Wedding Photography at the Morris Museum and Morristown Hyatt in New Jersey

(edited 2:53pm)

This past May Benjamin Lehman Photography was given the opportunity to shoot a gorgeous wedding in historic Morristown, NJ. A little history about Morristown, and I’ll keep this brief; Morristown stood as the headquarters a for General George Washington’s and the Continental Army after victories in Trenton and Princeton. Much of the scenery reflects the areas colonial heritage — this leads to many great photographic opportunities if you know exactly how to work the history into photos.

The morning of the wedding started with me, my cameras and the wedding party getting ready at the Morristown Hyatt. The Hyatt is swathed in beautiful decor and style, making it very easy to take great photos.

When I work alone, (as I did for much of this wedding), I make sure to know the schedule for the day down to a T. I often go as far as to measure the time it will take me to get between points A and B the day before so I can factor driving and walking times into my own schedule.

I started the day with the bride and the bridesmaids getting ready in the bridal suite. In many ways, these are my favorite photos to take during the day of the wedding. The girls are always full of smiles, the atmosphere is filled with excitement and the over all transformation of becoming a bride is a magical thing.

Once I’ve taken a few shots of the ladies, I’ll head over to where the gents are getting prepared. Guys are also fun to photograph, but for different reasons. The atmosphere with groom and groomsman is almost always laid back. It usually constitutes of one or more guys asking another how to properly tie a tie, discussing sports, and dirty jokes.

Shooting with the guys usually goes fairly fast, maybe 15 to 30 minutes. Then I head back to the girl’s room to capture some more pictures as they finish getting ready.

Some weddings schedule time for Bridal Party photos after the wedding ceremony, and some do it before. For our gig in New Jersey we had 2 hours before the ceremony to get all the photos we needed. Because I had scouted many locations the day before I had a great mental plan of attack. I would take most of my pictures in a garden behind a historical house, and save one last photo for a specific place in the museum where the ceremony would take place.

At the last moment I did have a change of heart with taking all of the photos in the gardens — I realized I didn’t want a large bulk of the photos to have a similar background. Additionally, I’d like the groom and groomsman to have a slightly more manly environment. So, I took the guys and we went to the hotel bar. It just so happens that the Hyatt in Morristown has one of the best looking contemporary bars I’ve ever seen. At one point I even had them order shots of whiskey so I could grab some great photos of a toast to the groom.

Once I finished with the guys in the bar, I headed with the ladies to the garden. This all happened in early May, which meant all the trees were flowering, the grass was green, and the entire area was alive.

When I pose for bridal party photos I’ll do two things. First, I’ll do the traditional stand-next-to-each-other photos. They aren’t my favorite photos, but they serve a traditional purpose.

Then, once those are out of the way I’ll start to pose my subjects like we’re shooting photos for a magazine spread. I do this by putting people throughout the environment, and adding depth and interaction between the subjects and their surroundings. You don’t have to make it too elaborate however. For this shoot, I found just a little depth in my photos between the various bridesmaids is all we needed to create some wonderful photos.

After our time in the gardens the entire wedding party packed up and headed to the wedding venue at the Morris Museum.

The museum itself is an amazing venue. It’s part old mansion, part contemporary museum with displays for both kids and adults. The ground’s curator, a great guy named Peter, gave me a personal tour. Perhaps the thing that impressed me most is the fact that there are priceless pieces of art on display without barriers to the public. If one so wished, he could walk right up to a Rembrandt and touch the very paint laid down by the master so many years ago (but,uh, don’t do that). The atmosphere of the mansion and all of it’s beautiful paints had influenced me earlier when I was scouting and it gave me an idea for a photo.

Once myself, and everyone else arrived, I ushered them into one particularly gorgeous room within the mansion. My plan was to take a wide-angle photo with the entire wedding party. I wanted it to be very stylish, very dramatic, with strong shadows and highlights. The only problem was I had to photograph a huge room and only had one studio strobe available. My solution was to use a technique where you take multiple photos, moving the light between each photo, and then merge the photos together in Photoshop to create one, complete photo that has a big-production look to it. We only had 5 minutes before the ceremony began, so I moved very quickly, posing people, taking the photo, moving the light, and taking the next photo over and over again until I knew I had all the elements I needed to create the picture I set out to capture.

Once that was finished I took my place in the back of the hall, down the center of the isle as the ceremony started. Once the ceremony starts, it then becomes a job of capturing the beauty of the wedding as it unfolds.

The evening ended with a marvelous reception. My plan of action was to be the fly on the wall who flits around and snaps all of the brilliant candid moments that happen around the room and on the dance floor.

My time in Morristown, NJ stands as one of the most superb weddings I’ve ever had the pleasure of photographing and it left me a great feeling and urge to have more experiences like this one.

Benjamin Lehman is a commercial wedding, portrait and advertising photographer willing to travel to where ever the beautiful pictures are!