My First Wedding Shoot Since a Decade-Long Wedding Retirement, for Vogue

A Manhattan wedding with Jessie & Joel.

Jan 13, 2025

Welcome to In the Flash, a weekly, behind-the-lens dialogue on photography. To join the conversation

Jessie is my sister’s husband’s younger sister, which makes her my sister-in-law. Jessie is also my birthday twin, both of us turning different ages on December 17, which created problems for my younger sister Yana and her husband Steve, who had to navigate the delicate balance of attending both of our separate parties for the last 17 years (until they escaped to Innsbruck, Austria, right after the pandemic). Our birthday match is also an individual case study of why astrology is a bunch of bollocks since Jessie and I are as different as two Sagittarius women can be.

One of the things we do share is a distaste for the popular style of modern wedding photography, from its natural light and washed-out colors to the bokeh effect. We both wanted to get away from the romantic sameness of wedding photography, which meant photographing the event the same way as I do any of my editorial or personal shoots, with dramatic flash and a documentary eye.

When I was a wedding photographer from about 2004-2014, I was guilty of shooting weddings differently than my personal work. I was still finding my voice and footing as a photographer and didn’t have the vision, or the guts, to approach events with my own vision instead of following a popular aesthetic trend. Jessie’s & Joel’s wedding gave me a chance to correct that, and it was probably the first time that I photographed a wedding on my own terms.

An early wedding photo, used to be my favorite in the portfolio. 2013.

Jessie also happens to be the executive director of Vogue.com, and the plan was to do a feature about her Manhattan wedding that went against the mold of traditional festivities without the usual wedding accouterments like bouquets or cake. There was instead magic by Shane Cobalt who added fireballs to the day.

City Hall, Dumplings, and Magic: How I Flipped the Script on My Manhattan Wedding by Jessie Heyman

Once Jessie wrote the feature on Vogue, I got a couple of requests for weddings, a strange and fun blast from the past. One of them seemed like a perfect match in terms of vision and style, so I’ll be shooting another wedding this April. While preparing to discuss the event with the bride, I had to do research on modern wedding photography, from popular styles to pricing packages. I was flabbergasted at some of the changes since I left the industry, so in the works is a dedicated newsletter about the current state of wedding photography.

Jessie & Joel’s wedding (Ace Hotel/China Cafe)