A Classic Wedding at The Palace at Somerset Park

Ariel and Marc have a great story engagement story!  Before doing everything from home was cool (thanks 2020), Marc proposed to Ariel in the intimacy of their own home! While Ariel tells me that Marc isn’t really a planner, Marc surprised her by decorating their Hoboken apartment with rose petals, and had their dog wearing a bag asking Ariel to marry him!

In the summer of 2019, I met these two in person for the first time at their engagement session on LBI. Long Beach Island was my childhood beach destination and one of my favorite places growing up. Now as a wife and mom, I take my own children there – for me, it’s a place with such important memories, and I love it when my couples choose it for their engagement shoots.  Ariel and Marc’s engagement session on the beach was super windy, so they were rightly blessed by a perfectly calm day last Friday when we celebrated their wedding at The Palace in Somerset.

The Palace makes a bold statement – the interior spaces are grand and vast.  The photographer’s challenge becomes to capture the details of the day and not the let them disappear amid the large canvas.  This wasn’t hard to do, as Ariel and Mark gave us plenty of beautiful details to choose from – elegant jewelry, classic black bridesmaid’s dresses, an avant-garde style Hayley Paige wedding dress (with sequins!), the purity and simplicity of the white floral bouquets.

My couples have been so lucky with the weather this year.  It’s nature’s way of paying us back for all the delays and disappointments of 2020 – of which Ariel and Marc had to endure with their postponed wedding. When you scroll through the pictures, be sure to pause over the and the first look (Marc actually jumped – a lot – when he saw Ariel) and their portraits are some of my all time favorites. I can tell my clients to giggle at me all day long, but nothing replaces pure joy. You can’t ask for a better golden hour, with the sun peering through the rich green backdrop.  We snuck these portraits in with about five minutes to spare before the ceremony began.  No way were we going to miss that light!

The night ended with lots and lots of dancing and one more quiet moment for our special couple – a kiss in front of The Palace’s magnificent neoclassical entry facade.   Congratulation Ariel and Mark!  Your wedding was beautiful, elegant and an outstanding party!  We are so happy for you and loved celebrating with you!

Venue: The Palace at Somerset Park, Somerset, NJ

Hair/Makeup: Salon Two Twenty

Wedding Dress: Hayley Paige, Kleinfeld Bridal

Groom/Groomsmen Attire: The Black Tux

Florist: River Dell Flowers & Gifts

Invitations: Minted

Videographer: Tone Media

Entertainment: Rock & Soul/Starlight Music Group