NJ Micro Backyard Wedding | Katie + Matt
I’ll be honest. COVID has been weird time to be a NJ based wedding photographer. By the time May arrived, I had already been quarantining in my home for 6 weeks. The spring wedding season I was waiting for all winter was gone. All of my March, April, and May weddings had been canceled or postponed until 2021. Since January, all I could think about was telling wedding day Love Stories with my lens. I was looking forward to photographing heartfelt memories and capturing candid, storytelling moments. In the blink of an eye, it was all gone. There would be no tear-filled first looks, no ballroom first dances, no epic portraits, no wedding receptions with packed dance floors for me to photograph.
It was late April, and I was trying to wrap my brain around what was happening, and what the future would hold for Daniel Nydick Wedding Photography. The wedding photography gods decided to smile upon me...Katie & Matt reached out to me to photograph their intimate backyard micro wedding at their home. I felt a brief moment of relief coupled with gratitude to be able to do what I love; photographing two amazing people tying the knot and becoming husband and wife. I was given a small oasis amidst the craziness that the first months of COVID had delivered.
Thank you Katie & Matt for inviting me to your charming home to photograph your intimate micro wedding. I’m going to let Katie tell you about how their love and their wedding came to be. She’ll also share some tips on how to go with the flow when life throws you a curveball while planning your wedding during COVID.
Take it away, Katie!
Our best advice for anyone planning a micro wedding during COVID is to stream the event if you can't have everyone celebrate with you. I think you just have to accept that it won't necessarily be the grand affair that was planned, yet I am so glad we did it. Having a professional photographer really helped as well. I am so glad we had Daniel Nydick capture the beauty of the day - so THANK YOU!!
Starting a new life together as husband and wife during COVID can make new things difficult. That hasn’t stopped us, though. We just started renovations on our home, which is actually Matt's childhood home. It's coming along great, and we're excited to update it to our personal style!
We wanted to make sure we could get married on our day. While COVID made it not possible to have our May wedding at Clarks Landing, we had almost no choice but to have our wedding in our own backyard! It's very enclosed and very green, it made a naturally beautiful space. We added a wood arch and some flowers, and we were done!
One of my favorite parts of our backyard wedding is that I get to call Matt my husband :) We got to break a few traditions, including not seeing each other, but also keep a few as well. When I read Matt’s letter to me that morning, reminded me that we were doing the right thing! We live-streamed it to Facebook, and the response was amazing! So many comments and well wishes, and some folks got dressed up as if they were coming. Even though we had only 5 guests with us, I still felt like everyone shared our day. We lost our original live feed because we were streaming the radio, and it was flagged for copyright infringement. Our families had not yet met; we didn't have an engagement party, and all events leading to the wedding were canceled, so our families literally met socially distantly in our backyard that day!
Here’s a little bit about who we are and how our big day came to be.
We met on Match.com! You actually took a few photos Matt used on his profile, he looked pretty cute! We had our first date at Hailey's Harp and Pub in Metuchen. We've been together for almost four years, and have become great friends and partners. Between quarantining and working from home together, it has certainly confirmed for us, that we are meant to be together. We have similar temperaments and philosophies and we get along really well.
We love to binge-watch shows together. Some of our favorites we’ve watched recently are Breaking Bad, Fargo, The Last Kingdom, Outlander, and Victoria.
We enjoy going out to dinner, even though we haven't done that much lately. We really enjoy Emma’s Brick Oven, Opa Grille, The Spanish Tavern, Famous Dave's BBQ, Ciao Bello, and Chick-fil-A.
Family is important to us, and we like to spend time with them at Point Pleasant Beach and LBI.
While COVID has put a hold on our travels, we've had a few great trips in the past, including getting engaged in San Francisco, near the Golden Gate Bridge.
Our honeymoon was postponed because of COVID, but we are planning on going to Saint Lucia.
Starting a family is something that’s on our minds. We already have a good start on that, sharing our home with our two cats, Sasha and Milo (that Matt actually got the day before we met).
Here’s to many many years together, Katie & Matt! Thank you for letting me tell your wedding day’s Love Story with my lens!
