Alan and Ari married at the iconic Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown a few weeks ago, and what a glorious evening we had. Alan is a Hollywood director and producer, and the guest list was star-studded. Provincetown Magazine ran an article that week, mentioning the wedding: “Legendary writer Armistead Maupin is coming to Provincetown to officiate a wedding. The author of the Tales of the City series will assist in marrying film and television producer and director Alan Poul and Ari Karpel in a Jewish ceremony at the foot of the Pilgrim Monument … Just imagine it. The monument that commemorates the landing of the Mayflower in Provincetown and the Pilgrims, with their puritanical ways, will host a gay Jewish wedding.”

I started my day at the grooms’ beautiful P-town home where they spent the morning receiving visitors. It is such a charming spot, and I had fun taking photos in their darling back yard and out in their street, as well as at our planned portrait spots.

The grooms wore exquisite tuxes and custom shirts by tailor J.Mueser. I love that they chose different colors – and colors, not black. They looked so handsome and suave! They even had their close friend and professional stylist Michael over to help them dress, and he even helped me out with styling during portraits which was pretty great!

After an intimate ketubah signing at their home, everyone jumped into the funk bus and headed over to the Pilgrim Monument for the wedding proper. The ceremony took place under the dappled shade of a huge tree on the East Lawn. There were a lot of tears throughout, from both the grooms and their friends and families. I’m not sure there was a single guest who didn’t shed a tear at one point or another!

Cocktail hour included an oyster bar, many fabulous outfits, and gorgeous early evening views over P-Town and the ocean beyond. The reception took place under a tent with gorgeous flowers by Winston Flowers, and lighting by my new favorite lighting company, Event Illuminations. The entire event was overseen by the fabulous Susan at Elizabeth Allen Events.

Some highlights of the reception included the grooms’ first dance, which started with them dancing cheek-to-cheek, then morphed into a really fun and energetic dance which was loosely choreographed; the motzi – blessing of the challah – was wonderful; their friend and MC had everyone hold hands in a huge circle, with the challah becoming a part of that circle. It was an unexpected and beautiful moment. The hora was also fantastic – if slightly terrifying to photograph (it was VERY energetic!)

Thank you Ari and Alan for trusting me to document your amazing wedding, and thank you for the kind words: “Kate, these are stupendous! We went through the whole file last night and were overwhelmed. We’ll go back and make our selects soon so we can invite guests, but whittling it down to a viewable number is going to be insanely difficult–there are so many superb moments captured so beautifully! Thanks for immortalizing us.” And thank you to my good friend Leah for helping photograph this wonderful celebration with me; a couple of the images above are hers.