out of the shot (look, I know it was the Fall but I like my photos to feel timeless, mmkay?). It has been perfectly cloudy all day. Right up until it was time to shoot outdoors. Rats! Tyler and Morgan were amazingly patient while we waited for a cloud to cover their first look spot. Once again, the waiting was worth it and their first look was literally picture perfect (they are one hella good looking couple. They really made my job pretty easy!). I didn’t need to pose them for portraits really because the way they moved together was already very flattering.
From there we all headed to the venue where their friends were busy putting the final touches on everything. The community they had fostered really came through for their wedding. Everyone pitched in to design lighting, DJ, setup and break down all of the lounges, make and hang decor, and even laser cut a logo to be projected onto the brick walls. I was impressed by how beautiful the space looked (and wanted half that decor for my own house!). Tyler said they had been collecting furniture over the last year to build those spaces. The effect was elegant and eccentric without being overly kitschy or pinteresty. (Although someone had inexplicably hidden Pokemon cards all over the place.)
The processional was like a red-carpet walk at a blockbuster premiere. The guests cheered as their friends walked down the aisle. And when Morgan appeared- I thought some folks might lose their mind. She looked so incredible, her Dad wore a million-dollar smile, and Tyler beamed with pride at the altar they had made with their friends. The ceremony was sweet with hand-written vows, teary-eyed readings from friends, and the perfect amount of laughter.
The way that their friends and family talked about them in speeches had everyone tearing up (and Morgan and Tyler held hands between their wicker thrones the entire time). The love people felt for Morgan and Tyler was palpable in that tree-lined space. I recognized many of the people there not only from Amber and Tatum’s wedding but from all different aspects of New Orleans. Morgan and Tyler built a community of all sorts of people but they blended together perfectly for their sticky but sweet September wedding.
As they paraded off to the after-party, someone yelled “I love you Lady!”. I have no idea who that was but “I love you” right back atcha.
Looking for a New Orleans Wedding Photographer? Turns out, I know a great one.
