A day after I featured Jennifer and Peter's engagement session on the blog, they contacted me to tell me that, even though their wedding was being rescheduled to next year, that they decided to go on with a civil ceremony in Central Park... proper social distancing guidelines adhered to, of course!
I'll let Jennifer tell the story in the review she gave me:
Planning a wedding under normal circumstances is stressful enough. Add in a global pandemic and the heartache and disappointment seem insurmountable at first. Peter and I and our families had to postpone our big church wedding and reception in NYC a month ahead of our planned wedding date on April 25, 2020. The first person I called was Bryan. In my opinion your photographer is the most important vendor you will hire for your wedding. Bryan was completely understanding throughout the whole process. He’s such an easy person to talk to. He’s captured hundreds of weddings and truly feels all the emotions with you but has such a level head on his shoulders that you know everything will be ok because he’s on your team. Bryan worked with us to find a new date even when we were going back on forth on which month was going to work for all of our vendors. But that’s not even the beginning of his amazing dedication to his work and to his clients. Peter and I made the decision to get legally married just a couple days after our planned wedding date. I phoned Bryan two days before and explained that this was all coming together very quickly and if possible we wanted him to capture our special moment on camera. The only problem is that we’re based in NYC which is dealing with some of the strictest social distancing protocols due to COVID-19. I had no expectations of him saying “yes” but Bryan replied with “of course, I will be there, I wouldn’t miss this special moment.” Bryan arrived 40 minutes early to our Central Park ceremony complete with mask and gloves and disinfectant to protect himself, his equipment and us. Bryan not only helped us set up our Zoom wedding from my iPhone and tripod, but he captured some of the most heartfelt photos before, during and after the ceremony that Peter and I could have only dreamed of. And all from a safe social distance. I’ve already ordered his photos to create photo books for our mothers in time for Mother’s Day! Life has such a funny way of working out. Through all of this recent stress, Bryan was there to put us at ease and help us memorialize our special occasion. I wish I could have given him a huge hug that day, but we are looking forward to our new big wedding date next year when we’re hopefully all well and safe again to enjoy a proper celebration! Couldn’t recommend Bryan enough! Wish we could give him 100 stars!
The New York Times recently published Jennifer and Peter's story in their Mini-Vows section, which you can read here.
A few other folks snapped the ceremony with their phones and posted it on Reddit and the West Side Rag. As the latter post said, this wedding did feel like a miracle!