A 19-Hour Race to the Altar: Karen & Grant's Fall Wedding at The Bark Eater Inn

When a flash flood, a canceled flight, and a vanished rental car stood between us and a Keene, New York wedding, here's how we made it — with minutes to spare.

When Mother Nature throws a flash flood at your travel plans, a simple trip turns into a 19-hour saga of lost bags, phantom rental cars, and a race against the clock. Here's how we made it to Karen and Grant's wedding just in time.

From Santa Cruz to San Fransisco airport to New York, final destination Keene. The challenge started with a canceled flight to Burlington due to a flash flood in New York, which left us stranded in New York without our luggage. Two frustrating hours later, we finally had our bags back — only to discover every rental car in the vicinity was gone.

We ended up at the TWA Hotel in the middle of the night, hungry and with nowhere to stay, but were able to get a late night meal there. The only option left was an expensive, lengthy Uber into the city. From there: the AirTrain to Jamaica at 2 AM, a train to Penn Station, and, with no direct options left, a ten-block walk and a two-hour wait for two seats on a Megabus to Albany.

We reached Albany at 7 AM, grabbed just enough rest in the bus to function, and Ubered to the train station. By some miracle, we snagged the last available rental car — which meant a two-and-a-half-hour drive straight into Keene, arriving moments before the 2 PM ceremony. This was a miracle we could get a rental since in New York all rental companies were strapped due to the flooding.

Two energy drinks later, it was time to be exactly who they'd hired me to be. Exhausted didn't matter. Relieved didn't matter. It was time to work.

Why I Travel for Weddings

I travel for weddings because there's something about being the person a couple trusts enough to bring across the country for their day that I take seriously. Out of every photographer they could have picked, they chose you, specifically, to be there in the place that matters most to them. When Karen and Grant reached out about their September wedding at The Bark Eater Inn in Keene, New York, I didn't hesitate.

The Adirondacks in late September. Peak fall foliage. A historic inn in a valley framed by mountains. I booked my flight.

On September 30, 2023, Karen and Grant got married, and the Adirondacks were, without exaggeration, on fire with color.

The Bark Eater Inn

The Bark Eater Inn has the feel of a place with history — a working inn in Keene Valley, the kind of property where the wood is worn in the right ways and the windows look out onto mountains. Guests started arriving at 2 PM to spread out across the grounds — drinks in hand, a plate of snacks, a game of ring toss or bocce going in the grass while the afternoon warmed up.

There's a different energy at a destination wedding. Everyone has traveled to be there. Nobody is popping in from down the street. Every person on that lawn made a choice to be present for this specific day, in this specific place, and that choice shows up in the photographs.

The Ceremony

By 3:45, Karen had changed into her dress in a room on the ground floor of the inn, and by 4:15 she was hiding — genuinely hiding — in a lilac bush at the edge of the property with her three closest friends, Elena, Julie, and Michal, the three of them tasked with carrying her train down the aisle. There's something wonderful about photographing a bride tucked into a lilac bush, stifling laughter with her friends, minutes before she gets married. It's not a posed moment. It's just what was actually happening.

Once she was in position, the guests were called down to the field where the ceremony would happen. Karen's friend Shani played violin — the Butterfly Waltz — as Karen's niece and nephew walked the aisle first, scattering flower petals ahead of them before taking their seats in the front row next to their dad. Tucked in their pockets: the rings, ready to be carried up when the moment came.

Then Karen emerged from the lilac bush and walked down the aisle with Elena, Julie, and Michal beside her, the three of them peeling off to their seats once they'd delivered her to Grant.

Karen's sister Amber officiated — reading her own sister's vows back to her, in front of everyone who mattered most to both of them.

Late September in Keene Valley is something to see. The maples go first — deep red and orange against the hillsides — then the birches turn, their yellows catching the light. The mountains above the valley hold the color the way a bowl holds water, and the whole landscape becomes a photograph before you've even raised the camera. Karen and Grant were married in the middle of all of it, the ceremony wrapping right around 5 PM.

The Reception

As soon as the ceremony ended, most of the guests headed back to the tent for hors d'oeuvres, while the wedding party and closest family stayed behind on the ceremony lawn for group portraits. Once those were done, we rejoined everyone at the tent — but not for long. As golden hour rolled in between 5:30 and 6, Karen and Grant slipped away with me for portraits, just the two of them, while everyone else kept the cocktail hour going.

Dinner was served around 6:30. Once the plates were cleared and dessert and champagne made their way around the tent, the speeches started. Then the first dance, then everyone up and dancing together, the whole tent moving. As the night wound down, a bonfire took over from about 8 to 10 — the kind of low-key, unhurried ending that only a destination wedding really earns, everyone too full and happy to want to go anywhere else.

A Favorite Moment

If I had to pick one moment from the whole day, it's the lilac bush. Karen, in her wedding dress, crouched down with three of her closest friends, all of them trying not to laugh, waiting for their cue — it's the kind of moment nobody stages and nobody forgets. Golden hour with Karen and Grant alone came close behind it; the valley held onto that late-September light exactly the way I'd hoped it would.

The Morning After

The day after the wedding, the whole group headed out together for a hike into the Adirondacks — still riding the high of the night before. I brought my drone along and got some aerial footage of the mountains that I don't think a ground-level camera could have captured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SaCPCdWPqY&t=95s

Would I Do It Again?

Without question. The Adirondacks in fall are one of the most photogenic wedding settings I've ever worked in — the color, the mountains, the intimacy of a valley inn, and a couple who built a day this specific to who they are. It makes for images that look like nothing else in my portfolio.

Karen said it better than I could, in her own words after the wedding:

"Jason recently photographed our wedding. Despite having gone through a very challenging travel ordeal in order to make the wedding on time, he maintained a warm, calm, and professional demeanor. He did a fantastic job capturing the joy of the day in a very authentic and beautiful way. Whenever I show people the photos, the word most people choose to describe them is 'stunning.' I highly recommend working with Jason!" — Karen & Grant Justice

If you're planning a destination wedding and want a photographer who treats the travel as seriously as the work, I'd love to hear about it. Get in touch here and let's talk about your day.