Wedding By The River In New Jersey

Get ready for a clean and natural wedding with that backyard feel from one of our favorite New Jersey wedding photographers, Pat Furey Photo. Pat never seems to disappoint us. Erin and Kurt shared with us all the details that made their Califon, NJ wedding come to life. Please read on for the juicy details.
The key theme to our wedding was "natural". We wanted our whole day to not only be about us, but to be about everyone attending. After all, they are the ones that made us into the people we are today. We were going for a backyard style wedding, and when we saw the Raritan Inn we instantly fell in love. We felt like we were home, it had everything our home didn't have, a big back yard. The ceremony was about a ¼ mile walk through the field down to a clearing near a brook. We didn't have any decorations at the ceremony, we felt the natural landscape was too perfect to disturb. We had a simple old tree as our altar, the butterflies swarming the field as adornment, and a bagpiper playing in the distance.

For the reception, we took advantage of the gorgeous greenery and natural summer wildflowers and put the tables outside. We had horseshoe pits set up, a great way for the families to get to know one another, and we created a DIY photo booth and props. There is something about watching adults act like goofs that will make anyone laugh (not to mention the great pictures)! We used burlap and jute twine everywhere!
We love the natural earthy-ness and texture. The tables each had a runner of burlap that stood out against the crisp white linen table clothes, and we used old ball jars my mother had in the basement for centerpieces. Every table had a different mixture of flowers. Each jar was wrapped with jute and held white hydrangeas, daisies, aster, or pale yellow roses, giving the "just picked" look. We used the restored 1880's barn to cool off for cocktail hour and dancing. We strung jute along the barn walls with black & white pictures of our friends and family held on by clothespins. Instead of the traditional wedding cake we went with Stuffed Cupcakes, allowing everyone to choose their own flavor! Our small wedding cake for the groom and I was a simple butter cream cake topped with fresh flowers and custom-made yellow lovebirds found on etsy.com.
The place cards were affixed to the tops of jars of raspberry preserves. Each donned a home made label, and yellow gingham fabric tied on with jute. The ring bearer's pillow was made of a bed of moss with a tiny nest to hold the rings. The flower girl carried a matching basket woven with moss holding yellow and white petals. With a short time to plan the wedding, I scoured the web gathering ideas we liked, and then made them myself for the custom, homemade look we were going for!

Wedding By The River In New Jersey