Jessica and Joseph: Small Wedding in New Orleans
A Chance at a New Orleans Small Wedding Do-Over
Jessica and Joseph tie the knot at Compass Point in Old Algiers.
I wouldn’t be so bold as to say I’m one of the best small wedding photographers in New Orleans. But I can confidently say I’m one of the most experienced! While my journey as a New Orleans photographer began in my adolescence, my wedding photography work started with a small wedding in the French Quarter when I was just a wee baybay of 21.
And you know what? I biffed it. I biffed it HARD.
Obligatory photo of me photographing a small wedding.
I started shooting professionally fresh out of college and dove directly into the deep end like any formerly gifted and talented kid would. Unfortunately, the pool had been drained for maintenance and I got a nasty bump on my head.
Metaphors aside- I booked the gig from a Craigslist ad and did the wedding very, very cheaply. While I knew my way around a camera and I knew my way around a wedding, I didn’t know my way around the combination of the two. I was also not skilled in working with low-light or flash yet and I was dumb enough to use a cheap, wide-angle lens adapter to help me capture shots in this tiny courtyard on my crop-sensor camera (which means all of my lenses lost some of their width).
The images were not beyond help. They were just slightly underexposed, soft in focus, and very noisy (the digital equivalent of film grain on film cameras).
So I spent many hours in photoshop fixing my mistakes, hand-painting lines to sharpen them (this was in 2007, long before AI photo sharpening apps existed) and decided to back up and commit to honing my skills more before venturing back into wedding territory again.
(sidebar: it’s safe to say that groom got what he paid for. Let this be a cautionary tale to couples that you should really invest in a seasoned wedding photographer and to fledgling photographers that you really should practice your butt off in low-light situations before you attempt weddings!)
For the next few years, I spent a lot of time in sweaty, beer-soaked crowds at the foot of poorly-lit stages in loud, cramped music venues. I learned how to photograph moving subjects in low light. I learned how to work with flash. I learned how to nail the shot no matter what is going on around me (and good lord was the ever stuff going on around me!). I shot more live music shows than I could possibly count (including some big names on big stages at Voodoo Fest) and I emerged with a very useful skill set that I could apply to any sort of event work- including weddings.
Flash forward 15 years to the final small wedding I photographed in 2022. That inexperienced 21-year-old kid was just a whisper in the past as I walked onto the grounds of Compass Point Events for Jessica and Joseph’s small wedding.
I was extremely excited to photograph this wedding- not only because the couple had been super chill so far but because this was my chance to have a proper do-over at Compass Point.
Making lemonade out of lemons- or magical portraits out of a hurricane wedding day.
The first (and until then, last) time I worked there was on October 7th, 2017. I remember the date because it was also the day that Hurricane Nate hit New Orleans. That’s right, Kathy and Nelson got married in the middle of a hurricane.
To be fair, it was the outer bands and it was a weak storm as far as hurricanes go. But sometime between bride prep and the first look, Compass point was drenched and a literal alligator wandered from the river into the yard. Yes, an alligator. It was the most Southern Louisiana shit I’d ever seen!
The couple had been together 11 years at that point and were the most laid back people imaginable. So they weren’t even a little ruffled when they had to move their entire wedding inside. The big house isn’t all that big but it was large enough to accomodate a small wedding. And my difficult light and small-space skills had a chance to shine!
We did get to go outside for a few portraits in the rain where I shot an image I try to replicate every chance I get. (insert image here) The couple ended up with a beautiful image set even though they didn’t get to fully utilize this cool venue. But I was thrilled to get a chance to use all this venue had to offer almost exactly five years later.
Compass Point is a bit of a hidden gem tucked into the back of an area known as Algiers Point. It’s on the West Bank (which is a misnomer because it’s actually on the South side of the Mississippi river but whatever) of New Orleans, the only part of Orleans Parish that isn’t on the East Bank (again, misnomer). I actually grew up in Algiers and spent a lot of time in Algiers Point in my teen years.(sidebar: check out Algiers, America on Hulu. It’s a documentary about my high school’s football team in 2020 and it is very good) But I haven’t photographed too many weddings on that side of the river. Due, in part, to the fact there aren’t that many kickass venues that couples drawn to me are also drawn to.
Members of the wedding party helped haul furniture.
Compass Point is relatively new and has an iron gate surrounding a little village of cottages that resemble old New Orleans houses. The big house sits behind a massive Live Oak which drapes over a deck with a checkered dance floor. There’s a balcony on the big house, porches on some of the cottages, and a big barn tucked away in the back. They’ve got gas lamp posts scattered about and bistro lights strung above the yard. It is really picture perfect. The owner, Erin, does everything, too. She coordinates, does all of the Floral, and at any point can be found bustling around the venue making shit happen. She was also extremely accommodating when I had a couple of unconventional requests for portraits.
She showed me around the grounds including inside of the barn. She said we could use it for photos. But it was a rather overcast day and it was pretty dark in there. There was, however, some pretty cool looking antique furniture. I asked if she minded if we took it out into the yard for group photos. And she said “I don’t see why not!”
Jess and Joe end their first dance with a kiss
So I enlisted the help of a few people in the wedding party to lug a couch and two big, well-broken-in arm chairs out in front of the cottages. We were able to create some very fun and unique wedding portraits of the couple and their wedding party (and the two dogs who served as flower girls!). Since it was such a small wedding, I even got the entire group- including all of the guests- together after the ceremony for a big group shot!
Jessica and Joseph were so incredibly easy to work with. And their friends and family were equally delightful. The couple had some fun ideas for photos and they were game the few times I pulled them away for portraits when I saw the perfect opportunity. One of those being a stellar sunset over the New Orleans skyline that could be seen from atop the levee.
A perfect opportunity for a New Orleans skyline sunset wedding portrait.
My time was technically up but I was not about to leave without taking some sunset portraits. We had to borrow a bridesmaid to help with holding my flash because my portrait lighting assistant had long since gone home. But all three were committed to the cause- even when the cause required traipsing up the steep levee in wedding attire. They trusted my vision completely and that was such a good feeling! It was also such a good set of photos!
I am really happy my do-over at this venue was with Jess and Joe. They were exactly the kind of weirdos I love to work with. Instead of a romantic, slow song for their first dance they both kicked off their shoes and did the twist. It was absolutely delightful! Their guests were a colorful cast of characters as well. If I hadn’t been bone tired with a drive across the river ahead of me (it’s only like 2 bird miles! But like 10 by car) I would’ve taken them up on their offer to stay awhile after I wrapped up. I mean, they were serving frito pie for crying out loud. Who wouldn’t want to stick around??
I can confidently recommend Compass Point Events as one of the best wedding venues in New Orleans. It’s not huge but it has cottages for getting ready, a main house with a full kitchen and AC to keep the cake from melting, loads of adorable vignettes for photos, moody reception lighting, and an owner/coordinator/florist who made my job pretty dang easy. She gave me opportunities to get the shots I needed without trying to direct them (yes, that is a thing some coordinators do and it is SO awkward).
That was a whole ass long rambling way to say check out these photos from Jessica and Joseph’s small New Orleans wedding after the jump!
Ready to go on your own wedding photography adventure with me?
