The couple tied the knot September 12, 2009, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Asbury Park, with David’s father, Reverend Geoffrey Curtiss, officiating. The tent reception that followed took place at David’s parents’ beach house—a lovely old Victorian with a huge backyard—just one block from the ocean in Bradley Beach.

Although Erin and David met while undergraduate political science majors at Gettysburg College, it wasn’t until after college when David called Erin asking for law school advice that the sparks began to fly. The couple started dating long-distance in the fall of 2006 while Erin attended law school at Duke and David attended law school at American University. Erin and David got engaged on Christmas Eve 2008, and are now both attorneys in international and corporate law.

Just shy of 200 people attended the preppy navy, white, and pink beach event. Erin wore a Vineyard Collection silk-taffeta strapless gown with a side bow and pockets. “It epitomized beach wedding to me,” says Erin. Her eight bridesmaids, of varying geographic locations and sizes (the maid of honor was pregnant), wore five different styles of knee-length navy cotton J. Crew dresses, and each maid wore custom Jack Rogers sandals, a gift from Erin. Seven groomsmen wore black tuxes accented by pink Vineyard Vines bow ties and cummerbunds dotted with little blue whales. Although one groomsman, Thurston Adams, had to stay in Paris for work at the last minute, he was still there in spirit—and in pictures, too. Friends made a mask of Thurston’s face, and guests wore it throughout the night.

The cake was vanilla with raspberry filling, topped with buttercream icing, chocolate seashells, and a blue ribbon accent. And when it came to details like flowers, the couple let their wedding planner, Angela Rando of Juliet Events, take the reins. Rando used white enamel buckets as containers for the centerpieces and aisle flowers for a beachy feel. But the highlight of the night was an ice-cream truck that pulled up during the cocktail hour. “Of all the time we put into the flowers and the decorations, that’s what people loved the most,” says Erin.