Amy & Corey
There are certainly some cool perks to be a wedding and portrait photographer. On the surface the travels and hanging out in expensive venues and working with pseudo celebrity clients can be really fun. And it is really fun don’t get me wrong, but the really amazing stuff is getting to meet some amazing people. Amy and Corey are some truly amazing people.
Last year Corey hired us to photograph his proposal to Amy in Times Square. It was the end of February and freezing outside but we had a great time with these two!
Once they started planning the wedding we hoped to be involved. As the plans went on and different ideas were suggested Amy and Corey decided to elope in Italy!
Getting married in Italy is not easy if you’re foreign, tons of paperwork and permissions to get. These two wanted to do it right though and took a trip over there earlier this year to solidify the plans. The venue they chose was the magnificent Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como in Northern Italy. If you’ve never been to Lake Como we highly suggest planning a trip!
The day of the wedding arrived and our team and the videography team headed over to the other lake in the area, Lugano, where Amy and Corey rented a private villa for the week. We loved photographing all the little thoughtful details and preparations for the day. So beautiful!
After Amy and Corey were dressed and ready they shared a first look on the balcony of their villa overlooking Lake Lugano. The weather was a moody, with clouds low hanging over the mountains but we loved the light and feel of their romantic day!
The ceremony at Villa del Balbianello was perfectly official and intimate. Not sure how to explain any other way than that. We arrived at the Villa where Amy and Corey’s planner/translator Romina and the mayor of the small Italian where the Villa is located were ready. The mayor himself had to marry the couple which was really awesome actually! Amy and Corey had arranged with us to be their witnesses for the ceremony which we’ve done many times in the past. Although the mayor had us stand as close to the couple as possible to “witness” the ceremony taking place. but as photographers it’s our job to also document. With ourselves and the videography team it was a careful dance to get the shots we needed all while being an actual part of the ceremony!
It was also really nice to take a few moments throughout the ceremony and really listen and watch what was happening for this young couple. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in the “needing to document” you forget why we are all there to begin with.
After the ceremony we photographed Amy and Corey all around the grounds of the Villa del Balbianello before hopping into a boat and taking a tour of Lake Como. The Villa has been featured in several major motion pictures, including the wedding location for Padme and Anakin in the Star Wars films and the modern James Bond films. We had a great time laughing about that and telling Amy and Corey we would be the best R2D2 and C3PO droids for them!
On our tour of Lake Como we stopped in the little villages of Bellagio and Varenna for some more portraits. After we all headed back across the lake to Villa Belvedere for a small reception for the two newlyweds. They cut their wedding cake, tiramisu, in the most epic way with sparklers going off behind them and had their first dance to a cover of a beautiful Taylor Swift song.
The amazing video team, Twenty-One films, has also posted the highlights from the day on Lake Como. Definitely something you should check out right now!
We are very lucky to have met Amy and Corey and have them let us into such a big moment in their lives. We are truly honored to have captured these memories and experience this with you! Thank you!
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