Linwood Country Club Wedding | Linwood, NJ | Kelsey & Stephen

August 19, 2024

On August 10, 2024, I photographed Kelsey and Stephen’s Linwood Country Club Wedding in Linwood, NJ. Their Summer wedding was romantic and classic with a touch of rustic. They had a color palette of dusty rose and their venue was filled with greenery. Their gorgeous venue has floor to ceiling windows with light colored wood which gave their day a very airy feel. The day started in the beautiful and roomy bridal suite for the ladies before Kelsey and Stephen tied the knot in a traditional ceremony at St. Augustine Church in Ocean City. Once they were married, we captured their portraits all over the grounds before they partied and danced the night away! I am so excited to share Kelsey and Stephen’s Linwood Country Club wedding!

Kelsey and Stephen met during graduate school in 2018 when they were both studying to become Physician Assistants. As the best relationships do, they started out as friends, studying together after school and on the weekends. They soon realized how much they liked each other and the friendship progressed into a relationship.

Their first date was in September of 2018 at a bar in Manayunk in Philadelphia when they went to celebrate finishing a big test. It was supposed to be a big group of friends, but everyone bailed at the last second, leaving Stephen and Kelsey to go together. At the time, they didn’t really know if it was a date, but looking back, it definitely was. They stayed at the restaurant for over three hours talking and getting to know one another.

Kelsey says she doesn’t know if there was a specific moment when she knew Stephen was the one for her and vice versa. She says there was a lot of little moments that built up to something bigger. She says he is so smart and kind. He is always checking in on her to make sure she is doing okay and she always does the same for him. They started out as friends which really helped to solidify the relationship. Their personalities are very similar and they have a similar work ethic yet they have enough differences to keep things interesting! She says Stephen would do anything for her – she always really wanted a cat but Stephen claimed he was allergic. He decided to get allergy tested without telling her and surprised her by saying they could go to the shelter and get a cat. Little things like that where she knows he would do anything to make her happy definitely gave her all the validation she needed to know he was the one.

Engaged on 10/08/2022, the proposal from Kelsey: “I wanted the proposal to be a complete surprise, which I feel is hard these days. However Stephen somehow managed to pull it off. I went to a craft show down in Ocean City with my sister and mom which is a yearly tradition for us. Stephen said he would come down after we were finished and pick me up so we could go to one of our favorite wineries afterward. He ended up meeting me down in Ocean City and we walked on the boardwalk and the beach. He proposed on the beach and had a photographer waiting to take photos. Afterward, we ended up going to Renault Winery where I thought him and I were going to celebrate, but turns out both of our families were waiting there for us to join the celebration. Needless to say, I was completely surprised in the best way!”

Kelsey and Stephen, both Physician Assistants love to binge watch TV shows when they weren’t planning their Linwood Country Club wedding. They also love finding new restaurants and bars to try out and they enjoy traveling and going to the beach. Now married, they see kids in their future (hopefully two!) but would like to take at least a year to continue traveling. Their goal is to get to Europe (specifically Greece) before starting a family with kids. They hope to grow old together and continue to enjoy building their lives with one another.

Their advice for couples currently planning their wedding is to enjoy the wedding planning process. Kelsey says while it can be stressful to plan, she has throughly enjoyed her time planning. Her the mentality is “you only do this once so enjoy it.” Picking out the small details has been her favorite part! Kelsey recommends booking all the big details – hair/makeup, photographer, videographer, DJ, etc early if possible to get first pick of whoever you are interested in!

Kelsey and Stephen were most looking forward to spending the day with all of their loved ones coming together to celebrate them and they are looking forward to officially being married and getting to continue to love each other each and every day and getting to continue to build their lives together. These two are currently on a Hawaiian honeymoon, thank you to Kelsey and Stephen for choosing me to photograph your Linwood Country Club wedding!