My favorite part of the day came at the very end of the night. We had stepped out for a few quick, casual shots, and I figured with the chill in the air the odds weren’t playing in our favor. I would be wrong about that. Alyssa and Dave dove right in and made it work. They were lively and playful and so together, you’d never know it was anything but natural. That said everything. You’d never know it, because they were natural. You’d never know it, because when they were together, they were always natural. From the notes they wrote for one another to the vows they read, they were connected and personal and wonderful. I couldn’t have enjoyed watching them more.

Sometimes, a wedding is about so much, there’s just no way to summarize it all. You put so much into it. You hope for so much out of it. Then, when the day comes, and it’s all there – the people, the events, the planning, the decor – everything is just perfect. And that’s how it was for Rebekah and Stephen. A day packed with so much goodness from getting ready in downtown Brooklyn to being hoisted in the air during the horah, with wall-to-wall people all throughout, that’s how it was. Simply amazing.

A trace of wind in the warm fall air, memories of summer fading, winter still around the bend, I can still smell the grass and the trees. It was the type of day that made you feel good to be alive – to be happy for the simple things, like love, like life, and all the things it encompasses. In this wonderful backdrop, Morgan and Ian were, in the most beautiful way, exactly themselves. And, yes, if you were to ask, it is most distinctly possible to not be yourself on such a day, but you’d forget it could ever happen watching these two and their friends, so many from far away, and, of course their family. Everything just added up in the best way possible. As I walked off at the end of the night and the after party kept on going, I took one last look at those lights in the tent under the dark night sky. The music soared, filling the air like a soundtrack flowing into a movie, and you just knew this is exactly the type of thing it’s all about.

The voices. I still hear the voices. I see the singers step out into the ceremony, I see Brian getting them ready beforehand, and the words echo in my mind. “Nothing is going to stop us now.” From the first time they saw each other – and you can see it in Carrie’s expression – to the last dances of the day – from the decorations to the timeline to the carefully planned and perfectly executed blend they achieved – creating a day that was as relaxed as it was designed, there wasn’t a single thing that fell short of heartfelt and full. There was never a doubt in my mind that with this group of friends and family and all those smiles, that they had done it right. That indeed, nothing would stop them now. Wonderful.