It was a hot beach day.

No breeze, full sun, and no shade out there except the chuppah itself. Guests brought hats and parasols. Between setups the wedding party kept drifting back under the chuppah for the only few feet of shade on the beach.

Shoshana and Sean were married on the sand at ICONA Avalon, under a chuppah, with the reception in the ballroom. If you are weighing this venue for a summer date, the ICONA Avalon wedding guide covers the beach and the timing.

A June Morning at the Shore

They got ready in two suites.

Sean’s side had the watches out on the bed first. Two of them, one modern and one older gold one, and a pair of compass rose cufflinks. Somebody helped him with the cuff and the whole room laughed at whatever was said. That is the frame I kept.

Shoshana’s gown hung in the window on a hanger that said Mrs Ruckenstein, with the ocean behind it. The flower girls were already in matching pale blue robes.

Then she sat down and read a letter. She got about halfway through it. There is a frame of that and it is the quietest thing in the whole set.

A Cartier watch, a vintage Longines watch and a pair of star engraved cufflinks laid out before the groom dressed at ICONA Avalon

The groom laughing with a family member as the two of them get dressed in shirtsleeves in an oceanfront suite

Black and white photograph of the groom fastening a cufflink in his three piece suit and bow tie beside a framed Avalon print

The wedding invitation suite laid out on pale wood with lace heels, blue delphinium and scattered rose petals

Three wedding bands and an engagement ring set in dusty blue velvet ring boxes beside the invitation and a single blue delphinium

The two flower girls in matching pale blue lace trimmed robes on a balcony before the ceremony

The bride's embroidered tulle gown hanging in a balcony doorway on a personalised Mrs Ruckenstein hanger with the ICONA Avalon dunes beyond

Black and white photograph of the bride seen from behind in her open back lace gown as she stands in front of a full length mirror

The bride leans over to fasten her embroidered heels at the edge of the bed in her getting ready suite

The bride's mother and an attendant lift the cathedral veil over her head, in black and white

The bride wipes her eye as she reads a letter in her gown and veil before the ceremony

Overhead photograph of the bride looking down at a bouquet of pink roses, blue delphinium and sea holly

The First Look on the Dune Path

The first look ran a little after half past twelve, which is early.

That is deliberate on a summer shore day. Do it in the middle of the day and the light is flat and hard and unforgiving, which is the trade you make for having the entire afternoon free afterwards, and for not asking a hundred and twenty people to sit on hot sand any longer than they have to.

We did it on the sand path between the split rail fences. Her veil got away from her on the walk up, which is what happens on a dune in June, and it is better than if it had behaved.

The bride walks up the sand path between split rail fences toward the groom, who waits with his back turned for the first look

The groom turns and sees the bride for the first time on the dune path, both of them mid laugh

A wide photograph of the couple's first look on the dune path with green summer dune vegetation on either side

The couple face each other on the sand path holding the bouquet between them under a clear June sky

The couple crouched beside their two flower girls, whose straw baskets carry the girls' names in white lettering

The Wedding Party on the Sand

Dusty blue and navy, with the flower girls in ivory.

The palette held all day. Blue ring box in the morning, blue thistle in the bouquets, dusty blue bridesmaid dresses, and the tallit above the chuppah with its blue stripes. None of that is accidental, and it is the kind of thing that only reads as a whole when you see the photographs together.

The two flower girls carried baskets with their own names on them. We worked the party by the dune fence first, in what shade there was, then walked everybody down onto the open beach.

The full wedding party in dusty blue gowns and navy suits gathered at the dune fence with the two flower girls in front

The wedding party lined up on the sand at ICONA Avalon in dusty blue and navy with the ocean breaking behind them

The wedding party walking together across the open Avalon beach, the bride holding her skirt up off the sand

The couple walk hand in hand toward the surf, her veil lifting in the sea breeze

Bridal portrait in the dune grass with her cathedral veil laid out behind her across the white sand

The bride rests her head against the groom's shoulder with her eyes closed, his jacket folded over his arm

A Chuppah on the Beach

The chuppah was built from driftwood poles with a tallit stretched between them, florals climbing both uprights, and the Atlantic directly behind it.

White folding chairs straight on the sand, a bamboo runner down the aisle, a guitar on a stand off to one side. Everything about it belonged on that beach rather than being carried out onto it.

A ceremony on open sand in June means the sun has nowhere to go but down onto your guests. No wall, no tree, no roof. What you can do about it is keep it short, which is what happened here.

Here is the real measure of it. The moment the ceremony broke, staff went straight down to the water and stood in it with their shoes off, up past their knees. Nobody thought that was odd.

If you are planning this, tell your guests it will be on sand and in sun. Hats, sunglasses, flat shoes, water. They will thank you and they will still be smiling at the recessional.

The chuppah standing empty on the sand at ICONA Avalon before the ceremony, a striped tallit stretched between birch poles above pink and blue florals

A hand lettered reserved sign and a sprig of greenery tied to a white folding chair set in the sand

A wide photograph of the beach ceremony at ICONA Avalon as the bride is walked down the bamboo aisle runner toward the chuppah, guests standing on both sides

The groom raises his foot to break the glass beneath the chuppah while the officiant reads and the ocean breaks behind them

The first kiss under the chuppah at their beach ceremony, the Atlantic breaking directly behind them

The couple turn back up the aisle to cheers, the groom's fist in the air and guests applauding from the white chairs

Cocktail Hour and the Room

The details on this one were unusually good, and almost all of them were about the two of them rather than about weddings in general.

The signature cocktail sign had their dog and their cat painted on it. The seating chart was a mirror against a greenery wall. There was a memory table with framed family photographs and candles, and beach chair place cards with a starfish on each one.

Somebody carved them a sand castle with Shosh and Sean in a heart on the front of it, indoors, in a tray. The cake was an ocean, blue and white in bands with shells set into it. Johnson’s Popcorn on every table.

An acrylic signature cocktail sign painted with the couple's dog and cat, standing beside a pink and lavender arrangement

Three golden cocktails garnished with charred pineapple wedges waiting on a tray at cocktail hour

A mirrored seating chart hand lettered in white script at ICONA Avalon, set against a greenery wall and banked with pink and blue florals

A server carries a plate of crisp spring rolls dressed with frisee through cocktail hour

A whitewashed card chest topped with two cast sea turtles on the gift table, scattered with white petals

The memory table lit with tealights, framed photographs of grandparents set among ferns beneath an In Loving Memory sign

The couple's sweetheart table draped in white with a low garland of pink and blue blooms running along the floor in front of it

A reception round set with pillar candles, a low pink and blue centrepiece and dressed salads already plated

A gilded table ten marker beside tubs of Johnson's Popcorn tied with pale blue ribbon as guest favours

A three tier wedding cake iced with blue ocean waves and a sand coloured shoreline, topped with two miniature Adirondack chairs

A carved sand castle sculpture on the reception table with a heart reading Shosh and Sean at its centre

Close photograph of the sand castle's heart, the couple's names drawn into the packed sand between two turrets

The ICONA Avalon ballroom set and empty before the doors opened, chandeliers overhead and blue uplighting washing the white walls

Two miniature white Adirondack chairs holding starfish and shells, hand lettered with the couple's first names at the sweetheart table

The Entrance, the Dances and the Hora

They came in at a run, straight through the doors under the ICONA lettering, and the room did not really sit down again after that.

First dance, then the floor. Then the hora, and Shoshana went up in a chair with about eight people underneath her, which is the single loudest thirty seconds of any wedding I photograph and the one I am always happiest to be standing on a chair for.

Black and white photograph of the couple running hand in hand into the reception through the glass doors beneath the ICONA lettering

A wide black and white photograph of the bride dancing with an older man in a dark suit and kippah while guests ring the edges of the ballroom floor

The bride is turned under her partner's arm mid dance, the pearl comb in her chignon catching the light

The bride and groom lifted on chairs during the hora at ICONA Avalon, both of them laughing above the crowd

The groom down to his waistcoat and bow tie on a packed dance floor, light trails streaking around him

The groom spins one of the flower girls under his arm on the dance floor as guests dance around them

The couple kiss over the first slice of the ocean wave cake, the plate held between them

Back Out for Sunset

Around quarter to eight we snuck out for a few minutes.

The light outside had gone gold and it was getting better by the minute, so we walked out, took about twenty minutes on the path and down on the beach, and had them back before anyone noticed they were gone.

Those twenty minutes are some of my favorite photographs of the whole day. Low sun coming down the dune line, the two of them completely loose, because the hard part had been over for hours and the party was already good.

It is also just fun. You duck off the dance floor, you get the best light of the day to yourselves for a few minutes, and then you walk back in and the music is still going.

The couple walk up the sand covered street in low golden light, his jacket over one arm

The couple hold hands and look at each other as they walk back toward the dunes in the last hour of light

Black and white photograph of the couple in a close embrace on the dune path with an Avalon oceanfront building behind them

The couple lean in for a kiss on the sand path, backlit by the low sun

The couple walk the dune path beside a weathered split rail fence, her tulle skirt lifting behind her

Black and white photograph of the couple walking the hard packed sand at the water's edge

A wide black and white photograph of the two of them small against the breaking surf on the Avalon beach

The couple kiss on the open beach in evening light, her skirt swinging out behind her

Black and white photograph of the couple holding each other and looking off down the beach, his boutonniere between them

The bride swings her tulle skirt and laughs while the groom watches from a few steps behind, in black and white

Black and white photograph of the couple walking back up the beach hand in hand at the end of the night

A last golden hour kiss on the dune path with the Avalon shore houses catching the final light behind them

The Team

Venue: ICONA Avalon, Avalon, New Jersey
Photography and cinema: Jordan Brian Studios
Band: Slippery Band
Florals: Coventry Crossing
Hair and makeup: Say I Do Hair & Makeup
Cake: The Bake Works
Gown: Michelle Roth, from Kleinfeld Bridal
Bride’s shoes: Bella Belle
Bridesmaid dresses: Hayley Paige
Suits: Indochino
Invitations: Bella Figura
Favours: Johnson’s Popcorn

Ready to Start Planning?

If you are planning a wedding at ICONA Avalon or anywhere along the Jersey Shore, I would love to hear about your day. Get in touch here and we will talk it through.

A Summer Wedding at ICONA Avalon: Shoshana and Sean