Brooke & Hunter | Lightner Museum + Peña-Peck House | St. Augustine, Florida
There are weddings you photograph, and then there are the wedding weekends you never want to end. Brooke and Hunter’s colorful celebration, a ceremony at the Peña-Peck House and a reception at the Lightner Museum in the historic streets of St. Augustine, Florida, captured by Aly Matei Photography, was absolutely the second kind: a full weekend of golden Florida light, film grain, and a couple who let their personalities pour into every single detail.
As a destination wedding photographer based in Houston, Texas, packing my film cameras and flying out for a weekend like this is the whole reason I do what I do. St. Augustine gave us Spanish Renaissance architecture, courtyard gardens, and a palette so rich it looked designed for film. But this wedding was personal for me in a way most aren’t, because I’ve known and loved Brooke for years.
How I Know Brooke & Hunter
I met Brooke five or six years ago in a photography mastermind. She’s a wedding photographer too, and the two of us just clicked, we became close friends, cheering each other on and growing our businesses side by side ever since. So being trusted to photograph her wedding wasn’t a booking; it was a blessing. This was someone I actually know, someone I’ve watched grow, and getting to document her marrying the person who so clearly adores her meant everything to me.
Brooke met Hunter about two years ago, and on their very first date they filmed a little video, “hey kids, it’s your mom and dad”, that promptly went viral. From that first date on, they were inseparable.
Watching how much Hunter loves Brooke, how much she loves him, and how deeply their family and friends love them together was the heart of this whole weekend. They’re an iconic couple, colorful, warm, and completely themselves, and I got to be fully immersed in it, using both film and digital photography to capture every bit of that personality.
Carrying Her Dad With Her
Just five days after Brooke and Hunter got engaged, Brooke lost her dad. Not having him there was a quiet, tender thread through the whole day, a reminder that the happiest moments and the hardest ones often live right beside each other. Brooke carried him with her, and their wedding made room for that love too.
The Welcome Party at Sunday in St. Augustine
One of my favorite things about a true destination wedding is that it isn’t just a day, it’s a whole weekend. Brooke and Hunter kicked theirs off with a welcome party at Sunday in St. Augustine, and it set the tone perfectly: everyone they loved, gathered in one place, celebrating before the celebration.
It was also where some of the most moving moments of the entire weekend happened. Brooke’s mom and sister surprised her with a handkerchief embroidered with her late dad’s actual handwriting, a way for a piece of him to be with her all weekend long. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Getting to photograph a moment like that, one that would have been missed entirely if the welcome party hadn’t been covered, is exactly why I believe so deeply in documenting the full wedding weekend.
The space at Sunday also featured a local artist, Jenna Fine Art Studio (@jennafineartstudio), selling beautiful original prints. I fell in love with a few and bought them on the spot, then wove them into the wedding-day flat lays alongside the invitation suite, the rings, and the other details. It’s one of my favorite ways to bring a whole weekend full circle: a piece of St. Augustine, discovered at the welcome party, living on inside the photos of the day itself.
Why photograph your welcome party or rehearsal dinner? These are the hours when your people are relaxed, the toasts are unscripted, and the most sentimental surprises tend to happen. A welcome party or rehearsal dinner is where the emotional foundation of the whole weekend gets laid, and once it’s over, those moments are gone. Booking coverage for it means your destination wedding is remembered as the full experience it actually was, not just a single Saturday.
Getting Ready
The morning unfolded slowly and beautifully. Brooke got ready in her gown from Brooke and June Bridal, with hair by Best Hair Days by Bailee and a glowing makeup look from Kate Face Beauty, surrounded by her bridesmaids. Shooting getting-ready moments on film is one of my favorite parts of a wedding day, the quiet in-betweens, the laughter with the people who love you most, the anticipation you can almost feel in the frame.
Bride, Groom & Wedding Party Portraits in St. Augustine
There’s nothing quite like coquina walls, garden light, and a bride who feels fully herself. Brooke’s portraits are some of my favorites from the whole weekend, colorful, timeless, and unmistakably her.
A Ceremony Steeped in History: The Peña-Peck House
Brooke and Hunter said their vows in the courtyard garden of the Peña-Peck House, one of St. Augustine’s most storied venues. Built around 1750 from native coquina stone for the Spanish Royal Treasurer, the house later served as the last official seat of British government in North America south of Canada. Today its elegant garden and courtyard make it an intimate, romantic setting for ceremonies, the kind of place where centuries of history hold space for a brand-new chapter.
Surrounded by lush florals from Floral Anthology and stationery by Addie Grae Design, the ceremony felt both timeless and completely them. There is something about coquina walls and green garden light that film renders like nothing else, soft, warm, and alive with color.
A Colorful Wedding Reception at the Lightner Museum
If you want a jaw-drop reception venue, the Lightner Museum delivers. Originally opened in 1888 as Henry Flagler’s opulent Hotel Alcazar, it was once home to the world’s largest indoor swimming pool. That historic pool space, with its three-story ceiling and twin staircases, is now one of the most breathtaking wedding venues in Florida, and it was the perfect stage for Brooke and Hunter’s colorful, high-energy celebration.
Guests danced under Gilded-Age grandeur to Mixing Maryland DJs and DJ Little Rock, sipped from a bar by Toast with Cocktails, and celebrated among rentals and design details from St. John’s Illuminations, All About Events Jax, Luxe Party Rentals, Something Vintage, and Nuage Designs. Every corner had color, texture, and personality, a reception that felt as vibrant and full of life as the two people at the center of it.
Why St. Augustine Is a Dream Destination Wedding Location
For couples considering a destination wedding in Florida, St. Augustine is hard to beat. As the oldest city in the United States, it offers centuries-old architecture, cobblestone streets, courtyard gardens, and warm coastal light, all within walking distance. Venues like the Lightner Museum and Peña-Peck House give you a sense of place and history that a blank-slate ballroom simply can’t. It’s romantic, it’s photogenic, and it’s made for a full wedding weekend, welcome party and all, rather than a single rushed day.
And that’s exactly the kind of work I love most: traveling in, settling into a place, and documenting a celebration from the welcome party to the last dance.
Planning a Colorful Destination Wedding? Let’s Talk.
I’m Aly Matei, a destination wedding photographer based in Houston, Texas, and I travel across the country and beyond for couples who want their day captured with color, emotion, and the timeless feel of film. If Brooke and Hunter’s St. Augustine wedding weekend is speaking to your soul, whether you’re planning in Florida, Texas, or somewhere that requires a passport, I would love to hear all about it.
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Vendor Team
- Venues: Lightner Museum · Peña-Peck House · Sunday (welcome party, add link)
- Planning: NC Heirloom Collective
- Photography: Aly Matei Photography
- Content: Little Moments Lens
- Makeup: Kate Face Beauty
- Hair: Best Hair Days by Bailee
- Florals: Floral Anthology
- DJ: Mixing Maryland DJs · DJ Little Rock
- Bar: Toast with Cocktails
- Rentals: St. John’s Illuminations · All About Events Jax · Luxe Party Rentals · Something Vintage · Nuage Designs
- Dress: Brooke and June Bridal
- Stationery: Addie Grae Design
- Art prints (welcome party + detail flat lays): Jenna Fine Art Studio
- Stickers: StickerApp · Sticker rental: Peel the Limes
