BRIARCLIFF MANOR WEDDING

It seems like just yesterday that Maryam, Jeff, & I met up in White Plains for a coffee. That day, we talked wedding logistics, unprecedented events, and our general interests. The next time we met up was for their engagement session at Kenisco Dam, which was a *dam* good time. Sorry.

As you can imagine, wedding planning during ANY time of the year can be stressful. Wedding planning in 2020? That’s in a caliber all on its own. However, Maryam & Jeff totally held it down. They were truly such a joy to be around any day I spent time with them; their energy, love, and level-headedness on their wedding day was contagious. 10/10 would do it again.

And all of it was possible with the help of the amazing vendors,

Planning – Weddings by Debra
Venue – Briarcliff Manor
Hair – Britt Bridal Hair
Makeup – Essie Cohen Makeup
Florals – Whispering Pines Florist
Band – Stolen Moments
Desserts – La Tulipe Desserts

THE LOGISTICS OF A WINTER WEDDING

If I haven’t said it enough in previous posts/blogs, I’ll say it again: the wedding day timeline is the most essential tool to perfect for your wedding day, especially on a day when the sun is gone at 4pm. I’ll lay out the basics of how Maryam & Jeff’s day went, so if there’s anyone out there looking to say I do in the winter, you’ll be plenty prepared.

I’m a planner. I don’t mean in the wedding vendor sense, though, I mean in the over-prepared-can’t-hurt-to-triple-check sense. If you’ve seen Jane the Virgin, I’m Jane-level list-making/logistic planning. For this reason, I arrived extra early to Maryam & Jeff’s, as I do with every wedding I photograph. This ensures that the first part of the day has at least 30 extra minutes of free time! #lifehack.

Their ceremony was at 2:30, expected to last until 3:15 (it ended at around 3!) and then we’d have until 5pm for family photos & couple’s portraits. As you can see in the gallery below, the portraits taken right at sunset — 4:30pm — came out *perfect.* The sky was clear of clouds, the colors were cotton candy pink & purple, and we still had plenty of dynamic lighting with the beautiful string lights on the back patio of the Manor.

If you’re planning on a winter wedding, this is just one of the timeline blueprints you can keep on the back burner to ensure all the important stuff gets done before sunset.

SOME LOVELY WORDS FROM MARYAM & JEFF

“Some of our most cherished memories together are ones where we’ve headed out on an adventure, and no adventure could be bigger than planning a wedding in the middle of a global pandemic during a hotly contested election season. From bending the rules during a beautifully decisive day we’ll never forget at the Kensico Dam, to all of the extra prep necessary in making our wedding day a success, it was a wild ride we won’t trade for anything. Having Melissa and Sava on hand to document these hugely special days made it all easy and was a total weight off our shoulders!”

Now, onto the photos.