There’s something about an elopement in New York City that makes it impossible to over-plan — the city is always going to have its own ideas.

For Eric & Elisa, that was exactly the point. We spent three hours moving through Manhattan with no production, no big wedding-day timeline and no need to make the city look polished. New York was allowed to be New York: crowded sidewalks, yellow taxis, subway platforms, people passing through the frame and the constant movement happening around them.

We started around Radio City Music Hall before making our way through some of Manhattan’s most recognizable streets. The New York Public Library gave us a moment of old New York grandeur before everything became quieter and greener in Central Park. In between, we jumped on the subway, walked wherever the city took us and stopped for a slice of pizza on the street — wedding clothes and all.

That contrast is what we loved most about photographing their New York City elopement. One moment could feel cinematic and almost editorial, the next completely ordinary: waiting for a train, sitting on a subway bench or eating pizza with people rushing past. Nothing needed to be transformed into a “wedding location.” The city already had enough character of its own.

The photographs became less about documenting a list of Manhattan landmarks and more about Eric & Elisa existing within them. A little movement, a little chaos, moments of stillness when they appeared, and plenty that happened without being directed at all.

It was intimate without needing to be secluded, romantic without becoming overly polished, and unmistakably New York — three hours wandering Manhattan together and letting the city do the rest.

A STROLL THROUGH MANHATTAN (WITH A PIZZA PIT-STOP)