Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Miami Elopement and Reception Downtown at the Rusty Pelican
Rose and I served in the Navy as Air Traffic Controllers together. We were both stationed in San Diego, California and although not attached to the same unit, hers would temporarily be assigned to mine and we even happened to attend the same training evolution in Pensacola, Florida together. We hit it off immediately and spent a ton of time studying for our upcoming advancement exam together after our trainings. We’ve been good friends ever since!
Just before Thanksgiving in 2022, I shared a post on Facebook celebrating a recent feature in Virginia Bride Magazine (view the feature here or the blog post about it here!) and she commented on my post saying “Congratulations, now come do mine!”. Her wedding was December 2nd of the same year!! I thought she was crazy!
Now, when you’re a photographer, a lot of friends say that they want you to take their photos but never really get around to it. I figured this would be the same situation, but like I do with everyone that says this, I messaged her to let her know if I could and how it would work. So, I shot my shot and she actually said yes!
Although she already had a photographer with Small Miami Weddings booked, (who did a phenomenal job, by the way. I’ll insert the photos here if they are public online.) It was only for about an hour and she asked if I would cover the rest. I didn’t want to put Rose in Christian in violation of the contract with the wedding planning service so I held off on taking photos at the actual ceremony until the other photographer said he didn’t mind if I joined him - after the photos were finished unfortunately. I was still super grateful to just be there and enjoy the insanely beautiful Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and Miami for the first time.
I was able to document the getting ready moments, some beautiful photos of the gardens, and a ton of photos at the reception at the Rusty Pelican Miami. This wedding completely lit my fire to be a destination wedding photographer and I will always want to use this career to travel the country and hopefully the world.
