There are couples whose story you can feel in the room before you ever lift a camera. Grace and Matt’s Spring Lake Bath & Tennis Club Wedding was the perfect embodiment of that!
They met at eighteen, fresh out of high school and headed to colleges in different states. On paper, it made no sense to start something. So they didn’t, for about a minute, and then they gave up pretending and fell in love for real. What followed was five years of long distance: driving five hours to see each other every other weekend, holding it together across time zones, even the brutal sixteen-hour gap when one of them was in Australia. Grace put it perfectly when she told me it never actually felt hard. Eight years later, with two cats who are unquestionably the center of their universe, they came back to the place that has always felt like theirs to make it official.
Why A Spring Lake Bath & Tennis Club Wedding
Some couples pick a venue. Grace and Matt picked a whole town, because it already meant something to them. They have spent summers together in Spring Lake at Matt’s family’s house, and you could see that history woven into every corner of the day. The ocean, the lakes, the wide summer sky, that particular Jersey Shore light in May: those weren’t just a backdrop, they were the reason. Their whole color palette, soft light blues and greens, was pulled straight from the water and the sky they love. A Spring Lake Bath & Tennis Club wedding was the perfect venue to honor their history together.
The ceremony was at St. Catharine’s. This gorgeous historic church sits right in the heart of Spring Lake. It set exactly the tone Grace wanted when she described the day in three words: love, joy, unity. Before any of it began, Grace and her dad had a father-daughter first look on Atlantic Avenue. It was the kind of quiet, unguarded moment that tends to wreck me a little (in the best way).
The Details That Were So Them
This is the part I could talk about all day, because Grace and Matt built a day that could not have belonged to anyone else. There were custom crosswords on the tables along with Grace-and-Matt trivia with prizes. And of course, there were photos of their cats basically everywhere! Grace wore heirloom jewelry passed down from her grandmother and her mother. They also made space for a memorial table to hold the people they carry with them. From personalized crosswords to a sparkler send-off under the Shore sky, every single choice felt intentional. It was a little bit playful with beautiful sentiment sprinkled throughout.
After the ceremony we ran family portraits over at Divine Park, before heading to the reception at Spring Lake Bath and Tennis for the reception. There was joy, laughter, and a whole lot of dancing with the people they love. A sparkler exit to closed it all out, because a night like this one deserves an ending you can see from down the block.
From My End of the Lens
Weddings like this are the reason I do what I do. Grace and Matt did not want a performance; they wanted a celebration, and that intention shows up in the photos in a way you cannot fake. It is a couple who chose each other at eighteen and kept choosing each other across continents, surrounded by the people and the place that shaped them. My team and I were so honored to be trusted with it.
To Grace and Matt: thank you for letting me tell your story. Here is to eight years down and the whole beautiful rest of it, plus a honeymoon in Glacier National Park that sounds like the perfect next adventure for two people who have never been afraid of the distance.
The Team
Venue & Caterer: Spring Lake Bath and Tennis // Ceremony: St. Catharine’s Church, Spring Lake // Planner: Broad Street Events // Florist: Stemtations // DJ: Daddypop // Videographer: Adorable Times // Hair: Elan Hair Studios // Makeup: Artistry by Nic // Cake: The Chocolate Carousel // Gown: Essence of Australia from The Wedding Factor
Newly engaged and dreaming about a Jersey Shore wedding of your own? Get in touch. I would love to hear your story.
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