If you wake up on your wedding day and it is overcast you should rejoice that you have the biggest, most flattering softbox possible. On this particular cloudy day, I was photographing Jihye and Matt’s wedding at Philadelphia City Hall. These images are pure dreamy. They belong in magazines and on book covers. It was chilly that day but the quality of light was creamy and wonderful!
I met them at Race Street Pier for some pictures of just the two of them before the vows. We had the place all to ourselves.
I couldn’t get enough of Jihye’s sleek chiffon wedding dress. She came up with the concept for it and had it made here in Philly.
I learned that the two met while in business school at Dartmouth. Matt and a group of friends went out looking for a party one night that he discovered didn’t exist. By happenstance he found Jihye, sitting in the lobby and studying in a full body down jacket (she’s always cold) and Matt immediately found her beautiful.
Talk of inner-school romances travel fast there so they had their first date about 10 miles off of campus at a sweet little Italian restaurant.
Matt travels a lot for work and often sends Jihye letters from his trips. On the weekend before Thanksgiving 2012, they went for brunch at the first place they had eaten after moving to New York together. They went for a walk in Riverside Park along the Hudson where they had strolled many times before. This time, though, Matt gave her another letter and a ring.
We made our way to Philadelphia City Hall for their ceremony and took some shots in the spectacular stairwells of the building.
We also took the opportunity to wander around. You would never know it by the boring hallways that there are some of the most marvelous rooms inside the corridors.
After a bit of a wait in the holding room, their names were announced and the couple’s family and friends were ushered into a small library for a snappy ceremony.
Their guests gathered outside for a bubble exit.
Sometimes the adjustment to married life isn’t easy.
The evening ended at Pumpkin where the group gathered for champagne and a private dinner. Matt even made sure that they served the same wine that they had on their first date at the Italian restaurant.
It was a beautiful day and I loved being there for Bug and Goof/Goofball/Fuzz. You two made it too easy!
“Time is nothing. The desire to love is everything.”
~ Nostradamus
Dressmaker: Irina Sigal
