The lights changed when they kissed. Hall des Lumières, New York City.
There are weddings you photograph. And then there are weddings that photograph you right back. The kind that pull something out of you as a shooter and ask you to move differently, see differently, feel differently. Tre and Justin's wedding at Hall des Lumières in New York City was that kind of day.
All three of us were there: Abby, Lisa, and Keila. And even with six eyes on it, we still felt like we were barely keeping up with everything happening around us. That's the highest compliment we know how to give.
A surprise projection show before the first vow was spoken
The ceremony hadn't started yet. Guests were still finding their seats inside Hall des Lumières, one of New York City's most architecturally striking wedding venues: a landmarked Beaux-Arts building in lower Manhattan with soaring columns, a domed ceiling, and the kind of bones that make photographers genuinely emotional. Then the lights went down.
A full-scale projection show took over every surface of the room. The columns lit up in swirling color. The dome above pulsed. Gasps. Actual applause. And then, in the quiet that followed, a Broadway colleague of Tre and Justin's began to sing, live and unannounced, as the grooms walked down the aisle.
Both of them are Broadway professionals. So yes, their wedding felt like a production. But more than that, it felt like a love story that had been waiting its whole life to have a stage worthy of it.
Syvyn Lab covered the ceremony floor in an abundant, garden-spilled wildflower installation: marigolds, delphiniums, garden roses, dahlias, dusty pink blooms tumbling toward the aisle in every direction. The grooms stood beneath a minimal acrylic chuppah, and behind them, the projections shifted and bloomed. When they kissed, the lights moved again.
We've been doing this long enough to know when a room earns a standing ovation. This one did.
Two tablescapes. One room. A total gut punch of contrast.
If the ceremony was sensory overload in the best way, Pejy Kash Events designed the reception at Hall des Lumières to be its complete opposite and its perfect counterpart.
The room was split down the middle. One side: all black. Matte black linens, dark sculptural vessels, obsidian candles, houndstooth table runners, crossword-patterned charger plates, moody bronze figurines tucked between crystal glassware. The other side: all white. Chalk-white anthurium blooms, sculptural white vessels hand-painted to match, linen runners, soft candlelight. Both sides built on texture, restraint, and form rather than flowers.
Pejy Kash and the team spent eight months sourcing and hand-painting vessels from multiple vendors to get the tones exactly right. The final tablescapes weren't floral. They were architectural. And the split between the two sides wasn't a design accident. It was a statement: that two people can be entirely different and entirely matched at the same time.
The seating chart alone could have been its own installation. A floor-to-ceiling checkerboard of multicolored panels, each one a different saturated hue: cobalt, saffron, forest green, rust, with black matte escort cards slotted in. Guests pulled their own cards from the wall. It was interactive, it was graphic, and it was exactly the kind of detail that sticks with people years later.
What it actually looks like to photograph a wedding where nobody stops the party for pictures
This is the part we want to talk about, because it matters to us and it mattered to Tre and Justin.
They weren't interested in a photo session that pulled them out of their day. They weren't looking for manufactured moments or a shot list that kept them separated from their guests. They wanted photographers who could move through a room like guests — who could feel when something was about to happen and be there for it, without engineering it.
That's what we do. And it's what we love doing.
The first dance happened under a monogram projection, their TJ monogram shifting on the wall behind them as they moved. Then the jackets came off — or rather, new ones came on. Tre in teal, Justin in cobalt blue — and the whole energy of the night shifted into something looser and more alive. We were on the dance floor with them, moving when they moved, laughing when they laughed.
The photo of the two of them mid-jump, arms raised, the live band lit up behind them and flowers spilling across the stage — that one wasn't posed. We were just there. That's the job when it goes right.
Years from now, Tre and Justin are going to look at their wedding photos and remember what it felt like to be in that room, not what it felt like to stand still for a camera. That's the whole point. The best wedding photography doesn't document a performance — it brings you back into a memory that was already real.
Why Hall des Lumières is one of the most exciting wedding venues in New York City
We're saying it plainly because it's true: Hall des Lumières is one of the most interesting spaces we've ever worked in. The building itself — a restored Beaux-Arts landmark at 49 Chambers Street in lower Manhattan — has architecture that does half the work for you. The scale is massive. The columns photograph beautifully from every angle. The dome catches light in ways that are hard to fully explain until you see the images.
But what sets it apart from most NYC wedding venues is the projection infrastructure built into the space. Hall des Lumières was designed specifically for immersive projection art, which means the ceiling, walls, and columns can all become living canvases. For a wedding, that opens up creative possibilities that don't exist anywhere else in New York City. You can have a ceremony that feels like standing inside a painting. You can have a reception where the entire room shifts personality between cocktail hour and dinner. The venue itself becomes a collaborator in the design.
If you're planning a New York City wedding and you care about creating a genuinely immersive, visually layered experience for your guests — Hall des Lumières belongs on your list. And if you're a couple who wants photography that keeps up with that level of intentionality without slowing you down for it, we'd love to talk.
We shoot in New York City regularly and actively seek out couples getting married at venues like Hall des Lumières, Cipriani, the Metropolitan Club, Gotham Hall, and beyond. NYC wedding photography is something we care deeply about — the energy of the city, the scale of these spaces, the way New York weddings tend to attract people who are willing to go all the way on a creative vision.
A wedding that was already a standing ovation
Not every couple gets a Broadway colleague to serenade them down the aisle. Not every couple thinks to split their reception tablescapes into two opposing design worlds, or commissions a venue-scale projection installation as their ceremony backdrop. But every couple deserves photographers who will show up ready to receive whatever they've built — and hold it with the same care they put into creating it.
That's what we try to be at every wedding. And at Tre and Justin's, we got to watch Pejy Kash Events, Syvyn Lab, Jacob Co. Creative, and the entire team pull off something that genuinely moved us.
New York City, you never stop surprising us.
Venue: Hall des Lumières, New York City Planning and Design: Pejy Kash Events Photography: Abby Jiu Photography (Abby Jiu, Lisa Ziesing, Keila Bottiglieri) Florals: Syvyn Lab Catering: Pinch Food Design Lighting: Jacob Co. Creative Projections: Prestidigital Rentals: Luxe Event Rentals, Rent Patina, Party Rental Ltd Linens: BBJ La Tavola Stationery: Vidhi Dattani Designs Cake: Vincenzo Salvatore Cakes Videography: The Andrews Films Entertainment: Element Music NYC