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There are so many lovely elements to this blockbuster wedding I dont even know where to start!  Jessica Ramirez & Felipe Fernandez incorporated some truly meaningful details into their wedding day.  For starters, the gorgeous church the couple tied the knot in, Jessica’s grandfather was the architect for it!  Not only does the vaulted church have her grandfather’s blueprints to it, but so does the gorgeous private home {Jessica’s parents} which her grandfather also designed!  Talk about getting married in the house your grandfather built! Through the early years of Jessica & Felipe’s lives, timing, relationships, and locations were never on their side.  At one phase of Jessica’s life, she split time between sultry Miami and the fast paced New York City!  Naturally our stunning bride fell in love so many phenomenal NYC elements, one of which being the beyond scrumptious Momofuku Milkbar cake which made the journey down for the wedding!  Another NYC treat that Jessica discovered is a best kept  {too well if you ask me!} secret in the wedding photography world, Kane & Social!  Kane & Social is headed up by Robert Chamorro, a prolific commercial & wedding photographer, who until today, had not shared his wedding work in a public setting!  Robert’s masterful touch & artistic eye certainly made curating this feature extremely difficult {in a wonderful way!} and I am beyond honored and thrilled to be the one to show the first wedding that he is sharing with the world!  Between Kane & Social’s photographic amazingness, the absolutely stunning beauty of Jessica & Felipe and the enchanted garden world of her parent’s home, this 750 guests wedding {you read that right, 7.5.0!!} is a truly divine midnight dream!

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*A Little Photography Tricky by Robert Chamorro of Kane & Social

The bride got ready at the Biltmore Hotel, where we also did the portrait session.  Funny little tidbit about a couple of the images and problem solving… The bride and groom liked the idea of “first look” pictures with some sort of day light in them, but the ceremony didnt start until 7pm (way after sundown at the time). This is where a little planning happened. The image of Jessica and Felipe at the piano was shot at different times. First we shot Felipe by himself, standing by the piano in various positions… then we shot Jessica by her self sitting at the piano and later composited the two together. We did the same thing with the elevator image AND the elevator scene in the video (where we spliced to frames together. The beauty of this was that Jessica and Felipe didnt set eyes on each other until Felipe was standing at the Altar, yet we still got a beautiful image with sunlight pouring through the windows and a scene in the video prior to the ceremony.  We also did a similar  picture at the top of the staircase in the home, using lights outside to make it look like daytime pouring through the windows… when in reality, that picture was taken at 9pm at night 🙂 

Novella of the Bride…

We met at Warped Tour in 2000 briefly and would randomly see each other through mutual friends over the course of the next 10 years, but always we lived in different cities and/or we weren’t single whenever we’d bump into each other. Felipe went off to Nashville to study at Vanderbilt and I went to Parsons.  He’d been living in Miami since after college, I moved back and forth between Miami and New York until 2010, and I’ve been working as a graphic designer in Miami since.  Finally some stars aligned and we ran into each other at a BBQ and a year later he proposed.

I wanted to keep things as simple as possible, but its hard to do so with 750 guests, especially at night, you can lose a lot of details, so although we had a ton of lighting and a band and all that, we tried to keep things like the  bridesmaid dresses, flowers, colors, and invites neutral. I was excited about my {Momofuku} Milkbar cake and my photographer, Rob Chamorro of Kane & Social, both came from NY which meant a lot to me!!!

We did the ceremony at the Church of the Epiphany for two reasons, its been my family’s parish since I was a baby, but also my grandfather was the architect of the church, so that was huge thing for me. Same for my parents’ home, we wanted a venue that could hold everyone, but feel intimate at the same time, and was outdoors without having to be out by a certain time 🙂 We kept going until 4am I think. My grandfather also designed that house, and we have a lot of memories there.

We had a lot of help from family and friends, my parents, aunts and grandparents were great, my mom did A LOT of work for this so I’m glad everything ran smoothly. Felipe’s parents threw us a great engagement party also, as well as a very memorable rehearsal dinner, his sister helped a lot with that!  My sister Monica was a huge help with everything, I owe her when the time comes. I’m not a big wedding planner type, so her and my mom kind of took over the whole process. And my Dad, he just say said yes to everything so that was a big help haha.

Bride’s Favorite Moments: “There were a lot, the rehearsal dinner was really special,  getting ready with my 18 bridesmaids was great, they came from all over the place, the ceremony was emotional, arriving at the reception with Felipe and seeing everyone to greet us, dancing with my dad and grandfather, seeing my mom enjoying herself after all that work she put into this haha. I also enjoyed the few minutes between the church and the reception hanging out with my husband in the limo and realizing what just happened, that was cool.”

Vendor Love

Ceremony Venue: Church of the EpiphanyReception Venue: Private Home {Jessica’s Parents House} / Wedding Dress: Carolina HerreraDress Boutique: Ever After Miami / Bridesmaid Dresses: Designed by Jessica {Bride} / Shoes: Pelle Moda / Makeup Artist: Cynthia Martens / Groom’s Suit: Mr. TuxInvitation Designer: Jessica Ramirez / Transportation: Meilan Brothers LimoMusic: Junior’s BandLighting: Suzanne MichaelRentals: Suzanne Michael Caterer: Suzanne MichaelBaker: Momofuku Milkbar {Shipped from NYC}Wedding/Event Planner: Suzanne Michael‘s, along with Jessica’s mom Myriam Ramirez / Photographer: Kane & Social