Stonington Point in January is not soft. The light is flat, the winter wind comes off the water sideways, and there is nothing in the landscape trying to make anything easier for you. Just the Atlantic, the rocks, and whatever you brought with you.
Kamai and Kyle brought each other to their Stonington CT elopement. And two sodas.
They Stood in the Snow
The ceremony was at Stonington Point, at the tip of the borough where the water wraps around on three sides. Snow on the ground. Overcast sky. They stood in it and exchanged their vows, their officiant, April Smith, guiding them through it.
Kamai and Kyle are a reserved couple; calm, quiet, very much oriented toward each other. They don’t perform. What exists between them is real and not especially interested in an audience, which made photographing them feel like a responsibility. The timing of their Stonington CT elopement was relevant: military orders meant that they had to take advantage of this moment together.
These images are from early in my wedding photography career and still, something in them has held up. The emotion doesn’t announce itself. It sits there in the frame, in the stillness of the scene, in the way they face each other with the water behind.
After the ceremony, we walked down to the dock in Stonington Borough. They’d each brought a can of soda, specific ones, ones that had been the favorite drinks of relatives they’d lost. They poured them out in the snow on the dock, without ceremony or too much explanation.
It was something they’d decided to do between themselves, a way of bringing certain people into a day those people couldn’t attend. I photographed it like I was supposed to. This is actually a little-known advantage to eloping over even a smaller wedding: the privacy and freedom to honor each other and loved ones in exactly the ways you want to.
Relaxed Photos in Mystic
After their elopement, we moved to Mystic for some more casual, engagement session-style photos. Same day, different energy, a second act to breathe in after the weight of the morning. (K&K decided it would be easier for them to do things backwards, getting all dressed up and then dressing down afterwards. That was the right decision.)
The Art Matters
Years later, Kamai and Kyle reached out. Their wedding prints from their elopement had been damaged in an apartment flood. They wanted them replaced.
That detail—that the prints existed, that they’d been living with them, that replacing them was worth tracking me down (they moved to the midwest after eloping)—is the whole argument for physical artwork in one sentence. Nobody had to say it out loud.
About the Author
Terrence Irving is a Connecticut wedding photographer working with couples eloping and marrying small along the New England coast. Stonington is one of his most-recommended locations for a Connecticut elopement; you can read more in his guide to eloping in Connecticut.
