Rachel and Dave aren’t New York people. Well, Not really. They met in Denver, fell for each other while working together (there may have been some deliberate coffee runs happening), and ended up in New York because that’s where work took them. But they’ve always known they’re woods people at heart – unlike many tried-and-true New Yorkers, this city was just a chapter, not the whole story.
Which is why getting married here, in the middle of their temporary urban life, felt surprisingly perfect. I’ve always thought that there’s something special about marking a permanent commitment in a place you’re only passing through – another chapter in a long, beautiful story.
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NY City Hall Wedding Highlights
When they first reached out, their plan was simple: City Hall ceremony, then straight to a restaurant with friends and family. Done in one day, one sweep. But when we talked it through, I found myself suggesting something I don’t recommend to everyone – split it into two days.
Keep the ceremony itself just for them, let friends and family join right after for photos around the city, then celebrate properly with dinner the next evening.
What I’ve learned photographing intimate NYC weddings is that introverted couples often make plans that look good on paper but feel exhausting in practice. The idea of having everyone watch you exchange vows, then being “on” until the last guest leaves at night – performing emotions, making small talk, being the center of attention for twelve straight hours – it’s a lot. And for Rachel and Dave, who are the kind of people who recharge in quiet spaces, I felt like it was going to be too much for them.
So that’s what they did, they split it. Just the two of them for the actual ceremony inside City Hall. Then friends and family waiting outside to celebrate with them, walking around Lower Manhattan together. And the next day, a proper dinner at F&F’s in Fort Greene.
Just the Two of Them: City Hall
City Hall weddings have this specific energy that’s hard to describe if you haven’t been to one. There’s the marble and the echo and the fluorescent lights, and there are usually three or four other couples waiting their turn, all of you in this strange liminal space between engaged and married. It’s bureaucratic and romantic all wrapped together that makes something quintessentially one-of-a-kind.
Getting Hitched: The Ceremony
Rachel wore vintage – the kind that photographs with real texture and weight. Dave kept glancing at her like he couldn’t quite believe this was happening, which is the exact thing I’m always watching for. Not the posed smile, but the moment before someone remembers to pose.
They said their vows to each other with no audience except the officiant, the parents and me. There’s something about keeping that part private that makes it yours in a way it can’t be when two hundred people are watching.
Meeting Everyone After: Confetti, Hugs & City Hall Steps
And then we walked outside.
Their friends and family were waiting on the steps – maybe fifteen people who’d been pacing and checking their phones and trying not to be too obviously excited. The moment Rachel and Dave came through those doors, married, there was this eruption of joy. Confetti everywhere (the kind that gets in your hair and happily stays there for hours), people laughing, crying, and hugs that lasted longer than usual.
Rachel’s friends gathered closely around her, celebrating in the moment. Someone clapped Dave on the back so hard he stumbled forward. There was confetti sticking to Rachel’s vintage dress. And the vibrant red and orange bouquet from Vivi Fleurz looked even more alive against all that marble and concrete.
This is the part I loved about their approach – they’d kept the ceremony private, but they didn’t ask their people to wait until the next day to celebrate with them. Everyone got to be part of the immediate joy, the just-married giddiness, the “we actually did it” feeling that happens in those first minutes.
Walking Around Together
We spent the next hour or so wandering around the City Hall area. The group moved together, sometimes bunched up, sometimes spread out. We passed the food carts (there’s one shot with a Sabrett umbrella in the background that makes me laugh because it’s so specifically New York).
I watched Rachel’s friend place a veil in her hair while she howled with laughter. I watched Dave’s brother take about fifty photos on his phone, trying to get the perfect one. I watched the whole group pause at a crosswalk, this cluster of dressed-up people in the middle of regular city traffic, everyone else just trying to get somewhere and not particularly impressed that these two just got married.
That’s the thing about City Hall weddings in NY – the chaos doesn’t stop for you. Tourists keep taking photos of the building. Workers keep rushing past with their lunch orders. Someone’s yelling into their phone about a problem you know nothing about. And somehow that makes your small, important moment feel both more intimate and more universal at the same time.
There’s one shot I got of Rachel and Dave slightly separated from the group, standing close together while everyone else was a few feet away looking at something. They’re not posing. Dave’s holding her shoulders and they’re both genuinely laughing, you can see in their posture that they’re completely in their own world despite being surrounded by people and city noise. That’s the one that shows you what the day actually felt like.
The Next Day: F&F’s and Family
The next evening, everyone gathered at F&F’s to celebrate Rachel and Dave. I met up with them before heading to dinner to catch a few photos on the way.
Rachel had changed into a different vintage dress (the woman has taste, what can I say), and the three of us had the best time wandering around Brooklyn, still riding the high from yesterday and eagerly anticipating the evening to come.
Celebrating Rachel & Dave
F&F’s is the kind of restaurant that understands what intimate means. It’s not trying to be a wedding venue – it’s just a really good restaurant that happens to work perfectly for twenty people who want to eat well and actually talk to each other.
they’d worked with Vivi Fleurz to create arrangements that felt abundant without taking over the space. There were deck of cards instead of a traditional guestbook – everyone got to write on a card, something Rachel and Dave could pull out and read one at a time over the years. I loved that. Most guestbooks get looked at once and then live in a closet. These would get shuffled and rediscovered.
During speeches, someone mentioned the Denver days, the “definitely just coworkers” phase that everyone knew was something more. There was laughter, some tears, a story about their puppy that I won’t spoil here. What I remember most was how Dave looked at Rachel during all of it – not at the people talking, but at her, watching her reaction to hearing their story told back to them.
After dinner, they walked to a bar a few blocks away, the whole group of them spilling out onto Fort Greene sidewalks, and I got the last few shots there. Rachel and Dave at the bar, surrounded by their people but somehow still in their own bubble. That particular kind of joy that comes from realizing you pulled off exactly what you wanted, nothing more, nothing less.
If You’re Planning Something Small, Something Special
City Hall weddings in NY have this reputation for being either extremely rushed or extremely romantic, depending on who you ask. The truth is somewhere in between. It’s what you make of it. You can show up, sign papers, leave. Or you can treat it as the significant moment it actually is – two people promising forever in a marble building in downtown Manhattan, surrounded by strangers doing the same thing, all of you part of this strange ritual that humans have been doing forever.
If you’re considering NYC elopement packages or trying to figure out how to make an intimate NYC wedding feel right for you, the best advice I can give is this: let it be small on purpose, not small because you couldn’t figure out how to make it bigger. Rachel and Dave weren’t settling for a City Hall wedding – they were choosing it. They weren’t making do with just twenty people at dinner – they were celebrating with exactly the people who mattered.
And here’s what I loved about their specific approach – they found a middle ground. They kept the ceremony private but didn’t make their people wait an entire day to celebrate with them. They had their moment, then immediately shared the joy, then gave everyone (including themselves) a break before gathering again for dinner. It’s the kind of thoughtful planning that comes from actually thinking about what you need, not what you think you’re supposed to want.
There’s power in that kind of intentionality.
And if you’re introverted, if the idea of a big wedding makes your chest tight, if you keep trying to make yourself want something you don’t actually want – there are ways to structure your day that honor who you are. Split the ceremony from the celebration. Keep your guest list tiny. Have people join for parts but not all of it. There are no rules here except the ones you make.
Rachel and Dave will leave New York eventually, head back to the woods, build whatever life they’re meant to build there. But they got married here, in this temporary chapter, and now they have these images that smell like City Hall in Lower Manhattan and taste like that very specific Fort Greene evening when everyone they loved was in one room and the food was perfect and someone made a speech that got everyone laughing and crying at the same time.
Temporary chapters deserve permanent memories too.
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