Congratulations Stephanie + Gerald! After many, many years together they were married at the Surf Club on the Sound wedding! They’ve known each other since grade school. In 6th grade Stephanie tried to message Gerald, but it didn’t go anywhere. She tried again their junior year in high school and they’ve been together ever since! They’re high school sweethearts! Stephanie says she knew from the beginning in 6th grade that Gerald was the one. That’s impressive!

I’ve worked at the Surf Club on the Sound a couple times now and I was excited to go back for Stephanie + Gerald’s wedding. It has a great space and location for everything and the staff are all so helpful.

They were at the venue the whole day, even getting ready, so it made it a lot easier to go between the bride and groom. It helped that everyone was in the same place since we were fighting the weather from the tail end of Hurricane Ian. It wasn’t a sunny day, but we were just happy the rain held off so we could get pictures outside. Plus an overcast day is always a great big soft-box for pictures!

There were so many details from the wedding dress to the cathedral length veil, clear invitation suite, rings, jewelry, and personalized kippot. The florist even left some florals for me to use to style the details. I love starting a wedding day off by photographing all the details, it gives me some time to warm up and get my creativity going. Plus the styled details just help begin to tie the whole day together.

I am in love with where I was able to hang Stephanie’s wedding dress!

To compliment the autumn time of year they chose a palette of cinnamon, sienna and olive. The gemstones in Stephanie’s grandmother’s ring were a perfect match to the colors from her fall color pallet,

Stephanie had a piece of her mother’s wedding dress lace cut in the shape of a heart and sewn onto her dress. The heart blended in to the floral appliques that were already on her dress.

While I was with the bride and her half of the bridal party, my friend and 2nd photographer, Nichole, was on the other side of the venue with the groom and his groomsmen as they got ready.

We had a “series” of first looks. First Stephanie did a first look with her father and the water in the background.

The newlyweds chose to have a first look after getting ready and before their Jewish wedding ceremony on the grand staircase. Little did Gerald know that his best man and the bride were in cahoots and planning a fake first look!

Then it was finally time for Stephanie + Gerald’s first look. I love how excited and teary Stephanie was.

I’m so glad we had the grand staircase inside as a backup for if it rained. We took some pictures on the stairs because they were beautiful, but I also wanted to get outside for portraits while it was nice.

Can I have a cathedral length veil at every wedding? They are just so stunning and make the portraits feel softer.

Stephanie had her brother as a bridesman along with her bridesmaids and flower girl. They did a great job coordinating the fall colors and different styles of dresses.

As you can see, the Surf Club on the Sound has a lot of different looks and backgrounds in a relatively small location. One of the big reasons they chose this venue was because of the waterfront view. I love beach portraits so I made sure we spent plenty of time there.

Gerald and especially Stephanie were troopers! It was on the colder side and it was windy by the water.

After all the portraits were finished the Jewish wedding ceremony began with the ketubah signing and veiling of the bride.

The breaking of glass and mazel tov!

Stephanie + Gerald walked into the ceremony and right into a choreographed first dance.

One of my favorite parts of a Jewish wedding is the Hora dance! I’ve never actually done it, but it looks like fun and makes for some great pictures 🙂

Stephanie was smart and had Converse reception shoes. Even Gerald’s grandma changed into flip flops to spend the night on the dance floor.

One of Stephanie’s bridesmaids was so sweet and gifted the bride + groom with a live wedding painting by Kathryn McCabe Art. I loved watching Kat’s process of painting their portrait. From when/where she chose a picture she took on her phone, to roughly adding in the bride, groom and background, and then adding in details. She was so sweet and included their pups into the painting since they couldn’t make it to the wedding.

Stephanie + Gerald decided to do a bride and groom last dance. About 15 minutes before the end of the reception the DJ announced it was time for guests to leave. Once everyone was out the DJ played their final song and they took a minute to be together and soak it all in.

Depending on the venue and the weather I really love to take 10 minutes during the reception to either do sunset pictures or night pictures. Since it was overcast the whole day we didn’t have a sunset so instead we did night pictures in front of the beautiful fountain in the front of the venue.

The lights in the greenery made for a magical nighttime picture.

Stephanie + Gerald, what a wonderful fall wedding you had! Congratulations and best wishes for your marriage!

SURF CLUB ON THE SOUND WEDDING VENDORS:

THE DRESS | At Home Bridal Boutique

BRIDESMAIDS’ DRESSES | David’s Bridal

GROOM ATTIRE | Men’s Wearhouse

VENUE | Surf Club on the Sound

FLORIST | Enchanted Flowers

DJ | Baseline Productions

LIVE WEDDING PAINTING | Kathryn McCabe Art

INVITATION SUITE | Etsy – InvitationSigniture

VIDEOGRAPHER | Stilwell

PHOTOGRAPHER | Cassady K Photography

2ND PHOTOGRAPHER | Nichole Tippin