Elizabeth and Michael: a beautiful Spring celebration in New Jersey
They swiped right! You never know where you’re going to find true love. We hear about people meeting and falling in love through online dating services all the time, but Tinder? Really? Yep! And the rest is history! What a gorgeous celebration for such a fabulous couple!
Elizabeth and her bridesmaids began their day at the bridal suite at the Sheraton in Eatontown, New Jersey.
Elizabeth had two gorgeous pairs of designer shoes and couldn’t choose between them, so she wore one pair for the ceremony and another for the reception. And will you take a look at that flawless face?? What a beautiful bride!
Meanwhile Michael and his groomsmen prepared for the big day at Elizabeth and Michael’s home nearby.
A quick hello to ‘the kids’
The adjacent park was a great place to take some additional photos of the guys.
The ceremony was held at Church of the Nativity in Fair Haven.
Ah, we love these people!! Michael’s mom, Deb, used to work with my mom. That’s how this family first met Dad. He has been taking family photos of this gang for years. He even took Michael’s High School senior photos a while back. We so appreciate having been welcomed by this amazing crew. And they’re a good looking bunch too, don’t you think?
Check out these adorable programs. Each one includes a strip of fun photos of Elizabeth and Michael – and notice that they’re all unique.
Elizabeth and her bridesmaids arrived in style, just in time to walk down the aisle.
Aren’t they beautiful?
Next we took some formal photos at Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank, just a few blocks away from the church.
As a photographer, it sure is nice when your subjects just so happen to look like models.
A quick candid moment…
Mother and daughter – just stunning, ladies!
Next, a classic and glamorous party at Buona Sera Palozzo.
Now, I’m going to have to digress a little. Let’s talk about the food. We’re not sure if it’s an east coast thing, or (probably) an Italian thing, as Elizabeth’s family is Italian, but we have been to a few weddings before and we have never, ever, seen so much food being served! The guests practically had a full meal during the cocktail hour, before the reception even began. A huge buffet bar, and a macaroni and cheese bar (I had mine with shrimp and lobster), are just a couple examples.
Then when the lovely multi-course meal was served inside, we couldn’t figure out how people were going to be able to eat it… but they did (and so did we).
As if that weren’t enough, once Elizabeth and Michael cut the cake, their guests weren’t just served wedding cake, but instead were treated to a whole dessert bar, including at least 10 different cakes and another 10 additional desserts. I’m including a few photos here, but we could have blogged just about the food, there was so much.
Oh, are cake and pastries not your thing? No worries. Here’s a huge candy bar too.
Just in case you’re hungry when you leave, grab a full sized sandwich for the road. Seriously!! :-)
The word that keeps coming to mind is grateful. Grateful that Dad and I had this great opportunity to spend quality time together, traveling to New Jersey to photograph this wedding. Grateful that Michael, Elizabeth and their families thought enough about our work to agree to have us come all that way to take these photos rather than hiring someone local. So especially grateful that Michael’s parents so generously flew us out to do this. Grateful that once we arrived and began taking photos, Michael and Elizabeth looked so beautiful that we felt like we were working with models. Grateful that the families welcomed us as if we were family ourselves, and even gave us seats with guests for dinner. Grateful that this celebration was such an elegant and beautiful one. The list, truly, goes on and on…
Thank you so much Michael and Elizabeth for asking us to be your wedding photographers – we absolutely loved working with you two! And thank you again to Deb and John for helping to make that happen. Again, you all made us feel like family and I am so happy that we were able to capture these amazingly beautiful memories for your families.