Megan & Timothy
Radisson Hotel Providence Airport, Warwick, RI (Ceremony & Reception)
January 18th, 2025
As much as I love wedding photography, by the time I get to the end of any particular season, I am in desperate need of a break, both physically and mentally. That's why I try very hard to keep my winter season as open as possible and, honestly, it takes a very special couple to get me out of my house and back in the swing of things before I'm fully ready.
Enter Megan and Timothy.
I knew from the moment I met Meg and Tim that I needed to shoot their special day … even if it was a mere three weeks into 2025 as their cute and adorable energy was everything I look for from a couple and I had a feeling their wedding would set a strong tone for the new year.
I was right. In fact, their wedding was so good that even though we're still in the first month of the year as I write this, I know for a fact that these two have set the standard I'll expect the rest of my 2025 couples to match … both in terms of fun days and in terms of beautiful wedding photos from start to finish. And if that's not a reason for a wedding photographer to take a temporary pause in his offseason, I don't know what is.
My coverage of Meg and Tim's wedding, and thus my entire 2025 wedding season, started at the Roger Williams Botanical Center for their first look and I'm glad it did because this particular Saturday was a cold and wintery, not to mention wet and rainy, day. In other words, it was a typical January day.
But in the Botanical Center, none of that mattered and I knew when both Meg and Tim arrived that neither of them cared how blah it was outside ... it was in here that mattered and in here they were ready for an afternoon of adorable moments.
Their first look was definitely one and set a strong tone for the afternoon as Tim looked sharp as hell in his maroon suit and Meg looked stunning in a beautiful white dress that was sleeveless and let her tattoos shine through. And don't take my word for it. Just look at Tim's reaction and need for his bride to do a little spin so he could see all the details.
Meg and Tim chose to start their day with a first look at the Botanical Center so we could knock out their formal photos and bride/groom portraits before their ceremony and I'm grateful they did as the location is one of Rhode Island's best indoor portrait spots and looks great year-round.
In fact, I'd argue it's the perfect spot for formal portraits in the winter as you get everything you could want in terms of beautiful backdrops in a climate-controlled environment that will make you forget, for a moment, that it's not spring.
Meg and Tim's family photos and wedding party photos were a breeze, even though we had a ton of combinations and I'm grateful because I wanted as much time with this bride and groom for their couple's portraits as possible and couldn't wait to get to them.
I knew heading into Meg and Tim's wedding day that their bride and groom photos would be a lot of fun as we had one of my favorite engagement sessions in all of 2024 and they didn't disappoint on this day either.
The two just have a natural silliness that I think comes across great in photos, especially when you can get them to be “serious” for a moment (Which is easier said than done because they really like to be fun and silly.)
Knowing this, I figured we'd start with some easy poses that didn't require them to move much and then get more adventurous as we went on.
I loved the first batch of formals from Meg and Tim but, by far, my favorites were toward the back half of the session as we got them in motion and brought the side walls of the Botanical Center more into focus as a backdrop. My favorite shot of the entire day is the one that led this blog off with Meg and Tim walking hand in hand but, honestly, there wasn't one I didn't love in this batch.
Even the standard “veil over the couple's head” shot came out great here as the colors of Meg's flowers and Tim's suit really made everything pop visually.
For my first bride and groom portrait session of 2025, I fear Meg and Tim may have set the bar pretty dang high moving forward because this was a blast.
With Meg and Tim's formal photos out of the way, we made our way to their ceremony and reception venue: The Radisson Hotel in Warwick, Rhode Island. I was really looking forward to this part of the day for Meg and Tim's wedding as I live pretty close by this hotel and, somehow, had never shot a wedding in this particular venue and it didn't disappoint.
Well, mostly.
The location for Meg and Tim's wedding ceremony itself was in an empty conference room type setup and I've got to say, it was one of the weirdest spots I've shot a ceremony in. Not that it mattered though. With how excited and connected Meg and Tim looked, it didn't matter where they were saying "I do."
Meg and Tim's ceremony was as simple one but one full of sweet personal moments. I especially loved that they asked two members of their wedding party to forgo toasts at their reception and incorporated them, instead, into the ceremony itself ... something I've never seen done before.
It was a lovely little detail that really underscored how much the people in this room felt connected to Meg and Tim's love story and really stressed the importance of why we were all there that day.
And by the time the bride and groom sealed their love with a kiss, it was clear the rest of this night would be a massive celebration to highlight those feelings.
Before we could get to those celebrations, however, Meg and Tim needed to enjoy their cocktail hour with their friends and family members and I needed to make sure I grabbed photos of the details they put together for their special day.
Meg and Tim had kept the decor of their wedding pretty low key and understated and I loved that for them, especially because everything looked beautiful. I was especially a fan of their handmade scrabble board that doubled as a welcome sign and showed their creativity beautifully.
I wasn't 100 percent sure what to expect from Meg and Tim's wedding reception but I could tell fairly early on it would be a relaxed night … at least in terms of formalities.
The pair chose to forgo traditional wedding reception introductions with family members and their wedding party, instead choosing to just be introduced as husband and wife and the only formal event we had before dinner time was their first dance set to “You And Me On The Rock” by Brandi Carlile.
Meg and Tim's first dance was sweet and sentimental but they made sure to have fun, too, with some unexpected twirls and dips. It was very THEM and felt like the best way to start this night off.
With their first dance in the books, Meg and Tim really set the tone for the night by heading straight to dinner – with the bride donning a full on poncho so she didn't make a mess of things – and, following dinner, they had a low key cake cutting to signal we were heading into the back half of the night.
One of the things I loved the most about Meg and Tim's reception was that, even with the pair forgoing a lot of the “pomp and circumstance” of a typical reception, they still made time for the things that mattered.
Like parent dances.
To me, Meg and Tim's dances with their parents were one of the biggest highlights of their entire wedding day, especially the moment where Meg made her father cry by projecting an old home movie of them dancing together when she was a child on the wall before they began the traditional father-daughter dance.
Talk about sentimental.
With parent dances in the books, Meg and Tim officially opened their dance floor and kick started the party portion of their wedding day.
Briefly anyway.
The pair got the party off to a great start and made sure everyone was having a wonderful time but shortly after they opened the dance floor, Meg, Tim and I ducked away from the rowdy crowd so the bride and groom could have a private moment away from the chaos to do what they couldn't do earlier: read some private vows to one another.
I may not have been able to hear what Meg and Tim were saying (I always try to give couples some space during their private vows) but I could tell from their reaction it meant a lot and, honestly, that was the perfect way to cap the sentimental part of their wedding day off before we headed back upstairs for the big party.
And what a party it was.
As my assistant Amanda and I packed our gear and headed back out to the rainy winter weather awaiting us, I could help but be thankful I said “yes” to shoot Meg and Tim's special day.
Sure, I love time off during the winter and I cherish every moment of time on my couch when it's not wedding season but I love a good reminder of why I do this even more and Meg and Tim are an amazing couple whose love is exactly why I started shooting weddings so many years ago.
With that being said, you'll have to excuse me though. Now that this wedding is in the books, it's time for me to go back to my hibernation era. So, if you need me, I'll be on my couch watching Netflix until the spring.
See you then!
-Paul J. Spetrini
