I spent four months in Paris, all the while my heart ached for New York City.

& if I’m being honest, now my heart aches for Paris. I don’t typically think of myself as a “grass is greener” type of person, always wishing for what I don’t have or to be wherever I am not, but there is something about these two cities. They each meet me & fufill in ways the other cannot.

During my time living in Paris it was a dream. On the daily, you could catch me visiting my local boulangerie every morning to purchase my pain au chocolat & expresso à emporter, taking afternoon walks along the Seine, and losing my breath walking up the Montmartre steps to watch the sunset from the Sacre Coeur – yet I felt like a piece of myself was missing.

As the sun lit up the Haussmannien building of Paris,

I found myself wishing for the limited sun pockets New York’s skyscrapers let slide in on 7th Avenue. The way yellow cabs have no competition with any other iconic car, the way you can find the next breakout star busking on every street corner, & an appreciation for a well made cocktail all made my heart long for the fast paced city.

So, when I had a couple inquire about their Paris elopement, & they told me they would be traveling from New York, I immediately caught a vision for the time we would spend together.

Le New York is a cafe that sits right along the edge of the Seine.

It was the perfect cafe to combine these two lovers’ adoration for Paris & home in New York. Their love story was melded together forever in Paris, but New York is the place it was nurtured, and where it will continue after their honeymoon comes to an end. Cate & Bryant have an affinity for nostalgia, so we orchestrated a vintage car to meet us along the water after they finished drinking their wine & (casually) reading a newspaper at Le New York.

This perfect Paris x NYC crossover

only cemented my excitement to touchback down at JFK. Paris may have pain au chocolate for €1.20, streets that get power washed & vacuumed every morning, & unlimited sunlight during golden hour, but it doesn’t have the pull on my heart New York does. Paris has a sort of uniformity that is comforting in a way. I always felt like I knew what to expect when I stepped onto the Metro to travel from arrondissement to arrondissement. But the downside to having street corners that all have the same architectural style, and residents who tend to operate out of invariable cultural norms, is that, creatively speaking, most of my Paris sessions all felt like Paris – a lot of the same. As I come up on prepping for another trip to Paris in September of 2024, I am coming in with a strong motivation to make the city new again for me & my clients after a year+ since my last visit in May of 2023.

The vast majority of Parisian buildings all look the same, cafes are a dime a dozen, & the Eiffel can be seen, if ever from afar, in nearly every neighborhood. Cate & Bryant’s mashup of an elopement was the first time I felt like I was able to create something truly unique in Paris. The couple’s love for New York is what fueled the beauty of these photos.

With the “sameness” of Parisian architecture, the uniqueness of any love story needs to be found in just that – the love story. Working with my couples to find ways to bring certain aspects of their relationship into your elopement or session to ensure your story shines through more than anything else.

Cheers to your unique love, wherever it might be!