Theresa and Mike were married officially on 10/10/21. Unfortunately, it rained on their wedding day and we didn’t have the honor of photographing them the first time around. And while rain is often considered good luck, we all know Alanis Morissette may have had it right. Rain on your wedding day is not always ideal. Almost a year later, the newlyweds reached out to us about an Anniversary Session re-do so Theresa could put on her dress one more time and have the styled wedding shoot of their dreams.

The couple chose to do this session at the Alice Austen House in Staten Island, NY, overlooking the Verrazzano Bridge that connects Staten Island to Brooklyn last August 2022. Beforehand, I started to look up the Alice Austen House to scope some exterior photos and find out more information. I was BLOWN away. As a former studio art/photography major and art history minor, I could not believe I was never taught anything about Alice Austen. She was a trailblazing historical photographer and LGBTQ pioneer. Excuse me for nerding out for a second, if you’re interested in finding out more, head to the website linked in this paragraph and you can read the About section below.

From the Alice Austen website “About” section:

“The Alice Austen House fosters creative expression, explores personal identity, and educates and inspires the public through the interpretation of the photographs, life and historic home of trailblazing American photographer, Alice Austen (1866-1952).

Alice Austen (1866 – 1952) captured a changing New York City in more than 7000 photographs taken mostly around the turn of the twentieth century. Austen documented her life on Staten Island and boldly ventured onto the streets of Manhattan to photograph the activities of immigrants and the working class. She was versatile and forged her own path beyond the restrictive Victorian expectations for women. Austen was a master tennis player, an early advocate for women riding bicycles, founder of the Staten Island Garden Club, and is said to be the first woman on Staten Island to own a car.

A vibrant cultural center, the Alice Austen House keeps the bold spirit of the early American photographer alive by presenting changing exhibitions of Austen’s pioneering historic photographs and of contemporary photography, providing education programs for students, offering a range of cultural programs for the public. A Victorian Gothic Cottage that was Austen’s home serves as the museum and is located in a nationally landmarked park on the shore of Staten Island near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with sweeping views of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. The Alice Austen House and grounds are owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, operated by the Friends of Alice Austen House Inc 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and a member of Historic House Trust. The Alice Austen House is a New York City and National Landmark, on the Register of Historic Places and a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s distinctive group of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios. In 2017 we updated our designation to become a National site of LGBTQ History.”

Anniversary Sessions after Covid

So aside from our newly found fascination with Alice Austen, upon arrival the grounds were absolutely beautiful at the house. Since it was August, the flowers were in bloom and everything was green. This deeply contrasted the couple’s original, somewhat chaotic, wedding day. Anniversary sessions also became incredibly common in a post-covid world. Here’s what they had to say about how it all transpired:

“My husband and I got married in October. Between covid and all the uncertainty, we decided to just have candid photographs of the day. With how fast paced everything was, we really didn’t receive posed photos together. We also went smaller scale on photo and video and deeply regret it (it was also raining), so we want to have the photo shoot of our dreams. For my birthday, I asked my husband if we can get dressed up and recreate a wedding day shoot of us. Having these portraits with your beautiful vision would really make our wedding process complete.”

And with that, the pair dressed up once again for a session with us. Mike’s family came to help out with their 6 month old puppy Lupo – and shout out to his sister for helping me with the veil-toss since Steve wasn’t there to help me with this shoot! They all pitched in and even bought everyone pizza. It was so touching to see everyone involved in making this session finally happen for them.

Can we just say, both Theresa and Mike are incredibly comfortable in front of the camera. I felt fortunate, I basically just had to tell them where to stand! Theresa wanted to keep her look effortless and not over-the-top. She wore the same dress again, but only briefly put on the overskirt and veil just to make sure we got those shots. Otherwise, she kept it simple so she could easily walk around. Their biggest concern expressed from their wedding day was there just wasn’t enough of the two of them posed together. They wanted more emotion to come through. They also brought champagne to pop and sparklers for after sunset.

I had so much fun on this session with Theresa and Mike, and I’m just so glad we could do this shoot for them and put their wedding day regrets to rest!