English Manor Wedding, Ocean New Jersey – Amber & Justin

November 13, 2017

This Summer, I photographed Amber and Justin’s romantic and classic English Manor wedding photography! Amber and Justin chose The English Manor because they wanted a simple outdoor ceremony followed by a fun party with friends and family. My down to earth couple wanted their wedding day to reflect that. The English Manor has gorgeous grounds which allowed my couple to easily work with their soft, romantic theme.

Amber and Justin met at the College of New Jersey, which is also where we had their engagement session last Fall. Amber and Justin met at her sorority’s blind date party. A friend had thought they might hit it off, so she decided she would invite Justin to the party on Amber’s behalf. From Amber: “When the night of the blind date came, I arrived to the venue with my friend and roommate at the time. I remember talking with her for awhile, and then right before we found out who our dates were, even mentioned how we made a mistake in attending! All of the attendees received a slip of paper that had part of a pair on it. I got a slip of paper from the host that said “salt”. Justin received one that said “pepper”. He found me in the crowd and we were officially matched up! After that we just started talking. And we talked, and talked, and talked some more. By the time we finally broke from conversation, the party had basically ended and so I decided it was time for me to go home. Justin asked me for my number at the end of the night. We had our first date two days later and watched The Woman in Black. He still tells me how he was so afraid to hold my hand!”

The proposal: “Justin proposed in July 2016 on our coast to coast road trip! I was hoping Justin would propose on this trip and figured that if he did, it would be early on when we were in Savannah or New Orleans. However, time passed by without so much as a hint towards a proposal. After we made it to California and were on our way home, we stopped in Colorado to visit his cousin. We went on a day trip to Estes Park and when all hope was lost on my part, he proposed to me right by the lake in front of the mountains. It was beautiful! He even had his cousin and his cousins girlfriend take pictures and video of it happening, and because of this I will always be reminded of my super classy “are you shi**ing me” reaction.”

Amber’s favorite moment of their The English Manor wedding day? While a lot of the wedding day is somewhat hazy to her because it felt so surreal, her favorite memory is when she was listening to Justin’s vows. She was nervous to be up there in front of all their guests, and to say personal vows that they wrote to one another, but when they were actually up there, it just felt like the two of them. No one else seemed to exist and they were able to focus solely on one another and to listen to his sweet, loving words.

As their photographer, I absolutely loved their ceremony as well! I even remember looking at Amber’s mother after Justin’s vows and I saw her mouth “wow”. They were really THAT good! My second favorite moment of the day was when we sneaked outside for their romantic night photo. As I was photographing them it started to rain and that quickly turned into a sudden pour. I loved that my laid back couple laughed with me the whole time and still stood there for a couple of seconds longer just so I could capture the rain drops. After we captured the shot, we ran back inside together still laughing!

Any advice for future couple’s planning?

Take everything one step at a time! It’s a lot of work and you’ll definitely be busy, but Justin and I did not seem to get overwhelmed because we didn’t try to do it all at once.

Now that these two are back from their dream Europe honeymoon and back to school teaching, they hope to start looking for their dream home and eventually starting a family. Scroll through to view my favorites from this Summer The English Manor wedding!

Are you planning an English Manor wedding, click here to see more weddings I have photographed at this gorgeous venue.