The first email I ever sent Diana asked whether she was ready to stand on the Monet bridge with the pink lilies open on the water and the koi looking up at her. She wrote back the same night. Yes, and she could not wait to be photographed on that bridge.
They planned the whole thing from Denver. Her family flew in from China. His drove up. Everybody landed in Hamilton, New Jersey for one Saturday in June.
Getting ready in the East Gallery
Both of them got ready in the suites at the East Gallery, which are better rooms than most venues give you. Good light, enough space, and nobody has to drive anywhere.
Her red qipao was already hanging next to the gown. That told me how the night was going to end.
The bamboo
There is a line of bamboo beside the East Gallery that almost nobody uses. It is quiet, it is shaded, and you cannot be seen from the path. That is where we did the first look, and they had it entirely to themselves.
The bridge, the allee, and the vase
Then we went and did the thing I promised her in that first email. The lilies were open, the koi came up, and the bridge was ours.
From there the Maple Allee for the wedding party, then my favorite spot on the whole property. It is called Put Yourself in the Picture, a monumental vessel by Roberto Lugo, and you climb a set of stairs and stand inside it. Most couples do not know it is there until I walk them to it.
The Nine Muses
We did her immediate family outside before the ceremony, which keeps that part off the back end of the day. Then the ceremony at the Nine Muses, and the extended family right after while everybody was still in one place, before cocktail hour swallowed them.
Red, white, and double happiness
The East Gallery is a working gallery with a mirrored dance floor down the middle of it, and they filled it with red. Red napkins, red roses, the double happiness symbol thrown on the wall in red light and reflected back off the floor.
They came to dance
This was a dancing wedding. They had worked out a real first dance, and then Diana and her father did something fast that I did not see coming and had to chase across the floor.
They cut the cake with a hatchet. Then they changed into traditional Chinese outfits, both of them, and came back out, and the glow sticks came out with them.
I walked outside near the end to make one photograph of the gallery lit up from the parking lot, with all of them still going inside it.
Thinking about Grounds for Sculpture
It is the venue I have photographed more than any other, and it still gives me something new every time. If you are looking at it, I put everything I know into the Grounds for Sculpture wedding guide, including the spots most couples walk past. There is also Susan and Norman’s 50th anniversary there, and a surprise proposal in the snow.
Ready to Start Planning?
If you are getting married at Grounds for Sculpture, or anywhere around Philadelphia and South Jersey, tell me about your day and we will talk it through.
Venue: Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey
Planning: Claire Belkot, Grevillea Weddings and Events
Florals: Viburnum Designs
Hair and makeup: MG Hair and Makeup
Cake: Happily Desserted
DJ: Luvdup DJs
Transportation: A1 Limousine
Gown: Justin Alexander from Bridal Suite Boutique
Photography and cinematography: Jordan Brian Studios