Friday Venue Spotlight: Tribeca Rooftop

What’s not to love about Tribeca? It’s one of New York’s most prestigious neighborhoods with an old world feel and home to a venue we shoot at quite often: Tribeca Rooftop. This open layout space and glass canopy ceiling is amazing, mostly for the view from up top but also for its versatility. You can turn the main space into anything your creative mind can dream up, we’ve seen it go from whimsical to retro to gatsby! We’ve seen it take on so many looks and feels and we love capturing its grandeur. Plus, we have the cobblestone streets right outside for portraits which makes for a great break during the party!

Photos by all of us here at Craig Paulson Photography:

Craig and Pippa’s 15th Anniversary

Today marks a very special day for Craig & Pippa-they’ve been married 15 years! For their own wedding in Upstate New York, they had the fabulous photos published in Martha Stewart Weddings Fall 2001 issue and we’re just swooning over the images and vibe of their day!

As we pop open some champagne for them, have a look at their sweet day.

Photographed by Bobby Fisher

Around the home: Photo Display

With Pinterest giving us an infinite amount of ideas on how to display photos and decorate your home, the time has never been better to get your creative juices flowing!

Most of our newlyweds walk away with over 1000 photos, edited and ready to be used! While many of our couples end up getting an album designed (thanks to The Album Room!) you may be left wondering what to do with the rest of them! You have them all digitally, how do you remember that one special day together and more importantly how to you even chose just one?!  If you have your high resolution files (you always do with us!) you can take it to ours or any lab of your choice to make prints.  Here are a few pins that we absolutely love the idea and a few of our own awesome clients’ ways of incorporating their wedding photos into their home.

We love a good collage: here are two examples (if you look hard enough you’ll see one of Craig’s photos in there!) of a really well done black and white wall from one of our 2014 brides

Tuesday Venue Spotlight: The Foundry

There are just some venues around the city where it seems every frame is amazing-the architecture, decor and general vibe of the place all lend to this. The Foundry is one of our favorite places to shoot-from the ivy covered brick walls, the industrial main space, hanging candle tea lights in the foyer and not to mention the sun drenched courtyard with original cobblestone! Their preferred team of vendors is always incredible, which makes it even more of a joy to shoot at! If you are considering a modern wedding in Long Island City, look no further.

Photos by all of us here at Craig Paulson Photography

Behind the scenes at Craig Paulson Photography

Let’s face it: choosing a photographer is a hard decision and once you find one you can rest assured that a major list item has been checked off! Now what do you do? Maybe you hunt Pinterest for those perfect moments and create a board, or talk to your girlfriends who also used the same photographer (very common!) but how do you know how they work on your wedding day unless you’ve seen them in action?

Craig and the team have been capturing weddings for many years now and it’s safe to say we’ve seen it all! Your photographer often plays many roles-like helping to button the dress because they know a faster way (based on past experiences) or even helping Mom out during an emotional moment and not to mention directing the formal photos to make sure everyone is in place and captured efficiently so as to get to the party stat!
With the help from some of our couples, we’ve collected some stories and images to help you see how fast and hard we work, how we shoot and get into those crazy positions for the perfect angle for the shot! We’re constantly running around capturing those little bubbles of moments that are always happening in every event. We squish ourselves into the middle of the dance floor to photograph that perfect split move (you nailed it just like MJ). We sneak around during the ceremony to catch Grandma wiping her eyes, climb to high places for that awesome sunset view of the cocktail hour. If we can get there, we’re going to, through any situation that may be.

From Tara, “The vendor choice I knew would be most important to me in the long run was of our photographer, and Craig and his team exceeded all our expectations. Their photos beautifully capture the entire day, and they gamely trooped in the rain with all their equipment through Central Park’s Ramble after the reception for an extra shoot that remains one of our favorite memories of the day.”

From Susannah: “My husband and I could not have been happier with Craig. Very professional, extremely talented, and barely noticed him on the wedding day. The pictures turned out phenomenal, and are easily our best keepsake from the wedding. He did not miss a moment. We are so impressed!!”

From Amy “As my day approached the weather promised a tropical rain storm. Craig worked with me on ideas about how we could make the most of the photos in the weather. On my wedding day Craig and Kim were extremely professional and personable. We all braved the rain and went outside for all of our pictures, with rain boots and umbrellas! My pictures turned out amazing.”

From Sandra: “Courtney did a fantastic job photographing our wedding. She really listened to what we wanted and did a wonderful job walking the line between being really easy and fun to hang out with for the day, and going unnoticed to capture candid moments and let us just enjoy our day without feeling like we were in the photographic spotlight. Photo quality was awesome.

From Kelly: “Courtney is great to work with, very easy going, and she is like a little ninja running around the party, no one saw her but she saw everything! Even when she saw guests taking photos of themselves she would run up to them and tell them she would take it. She almost anticipated when the photo opps came up.

Christina & Rob’s Wedding at Bridgeview Yacht Club

It was a lovely sunny day out on Long Island for Christina and Rob’s wedding day. We drove out to meet them at their parents’ homes (right around the corner from one another) to capture their prep surrounded by their families and bridal party. Christina’s Maggie Sottero gown was absolutely perfect, which was accompanied by a birdcage veil completing the look! Rob prepped with his guys and headed to Saint Francis De Sales for the ceremony where he would see Christina for the first time as she walked down the aisle. Their ceremony was sweet as their friends and family watched on, followed by a bagpiper and bubbles just outside on the steps. It was then picture time so we headed down to the beach for a few quick photosin the brisk March air before heading to the Bridgeview Yacht club to conclude pictures and let the newlyweds get to their awesome cocktail hour! The rest of the evening was spent eating, drinking and dancing to tunes by DJs at Work. Flowers by Marine Florist and makeup by Annie Divilly.

Photographed by Caleb and Kim Espinosa, with Leandra.

Lauren & Kyle’s Wedding at the Mandarin Oriental

We couldn’t wait to share this one with you all, Lauren and Kyle were giddy and laughing the entire day and it made our job so much fun! With everything in one location, the stunning Mandarin Oriental, their day went by smoothly. Lauren prepped with her ladies while Kyle got ready at their apartment. They met in Central Park (where Kyle proposed to Lauren) for their first look and his expression when he turned around was priceless! Their bridal party awaited eagerly just down the path (with their best friend and officiant Vincent ever so kindly holding everyone’s jackets) before joining in the fun for pictures. The ceremony was sweet, touching on the lives of both Lauren and Kyle individually and as a couple, ending with a ceremonial wine glass for them to share as newlyweds! At the cocktail hour immediately following, Kyle’s dad serenaded them on the piano while everyone listened and cheered. The ballroom was turned into a stunning night time beauty complete with table markers signifying each place in the world these two travel bugs have been. We had so much fun capturing the dancing, listening to the hilarious and touching speeches, and witnessing an overall amazing party (these people know how to have a good time!).

Flowers by Floralies, Inc and Music by Hank Lane.

Photographed by Kim Espinosa and Caleb with Lorraine Ciccarelli.