An Elegant Oceanside Connecticut Wedding
“He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.”
Just a few miles north of New York City there’s an exit off of i95 to Darien CT. It’s not exactly a bustling metropolis and after a few random turns here and there through beautiful old homes and quaint streets at the end of the road is the Tokeneke Club. Right on the water with a beautiful beach right behind it and tennis courts in front the club is a beautiful round building with a retractable ceiling and ambient light bouncing all over the place inside. If you’ve made it this far you’ve seen the images that tell a story I couldn’t possibly but I’ll tell a few of my favorite moments that you might miss without words. Tyler and Megan are a really special couple. At absolute first glance in the planning of this wedding you might think of them as two type A’s with very high standards planning a wedding that was absolutely over the top. If you thought that though - which to be completely honest occured to me a time or two, you would have missed the truth all together. The more I got to know these two the more clear something really special became to me. Tyler is absolutely high maintenance, but not selfishly. In fact - what he really is - is perfectly willing to ask anything of anybody as long as it makes Megan happy. He’s fiercely focused on her joy and making her feel beautiful and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a groom focus so much on his own wedding day on that very detail. The first thing Tyler did to me on his own wedding day was jump out of a party bus to hug me, compliment my tuxedo, and then ask immediately “How is Megan? Is she happy and doing alright?” From this moment I was struck with the truth, Tyler is obsessed with Megan. How do I know that though? Because he said so in his toast to her that evening. You read that right, this guy took the time to toast TO his wife just a few hours after they said their vows and after retelling the story of how they met and explaining just how beautiful Megan has made his life thus far he asked her to join him on the dance floor for their first dance. If you weren’t crying - you weren’t listening. This man is epic and what’s more, he married a perfect counterpart. Megan is a thinker - perhaps even an over thinker a bit. So to combat her getting into her own head on the wedding day she surrounded herself with beautiful, kind, funny friends who reminded her just how exciting this day was going to be. The moment she slipped on her dress with only her mom in the room was one of the most beautiful silent and sweet moments I’ve ever seen on a wedding day. Her way down the aisle with tears running down both of their faces she was radiant and present and calm but more than anything what Megan was on this day was absolutely elegant. She put hours, months, years of planning into this day (her friends joked that it was all she’s thought about since she was a kid). From countless hours in the gym to feel as beautiful in her gown as she looked, to the soft little kisses and glances she’d give Tyler throughout the day Megan may have been planning a wedding but she was already fully prepared to be an amazing wife to this guy. I was blown away at their joy together for song after song on the dance floor. She’d turn and dance with her friends for a moment, he’d get pulled away to laugh and hang with the fellas for a few minutes but they were never more than arms length away from each other always looking for an opportunity to pull each other back in for more time together. Keep in mind I flew about 1,500 miles for this wedding and though I love these two and their families so much didn’t know them nearly as well as most of the other guests but the time they spent making me feel welcome, saying thank you for the work that had been put in, and including me in the fun was remarkable. So, here we are. They’re in Bali, or Tahiti, or Fiji or some place remarkable right now, no doubt perfectly content and present just being together, and I’m sitting on my couch back in Arkansas with a dumb smile on my face that after a year of planning and dreaming about this wedding what came together was better than I could have possibly imagined. I’m so grateful for these friendships. So proud to see familiar faces in this group. I love that I got to dance with Heather + Mike (our very first big destination wedding) and then Ashley + Jason (Heather’s little sister and brother in law who got married last year in New York) and even their parents Anne + Don. (When I remember parent’s names you know they’ve left an impression). I loved spending time chatting with Rich + Joanne, Megan’s parents about how beautiful everything had come together. I loved getting to know Lara (the wedding planner) and the members of the band. I loved having a chance to shoot destination along side Max which happens less and less these days because our schedules typically have us at different weddings. I loved so many parts of this day but more than anything I loved that thought I showed up to do a job on this day and I feel like we did it very well, it felt so much more like time spent with friends celebrating along side them. I can’t wait for another wedding with this group! Now back to trying to find a way to sort nearly 10,000 images from one very long, very beautiful day.
