I love to travel and explore equally as much as I love sipping iced lattes on my front porch. I’m a proud puppy mama to a little maltipoo with a big personality. I am a firm believer in hugging over handshakes, that a house is not a home without a pineapple (or twenty), and that you can never have too many throw pillows.

hey there,

I’M JEN LARSEN

I’M A SOUTHERN-AT-HEART WEDDING & ANNIVERSARY PHOTOGRAPHER BASED IN NEW JERSEY, SERVING COUPLES WORLDWIDE.

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West Point Military Academy & Highlands Country Club, New York Wedding | Daria & Matt

Oh, hello 2018 wedding season!!! I cannot think of a better way to kick off this year than by capturing Daria and Matt’s West Point Military Academy & Highlands Country Club wedding! These two and their love are seriously pure magic. It was SUCH a beautiful wedding day carefully planned by Daria with so many gorgeous details! I love how perfectly they compliment each other and just how incredibly kind-hearted and sweet they both are. New Jersey weather can be a little crazy at times, but not even a little rain could dampen their joy-filled day!

There were so many thoughtful details that made up their wedding celebration. Daria surprised Matt with a Yeti cooler that he had been talking about getting for years; Daria has had it hidden at his Best Man Kyle’s house for a year! Matt caused tears all around the bridal suite with his handmade picture frame wall hanging. He hand wrote on each of the frames a specific life milestone that will one day fill the open spaces. The first frame was filled with an adorable photo from their engagement session with their first dog, Daisy! Speaking of Daisy, she made an appearance at the wedding! 🙂 It is seriously the best when my couples include their fur babies in the celebration!

Daria’s earrings are her mother’s, and she wore them to all of their engagement events from the engagement session to the engagement party! Daria knew that she wanted to wear them on her wedding day the second she saw them years ago. Plus, her mom has always been known for having the most amazing style, so she was grateful to be able to wear a piece of who her mother is. She also held her Nonnas close to her by carrying a gold and pearl pin on her bouquet that belonged her late maternal Nonna, and her clutch belonged to her paternal Nonna! Matt’s wedding band was engraved with the sweetest words, “I love you, more,” which is something Daria reminds him of all the time. His cufflinks are Army Engineer cufflinks that she got for him when he graduated his Lieutenant Training course in Missouri 3 years ago. Together, they handmade the compote centerpieces, they shared an amazing saber arch exit after the ceremony, and they danced the entire night away alongside friends and family. I absolutely love all of the special pieces that make up a wedding day and tell their special and unique love story.

After a memorable meeting at a bar, Matt and Daria headed out for the night to walk around the nearby waterfront and ended up stopping at a restaurant to split dessert. Daria remembers it feeling like these types of “first dates” only happen in Hallmark movies, but there they were falling in love from day one! They spent as much time as they could together between her work schedule and his assignments. Matt had a month before heading to Missouri for training, but after 6 months, he would get his next duty station in New York! On their last full day together, they hiked up Minnewaska State Park in NY, and he officially asked Daria to be his girlfriend. She says, “Life with Matt is so easy, albeit very hectic, but it just flows. Things as easy as doing laundry, cleaning up after dinner or packing stuff up for a road trip, they may seem small but those little things make me appreciate us so much more cause we have each other to rely on. We’re a team and I love it I couldn’t be more excited to spend my life with someone who makes life seem easy, it’s refreshing and like we can get through everything together. Plus he’s so handsome, has a heart of gold, a soft spot for golden retrievers, and loves ice cream and pizza just as much as I do.”

After dating for about a year and a half and getting through Matt being at training in Missouri, an Army school where he couldn’t communicate for a month, and a deployment, they decide they didn’t want to be away from each other anymore. Daria remembers that the goodbyes were always the hardest. When they talked about their future, she said she would move to his area with him if she could found a job there. Thankfully, in early 2016, they found out he was coming home after 6 months in Afghanistan, so Daria decided to start the job hunt. In about two weeks, she found a perfect job and she said, “it seemed like fate, I finally felt like my stars were aligning and I was a bit in a daze that this was going to be so easy. So I accepted an offer (1 mile from where we would live, score!), told my family and friends, put my 2 weeks in at my current job and moved up here to start our life together… When you stare at the man who makes your insides feel warm and fuzzy, can picture a life, a future, kids, a house, riding the highs, sticking it out through the lows, growing old and still laughing together all in one I feel like it is meant to be. So, moving up to Matt and away from all my family and friends, although hard, it was the best and easiest decision of my life.” Yep, these two are just perfect!!

When Matt popped the question, they were celebrating Daria’s birthday. On the way to a restaurant called Lombardi’s, they were passing by Minnewaska State Park. As Daria tells it “Matt said we had some time to kill before dinner so he thought it would be nice to walk around, since the last time we were there was over 2 years ago. It’s pretty typical for us to explore, so I thought nothing of it, I got out of the car and Matt pointed and said let’s just walk down there quick. As we were walking there were two people in hiking gear with cameras speaking a different language. We didn’t walk very far, because it was pretty muggy out, but we did walk down to a spot where it looked out to the top of a mountain where he asked me just over 2 years ago to be his girlfriend. Then he started to say something and everything is a blur! He was saying something probably so sweet, but the next thing I knew he was on one knee and I was crying hysterically. Turns out the two people pretending to be hikers and nature observers were actually photographers he hired! After I finally calmed down from crying, hugging and kissing Matt, he asked if I wanted the ring still! I actually forgot about it haha, but it was so beautiful and more than I could have ever imagined. The photographers introduced themselves and offered to take pictures of us, and I was in such a daze, crying on and off. We ended up taking some pictures and even some at the spot where he asked me to be his girlfriend and then headed to dinner. Turns out dinner was at Lombardi’s!! That weekend was so full of love, we saw so much family, our parents met for the first time and we had dinner with my friends.” It doesn’t get any more perfect than that. 🙂

These two movie, pizza, ice cream, and golden retriever loving people are such a huge reason why I adore my career. I meet the sweetest couples who put always each other first and have the biggest hearts you can imagine. Daria and Matt, it was such a pleasure getting to kick off 2018 by celebrating your marriage alongside you. I hope you fill every one of Matt’s picture frames with the absolute best memories and fill tons of photo albums with plenty more memories to come. Thank you for being you, and enjoy every second of this new adventure! Congratulations love birds!! <3