Breakers Palm Beach Wedding Photographer — Haleigh & Jay | Sunny Lee Photography

Classic, All the Way Through — Haleigh & Jay at The Breakers Palm Beach

The Breakers Palm Beach · Palm Beach, Florida · Summer Wedding

Some weddings are beautiful. And then there are the ones that stop you — the ones where every single element is so precisely, so intentionally right that you find yourself pausing throughout the day just to take it in.

Haleigh and Jay O’Brien’s wedding at The Breakers Palm Beach was that kind of day. A Catholic ceremony at Saint Edward Church on the island. A June reception in The Breakers’ Circle Ballroom, all white florals and candlelight against that extraordinary painted ceiling. A couple from Washington DC who brought their whole world with them to Palm Beach and filled every room with warmth. It was no surprise when it was featured in People — this was exactly that kind of wedding. As their Palm Beach wedding photographer, being there for it was one of the great privileges of this work.

PORTRAITS

Inside The Breakers

The Breakers does something to portraits that almost no other venue can replicate. The architecture is so specific, so layered — the coffered gold ceilings, the hand-painted murals, the arched mirrors and marble balustrades, the mosaic and terrazzo floors — that every frame has a painting built into it before you even compose the shot. Haleigh and Jay moved through it like they belonged there, which, for that one June afternoon, they absolutely did.

In the lobby, they settled into one of the curved cream sofas — Haleigh perched on the back, her ballgown spreading wide around her, Jay seated easily beside her in his black tuxedo, the tall windows flooding the room with afternoon light and the gold ceiling stretching behind them. The image is relaxed and confident and effortlessly elegant. It is exactly what The Breakers does.

The bridal party portraits in that same lobby corridor — seven bridesmaids in sage green satin slip dresses holding white tulip bouquets, Haleigh standing in front of them with her all-white peony bouquet, the chandelier overhead and the painted ceiling behind — are the kind of photographs that remind you why this venue has been hosting weddings for over a century.

CEREMONY & DESIGN

Saint Edward Catholic Church, Palm Beach

Saint Edward Catholic Church on Palm Beach Island is one of those buildings that makes you understand why people choose a destination for a ceremony. The limestone facade — those carved arched doors, the ornate stonework, the soaring Romanesque presence of the building itself — gives a recessional photograph that nothing else can. When Haleigh and Jay came through those doors as husband and wife, hands raised, the bridal party lining both sides of the steps with bouquets overhead and the entire crowd erupting around them, the image was complete before I even released the shutter. That exit is one of the finest moments I have ever had the privilege of photographing.

The Mass itself carried the weight and ceremony that a Catholic wedding at a church like Saint Edward always does — ritual and intention and something that slows the whole day down in the best possible way. By the time they climbed into the vintage Rolls Royce that carried them away — Jay kissing her cheek, Haleigh smiling with her eyes closed, the white peony bouquet between them — that Palm Beach afternoon already felt like something to remember forever.

RECEPTION DESIGN

The Circle Ballroom

There is a particular feeling that happens the first time you see The Breakers’ Circle Ballroom set for a wedding. The room — its arc of floor-to-ceiling arched windows looking out onto the summer gardens, the painted Renaissance-style murals wrapping the ceiling, the ornate iron chandelier hanging at the center with its candles burning — is already extraordinary before a single flower is placed. What the floral team built inside it for Haleigh and Jay made it something else entirely.

The design was white and green, garden-abundant and luminous. Long banquet tables ran through the center of the room, their surfaces covered from end to end in lush, ground-level floral runners — white peonies, white garden roses, white tulips, white stock, Queen Anne’s lace, and fresh green leaves pressed together in a continuous bloom that felt as much like a garden as a centerpiece. Rising from within the runners at intervals were tall clear glass cylinder candle holders carrying white taper candles at varying heights, their flames catching the light of the chandelier above and multiplying it across every white surface. Gold Chiavari chairs lined both sides. Gold-rimmed charger plates anchored each place setting, with menus folded inside white linen napkins at each seat.

From above, the layout revealed its full intention: round tables with low white floral centerpieces flanking the long banquet tables through the center, and at the heart of the room, a white dance floor edged in a border of polished gold, the room’s great chandelier suspended directly above it. It was the kind of room that makes guests stop at the entrance. A tall tiered white cake stood to the side. Candlelight everywhere. The June evening hadn’t even started and it already felt like the best night of the year.

Haleigh and Jay — from Saint Edward to The Breakers to the pages of People, your wedding day was everything. You brought so much love into every room you walked into, and getting to document that — the quiet moments and the big ones, all of it — was an honor. Congratulations, you two.

If you’re planning a wedding at The Breakers Palm Beach or anywhere across South Florida and are looking for a Palm Beach wedding photographer — or dreaming of a destination celebration — I would love to connect.

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Amazing Vendor Friends: Planner – @fabuluxeevents | Church – @st.edwardpb | Venue – @thebreakers; @breakerswedding | Photo – @sunnyleephoto | Hair and Make Up – @kissthismakeup | Décor – @xquisiteevents | Vintage Rolls Royce – @palmbeachlivery | Buses – @a1aglobalground | Entertainment – @rockwithu | Tuxes – @tuxshoppalmbeach Haleigh’s Dress Deigner – @janehillbridal | Dress store – @everthinebridal | Invitations – @katmccallpapers | Calligraphy – @fancy_chikcalligraphy