SO we have A LOT to say about this Garner Arts Center Anniversary Portrait Session in West Haverstraw, NY! Cierra and Donny tied the knot in her parents’ backyard during covid, July 2020. But the only problem was, Cierra never got to wear her dress and Donny never wore his tux! After some time passed, they reached out to us about doing an anniversary session one year later for them at Garner Arts Center!

Well, their story hit home for us. Number one, Steve and I had a backyard covid ceremony during October 2020 in my grandma’s backyard. But our original intended venue was Garner Arts Center!! If you know the story already, forgive us for repeating it. But Steve and I postponed our bigger wedding day to October 2021. The good news is, we eventually got to have our bigger planned wedding at Garner Arts Center (which we’ll be sharing to the blog ASAP!) So obviously, this space holds a special place in our hearts.

When Steve and I set out to choose a wedding venue, we only saw Garner Arts Center. We’ve seen a zillion venues over the last decade, and what we really wanted was a unique and alternative space that we had never worked at before. We didn’t want our own wedding day to feel like work, lol! So once we found this venue we knew it was the one. The perfect mix of nature, art and architecture.
When we had to postpone, we were nervous someone else might inquire about us working their wedding here – thus “ruining” the magic of it being someplace that we’ve never worked. HOWEVER, Cierra reached out just around the time we decided to postpone. And her request couldn’t have been more perfect! We’d get a chance to shoot at our favorite beloved place and really learn all the ins and outs. She mentioned that they wanted to do a first look since Donny had never seen her in her wedding dress. Amazing!! This anniversary session would be all the best parts of a wedding day without any of the crazy time crunches or stress!

Being able to work one-on-one with a couple for two hours as we walked all around the incredible nooks and crannies of Garner Arts Center’s exterior was the perfect opportunity to get acquainted with it all before our own wedding day. And we couldn’t have had a better couple to do this with! We are SO happy for Cierra and Donny that they finally were able to do the portraits they were never able to do on their official wedding day.

Of course, we had to stop at our favorite restaurant on site Hudson’s Mill afterward for dinner! (They were our wedding caterers and we highly recommend them!!)

Thank you again to Cierra and Donny for asking us to do this session for you! 🙂

About the Couple

“We met through a mutual friend 6 years ago. Loving married life together, watching jeopardy and binge-watching our favorite shows.”