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Blog
Full wedding & engagement stories, as well as wedding planning resources.
![Housing Works Bookstore Wedding - Manhattan, NYC - Lauren & Kathleen](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64d3eca2af31782fed1c2395/1737226035917-YLI0SILH6QWN5AFDF62Z/071_221022_BaileyQPhoto_BQP_7588.jpg)
Housing Works Bookstore Wedding - Manhattan, NYC - Lauren & Kathleen
Kathleen and Lauren are your classic friends to lovers romance, after meeting in high school, the two started dating and the rest is history! It was important to the couple that their photos were original and didn’t feel staged, they wanted the photos to reflect their quirky, silly selves.
The pair tied the knot (again) at Housing Works Bookstore— a primarily volunteer staffed bookstore run by Housing Works, a NYC based non-profit fighting AIDs and homelessness. The ceremony took place amid dark wooden bookshelves with string lights illuminating the space.
![Brooklyn Bridge Park Elopement - Brooklyn, NYC - Lauren & Kathleen](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64d3eca2af31782fed1c2395/1737226151801-EXQXY0KYPKNW7UDSI1RC/240_201010_BaileyQPhoto_BQP_8361.jpg)
Brooklyn Bridge Park Elopement - Brooklyn, NYC - Lauren & Kathleen
Coincidentally, Kathleen & Lauren first reached out to me on that fateful day in March 2020 that New York closed its state borders due to COVID-19. We couldn’t have imagined what the world would look like just a few days later, let alone how to plan a wedding in this “new normal.” Despite the overarching fear & uncertainty, the 2 were able to celebrate their love by holding a down-sized, COVID-conscious, ceremony outside at Brooklyn Bridge Park, with a larger reception a couple years later, both of which I had the pleasure and honor of photographing!
The couple decided to keep the original date of their nuptials (10/20/20 is a pretty magical number), opting to elope on the waterfront in DUMBO with the Manhattan skyline behind them, witnessed by an intimate group of their closest NYC friends.