couple looking at each other during their traditional jewish wedding ceremony at azaleana manor in jacksonville floridai

I still cannot believe that this couple from New York chose me as their documentary wedding photographer for their Jewish traditional ceremony held in Orange Park Florida. They had a story to tell! Carolyn and Trevor are both brilliant people with a rich history. They got married at Azaleana Manor in Jacksonville, which happens to be steps away from Carolyn’s family home in Florida. In fact their house is so close to the wedding venue, that their family and friends carried the Chuppah (handmade canopy used in Jewish traditional wedding ceremonies) over to the manor in the morning.

The couple later did their first look under the Chuppah adorned with white magnolias and berries. In Carolyn’s words: “magnolias because the magnolia is a tropical tree that grew in North America before the last ice age—and when it got colder and the other tropical trees left, it was just like “nope, not changing, I live here” and stayed with its glossy leaves and giant tropical tree flowers while the tiny flowered oaks and hickories and pines moved in around it. Also blackberries because I love that blackberries enthusiastically crop up to fill the edge spaces and waste ground and kind of exist on the edge between garden plants and wild plants. They are the first food people forage from the wild — that’s edgy too.”

C + T went with the flow and let me document the day exactly as it unfolded. Carolyn had her hair done by a hairdresser who has been doing it since her childhood. Trevor and his groomsmen were incredibly fun and quirky during his solo portraits. We had way too much fun coming up with creative pictures meant to surprise Carolyn. The decorative table centerpieces consisted of magnolias and stacks of books. T + C informed me during the booking process of Carolyn’s obsession with books, so I was not one bit surprised. In fact, I am completely in love with every intricate thought-through detail of their big but deeply personal celebration.

What I enjoyed the most about C + T’s timeline was their pre-wedding reception serving light snacks and drinks while the guests played bingo and visited with the couple in separate lounge areas. The guests got to witness the couple sign their “marriage license”, the Ketubah, as family and friends sang at the top of their lungs and danced around them.

During the wedding ceremony, guests read excerpts from their favorite books and blew bubbles out into the isle. Everyone cried and laughed together as the couple said their vows. Parents held on to each other and to their children as they said their I do’s.

The traditions didn’t end there. At some point during the beginning of the reception, I found myself in the middle of Hora dancing wildly spinning in circles as I became part of the crowd, trying to capture every moment. It was indescribable. Right when I decided it couldn’t get any wilder, C + T were placed in chairs and lifted up simultaneously as the crowd sang and danced with an extra wave of enthusiasm. And THEN … they were joined by the most unlikely new guests.

Find out who joined them by scrolling through these heartfelt, magical and truly documentary wedding captures!

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