Our Wild West to Roaring 20’s Themed Micro Wedding At The Waterwheel
Hi there, my name is Caitlinn and I have been a Hudson Valley based wedding photographer since 2011. My now husband and I, had a Tombstone movie inspired summer wedding at The Waterwheel in Poughquag, NY. Throughout my many years of documenting weddings I have seen it all…from decor, to locations, to huge elaborate weddings, to simple elopements. I always knew, for my own wedding, I wanted to either elope or have an intimate/micro wedding. I also knew hiring wedding professionals that I trusted would be a huge part of the process. Hiring people I trusted allowed me to just let them do their thing, and know it would be best.
After my husband and I got engaged, and we began discussing what we envisioned for our wedding…we realized family is super important to us and we decided on an intimate wedding with just our immediate families and a handful of friends. We also knew we did not want a long engagement, because my grandma is the matriarch of my family, and also approaching 100.
Right from the beginning we were certain about a few things…
Small Wedding
NO wedding party
Bridal Showers + Elaborate Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties were not necessary
An optional theme.
We wanted a sit down dinner, but an overall relaxed atmosphere.
Planning a wedding as a wedding photographer is a very interesting experience, and there were certain vendors who I know and love through my own professional experiences, that I knew I wanted to work with. I also knew I wanted to work with creatives who have been doing it just about as long as I have, and therefore I chose Alicia King to photograph my wedding. Alicia and I graduated college with our degrees in Photography around the same time and headed into the direction of weddings at the same time as well. We would second shoot for one another on occasion, and I just love her clean, simple, and timeless approach to documenting weddings. For video I knew I wanted to work with Ross Medi aka Ross Media because working alongside him is always an honor and a pleasure. He is genuinely the nicest human being to walk the planet and also an insanely thorough and talented videographer. A huge plus was that I knew him and Alicia worked well together!
Regardless of the endless inspiration that lives in my head from photographing weddings over the past 14 years, I chose to instead, ignore any outside inspiration, listen to my heart, and do what makes me happy. What makes me happy you may ask? A term I have created called “subtle goth”. We aren’t going full black on black on black here, we are going dark and moody colors. Think of a vampire wedding…but make it a little less intense on the darkness…endless black and red taper candles, candelabras, burnt orange/red table runners, and soft florals. My right hand human Laurel Jollie offered to do our flowers (along with being the best shooting partner ever, Laurel is also an INSANELY talented florist). I trusted Laurel with whatever their heart desired in terms of florals, although they tried to pick my brain about what I liked, I already knew whatever they came up with would be absolutely perfect. Laurel blew me away with their talent, and I am forever grateful for them, for more reasons than I can ever express in words.
When it came to who I wanted to do my hair and make up, it had to be Kate Post (Hair Honey by Kate), and Corey Jason Crysler. These two are some of my favorite people in the entire universe, and I am so lucky to know them personally and professionally for many years now. I gave them full creative control, because they are insanely talented and I knew what they envisioned would be best. Also getting to hang with them the morning of my wedding, without the chaos of having a wedding party, was one of my favorite memories of the day.
For our ceremony, I knew I wanted to ask my best friend, Jackie, to marry us. She’s a strong, fierce, magical woman, and also the best adventure buddy I could ever hope for. Her intense Scorpio energy and endless positivity was exactly what I wanted to radiate during our ceremony. She was absolutely amazing.
Read on for our love story, inspiration, and vendor credits.
How we met : Louis and I met in DAYCARE when we were about 3 years old. We lived our own separate lives until our thirties, but always had some of our closest friends in common. It is truly amazing our lives did not re-intertwine sooner, but Louis always says it was for the best because we are both fire signs and probably would have traumatized each other as teenagers. haha He’s not wrong.
How he proposed : To celebrate our two year anniversary, we went on a short trip to Sedona, AZ. We flew into Las Vegas, so that we could stop by The Grand Canyon on the way. I have truly rarely ever been surprised in my life time, especially not surprised in a good way. I’m a crazy Aries with a witchy intuition, and not much gets by me. We had discussed getting engaged for a few months before this trip, and before we went he said “let’s revisit our engagement discussions until after our trip”, which turned out to be a GENIUS move by him, because I did not suspect a thing. When we arrived at The Grand Canyon, it was so much colder than I was expecting (I should have known better…it was December), so I proceeded to layer up THREE sweaters…not the cutest look, but I was oblivious. We were exploring the edge of the canyon and we came upon a great open view, with no one else around. I was super excited because I was planning on taking some landscape photographs of the canyon. As I was happily photographing the canyon, unbeknownst to me, he was hanging his phone from a tree. I could feel his energy getting anxious, but I wasn’t sure why. He finally tells me to put my camera down, hugs me, and then pretends he was having ankle pain and went down to rub it (he has metal plates and screws holding his ankle together from a quad accident, and it often causes him pain so this wasn’t out of the ordinary). I looked down and he had a ring in his hand, and the rest is history. (All documented by his phone hanging from the tree.)
How we chose our venue : A few months prior to the proposal, I was contacted by a lovely woman named Kristin who had modeled for me in the past. She was the manager of a new wedding venue/airbnb called The Waterwheel in Poughquag NY, and they needed photographs for their website. I was more than happy to take them and I fell in love with the property, but didn’t think much more of it since I wasn’t engaged. When we began trying to decide where to have our intimate wedding, I instantly thought of The Waterwheel, and we so we planned a site visit so Louis could see it. He fell in love, just as I did, months prior. The Waterwheel is a private, rustic, avant garde dream world. The property includes a vineyard, an open field, woods, the gorgeous house, rustic pavilion, and a beautiful protected stream running throughout. The owner of the venue, Michael Spacarelli, is a genius who holds so much passion for his properties and creations. He specializes in repurposing structures and decor to create a masterpiece with them.
How we chose the size of our wedding and our guest list : We knew we wanted less than 50 guests, preferably under 40 if we could manage. We had to get quite strict about the parameters of who we could invite or not, and eventually decided on our immediate families, and mutual closest friends. My father had passed away when I was a kid, and his mother had recently passed away, so we knew the only parent present would be my mom, who we are both very very close with. The guest list parameters ended up being…
My mom + grandma
Our kids
Our siblings + siblings-in-laws (we are both blessed with the BEST sibling-in-laws ever)
Our nieces + nephews
A handful of friends
What was our wedding theme inspiration : Louis always considers himself a bit of a cowboy. He loves the movie Tombstone, and I love subtle goth clothing and decor. We decided our wedding would be late 1800’s Wild West through 1920’s themed. On our wedding invitations, we mentioned our theme, and that it was OPTIONAL for guests to participate in it. The theme fit in perfectly with The Waterwheel aesthetic, and we were just looking to have fun with it.
How we chose our wedding day looks : Louis’ Wild West look was entirely inspired by Val Kilmer’s wardrobe from the movie Tombstone. We found a vintage western clothing store based in Arizona that had almost a perfect replica of Val Kilmer’s suit, and we got it from there. I purchased my dress from Wild Blooms Bridal (shout out to my friend Lauren Fitzmaurice!). It had a partially corseted bodice and I fell in love instantly.
(Side note and possibly a very unpopular opinion : I HIGHLY recommend going wedding dress shopping ALONE!!!!!! It allows you to follow your gut without an outside influence, and makes the process very relaxed.).
I also knew I wanted to wear Dr Marten combat boots because it felt like me, and it was an excuse to buy a new pair. Louis decided to treat himself to this ridiculously amazing motorcycling riding boots from MOTO Coffee/Machine in Hudson, NY.
Why we chose our first dance song : We knew we wanted “Sweet Thing” by Van Morrison or “Thank you” by either Led Zeppelin, or the cover by Chris Cornell. We eventually decided that I would walk down the aisle (with my mom) to “Sweet Thing” and our first dance song would be the Led Zeppelin “Thank You”.
Why we opted out of a wedding party : We are in our late 30’s, and we didn’t want to be bothered. I have been shooting weddings long enough to know, quite honestly, that most of the time wedding parties create more stress than help. We wanted the morning of our wedding to be relaxed, with as little chaos as possible.
Our favorite memories from the day :
Louis - Seeing my wife for the first time in her wedding dress during our first look. The perfect weather, the location and intimate small guest list and setting. The energy of the day was perfect. Caitlinn being stolen by her 2 year old niece for the whole day. Dancing the night away with my wife.
Caitlinn - Getting ready in the same house. Louis kept walking into the room while my hair and make up was getting done, which made us all laugh. I didn’t mind as long as he didn’t see me in my dress before our first look. Getting to spend the day with our families, especially my brother + SIL + nieces who live in Texas. Improvising our first dance was also a highlight since we had considered doing a choreographed one and taking dance lessons.
Our Wedding Vendors
Venue : The Waterwheel
Shot by : Alicia King + Rachel (edited by me)\
Videographer + Photo Booth : Ross Media
Make Up : Corey Jason Chrysler
Hair : Hair Honey by Kate
Flowers : Laurel Jollie
Officiant : Jackie Wojtak (friend of the couple)
Wedding Dress Designer : Evie Young “Rowan”
Wedding Dress Shop : Wild Blooms Bridal
Dress Alterations : Unique Stitches by Linda
Bride’s Shoes : Dr Martens Leona Women’s Vintage Heeled Boots
Bride’s Headpiece : Rachel Sokhal Bridal
Bride’s Fragrange : Le Labo Santal 33
Vintage Western Suit : Wild West Mercantile
Grooms Boots : TCX Motorcycle Riding Boots from MOTO Coffee/Machine in Hudson, NY
Black Diamond Engagement Ring : Hyperion Jewelers
Wedding Rings : Newburgh Vintage Emporium
Motorcycle : Groom’s vintage Harley Davidson from Moroneys
Wedding Invitations : Birdhouse197
Wedding Signage : Love Letters Market
Tablecloths + Linens : Mahaiwe Tent
DJ : Lutz Entertainment
Wedding Cake : Little Bitz Cupcakes
