I have known both Emily and Lennon for nearly twelve years. I worked with both of them previously at my job and a few years ago they decided to move out to California to pursue corporate life with the same company. We have all kept in touch over the years and last fall, Emily and Lennon tied the knot over in California with friends and family.
Soon after, they reached out to me and said they wanted to have a second (smaller) wedding here in New Jersey in December. They asked me if I can shoot photos for them. I quickly said yes and we set up a call to go over all the details. It was going to take place in Asbury Park, with the ceremony and the reception happening at Porta. Emily and Lennon had said they wanted to get some photos on the boardwalk before the big event.
We were all excited and ready to go. But, only a day or two before their big day, Emily and Lennon had decided to cancel the wedding. In December, COVID was running wild and it seemed like everybody was getting it. Many guests who were supposed to attend the wedding ended up testing positive so the decision was made to postpone everything. Emily and Lennon had reached out to me a few months later, asking if I would be available on June 30th to shoot the newly rescheduled wedding. Luckily, I had that day free and I agreed.
The day started with Emily getting ready at the Asbury Hotel and Lennon getting ready at an AirBnb close by. I met Lennon in the lobby of the Asbury Hotel while Emily finished getting ready upstairs. While we waited, Lennon and I caught up on life and took a few photos of him around the lobby. The lobby of the Asbury Hotel is beautiful and distinctly Asbury Park. There was a wall full of cassette tapes and records, which is where Lennon and I spent most of our time. We took some photos against exposed brick walls and at a lounge with some really nice backlighting.
Once Emily was finished getting ready upstairs, she came down to the lobby where we did the first look. Even though Emily and Lennon were technically already married a few months ago, it still felt really special (there may have even been some tears, but not from Emily and Lennon).
One I finished wiping my eyes, we all left the Asbury Hotel and proceeded to the boardwalk with some family members so we could get some more creative shots of Emily and Lennon. Asbury Park has no shortage of great location spots, so we started at the Convention Center and made our way down to the Casino.
Along the way, we danced in the Convention Center, took tequila shots with strangers, played mini golf, and ate cotton candy before making it to the end of the boardwalk. As we passed by a restaurant on the boardwalk with outdoor seating, everybody was shouting “congratulations” to Emily and Lennon except for two people enjoying lunch who wanted to celebrate the bride and groom with shots for all of them. They asked which alcohol Emily and Lennon preferred and Emily quickly rattled off “tequila”!
After enjoying some tequila shots, Emily and Lennon thought it would be a fun idea to stage a game of mini golf. The workers at the mini golf stand let Emily and Lennon play a hole for free. Emily somehow got a hole-in-one on her first shot, which made it very difficult for Lennon to match. While Lennon didn’t get a hole-in-one on his putt, his did get the ball in on two hits. This was a fun experience that not only created great photos, but also great memories.
Emily had mentioned to me before I arrived on wedding day that she wanted to try and re-create a photo that was taken of her sister and her husband. It was a photo of them both walking and eating cotton candy on the boardwalk. As we walked down the boardwalk, we kept an eye out for any place that sold cotton candy. Towards the end of the boardwalk we found a place called Coney Waffle Ice Cream and Sweet Shop that sold some. I have a lot of cotton candy photos to look through and may have to do some editing magic to make the cotton candy to look a little better but I think they came out really cool. We even had her sister and husband take the cotton candy to re-create their own original photo.
We finished our trip along the boardwalk with pictures at the casino and some photos against a fence with locks.
Because Emily and Lennon were already married, the ceremony was a little less traditional and it consisted of Emily and Lennon giving speeches and thanking everybody for attending.
We used a lot of the reception time to get family photos and a whole bunch of pictures of Emily partying to Britney Spears songs. I was also able to capture some photos of Emily and Lennon cutting their cake (although there was no fork around so they used the cutting knife to feed each other).
It was nearly a year in the making, but I’m so happy I was able to finally capture Emily and Lennon tying the knot (for their second time). I can’t wait to get working on their photos and making sure they’re able to remember these moments forever.
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