How can it get any cooler than the bride having blue hair for her wedding? Oh, I guess you could also have a SNOW MACHINE going during the reception (it's actually soap but that's between you and me).
Chelsea and Sam were my first wedding of 2023, starting it off early on January 8th. They picked a beautiful venue, The Madison in Riverside NJ, a very classy space that still has some elements of rustic charm like the large indoor stone fireplace.
The Madison's bridal suite is easy to access from the main entrance, and has several large mirrors making it great for creative photos and for hair & makeup. It's large enough for at least 5-10 people to be seated comfortably and for a few to be getting hair/makeup at a time!
It was a bit cold outside, so we tried to hurry with the first look and family formals outside! Normally this outdoor fireplace area is used for ceremonies, but in January it's nicer for all the guests to have the ceremony indoors.
Although we had less than 30 minutes to do Chelsea and Sam's bridal portraits, we used several spaces of the venue with some different lighting setups. The first was a beautiful waterfall on a thin pane of glass that we could just barely see through, it was a unique creative angle I tried going for to add something different to the session! Next we used the absolutely stunning Pub area, which was fortunately closed for the day giving us full access for as long as we needed. I put two speedlights off-camera at different angles and used the large mirror walls to get some really fun shots of Chelsea on the bar. Finally we used the large window in the reception room to get simple natural light at a 90 degree angle, Rembrandt style!
The ceremony was so sweet and emotional, you could really tell that Chelsea and Sam are a perfect couple and were very excited for this moment!
Just jumping into the next part of the fun, let's just show some favorites from the reception!!