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Kimm and Ken at The Oyster Point Hotel

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Kimm and Ken at The Oyster Point Hotel

Posted on February 03, 2023 by New Jersey Bride

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How did you meet?
We met during our last year of college at SUNY Fredonia. I was there to study Music and Ken was there for Business/ hockey. For a small school, it was weird that we did not meet earlier, as many of our friends knew each other. One night during senior year, the hockey team was hanging out at a local sports bar watching the NHL when Ken noticed me actually watching the hockey game too, unbothered by anyone else at the bar. He said he noticed how pretty I was and was impressed that I knew hockey, so he walked over and introduced himself. The rest is history!

How did you get engaged?
Ken had planned a trip to Miami for my birthday, and I didn’t think anything of it because he has planned trips like this for me before. On our first full day there, he told me we were going to a nice restaurant for my birthday dinner, so we got dressed nicely and made our way down the beach to the restaurant. To my surprise, there were no dinner plans or restaurant at all! Instead, he lead me to the most unique art deco lifeguard stand, where he had a photographer hiding and already snapping photos. He got down on one knee, in the sand, and asked the easiest question he’s ever asked me.

Details of the day!
We have been together for a long time and we were so excited to be married, we wanted our wedding to be a bright, but elegant, fun summer party! The bridesmaids each wore a different bright summery color, and the groomsmen each wore a boutonniere with a flower that matched the dress of their bridesmaid. Our florist, Wild Aura, brought our vision for our flowers to life and created beautiful pieces with bright summery colors that brought the fun vibe we were looking for. We were so lucky to have Ken’s Grandmother, who is a pastor, perform our ceremony. She has married all of Ken’s cousins and it meant a lot to us to have her perform our wedding too, it was something very special that we will always remember. Something else that was really important to us was to have our dog Tucker involved in the wedding. Luckily our venue Oyster Point Hotel was very accommodating and he was able to be a huge part of the ceremony with the help of Madeline and Happy Bark & Tails. He stole the show! Our whole wedding day took place on the second floor of the Oyster Point Hotel with a beautiful balcony that everyone enjoyed from cocktail hour through the reception. We finished the night dancing with an electric violinist, blasting our families and friends with CO2 smoke guns on the dance floor, and we even had a Stanley cup Ice sculpture that sat behind us at our sweetheart table!

Why did you choose your venue?
Everyone told us “you’ll know the perfect venue when you see it” and that honestly could not be more true for us. We had visited so many venues, but nothing ever felt right until we walked into Oyster Point. With both of us being from out of state, we needed a hotel to accommodate our families and friends traveling in for the weekend, and The Oyster Point hotel was a perfect place to meet that important need. The hotel itself is beautiful and elegant with a spiral staircase being the first thing you see when you enter. The food at the restaurant is delicious, so we knew the food for the wedding would be just as great, which was really important to us. The views were another thing that took our breath away, the wedding space is the entire second floor of the hotel with incredible floor-to-ceiling views and a balcony looking over the Navesink River, it was really like looking at a painting. Not only is the food delicious and the views absolutely stunning, but the people who work at Oyster Point make you feel like family from the moment you walk in. Every time we went to check out the location, or even to just grab dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, everyone was always so kind and helpful and made us feel like we had known them forever. We could not say enough great things about our venue, and our guests agree that everything was amazing from the ambiance to the food. We are beyond happy we went with Oyster Point!

What was on your menu?
Food was an important part of our wedding and we were so happy with all of the food we had. Our wedding package included a huge cocktail hour with an abundance of Hors D’oeuvres, a raw seafood bar, a Chinese food take-out station and even a mac and cheese and loaded potato stand. There were three rooms filled with food for cocktail hour, and that was just the start. For our reception, everyone began with a wild mushroom ravioli and a seasonal salad with watermelon and aged balsamic. After an intermezzo of lemon sorbet, everyone had a choice between 3 entrees; filet of grouper in a white wine tomato sauce with artichokes and olives, roasted chicken and prosciutto with fontina cheese and sage in a lemon sauce, or a surf ‘n’ turf with filet mignon and South African lobster tail. The night ended with a huge assortment of sweets including mini S’Mores tarts, chocolate truffles, french macarons, and our beautiful mango buttercream cake made by Antoinette Boulangerie. Our guests continue to tell us about how much they enjoyed the food and the amount of food offered. I wish I could eat that food every day.

All about your gown!
When I first started dress shopping, I had no idea what I wanted. I tried on so many styles and types of dresses, and we kept picking all the different styles to try on. When we were sorting through dresses on the rack, we all kept coming back to this one, and I am so happy I tried it on because it was perfect. My dress was a sheath crepe style with open lace detail on the sides and back. What really got me about this dress though was the train, it was beautiful and long. The train stretched out far behind me with lace detail on the ends and buttons all the way down. I wanted a dress that would wow my husband when he saw me for the first time, but I also wanted it to feel like me. When I put this dress on for the first time, I could picture him picking me up in it on our wedding day and swinging me around the dance floor, and that was all I needed.

What was your favorite moment?
It’s hard to choose only one favorite moment from the whole day, there were so many moments that felt perfect. We do both agree that one of our favorite memories of the whole day was the ceremony. Looking around and seeing how everything we had planned and worked so hard on came together, Ken’s grandmother doing the service, and our dog standing with us, it was perfect! Our ceremony had so many moments of laughter and it made us both so happy to see our family and friends happy and laughing along with us, it’s a memory we will have forever.

One detail you couldn’t live without?
One detail we couldn’t have done this without is working with caring, professional, proud people. Everyone we worked with from all of our vendors were amazing and made the day feel easy. Lauren and Judy from Oyster Point went above and beyond to help us plan our perfect wedding day, they made us feel like family. And we literally would not have gotten through the day without Odelia, our Maitre d; she helped us through our whole day, made sure we got time alone together and even did my bustle so my maid of honor could enjoy cocktail hour. Every single vendor that we worked with made our day go by smoothly, and we could not have gotten through it without them. It was not one detail, it was the work of many, and the focus on all the details that made it special.

Did anything go wrong?
Other than the weather feeling like a million degrees outside, we didn’t really have anything go wrong on our day. Because our maitre’d, Odelia, and our other vendors were so great, they made the day go by smoothly and we didn’t have any major mishaps or mistakes that got in our way!

First dance song?
Ben Rector – “Forever Like That”. This song has a pretty funny backstory for us, so we knew it had to be our first dance song. Now every time we hear it playing, we not only think about our little inside joke, but we remember dancing together for the first time as husband and wife.

Any advice for future brides?
I have two pieces of advice that I really think help to make a wedding day feel perfect. Go with your gut, and work with your partner to make it your own. There are many people that want to give you their opinions and suggestions, which is great and really helpful sometimes, but this is your day so you need to make the choices that you know will make you happy. My second piece of advice is to try and slow down and relax. It is so easy to get swept up in the chaos of wedding planning, but weddings are supposed to be fun! You don’t have to make yourself crazy to have the perfect day, and by letting some things go and not taking everything so seriously, you are setting yourself up to have the best day ever.

Honeymoon Location?
We had an amazing honeymoon, we went to Greece for 10 days! We started with Mykonos for 2 days, then went to Santorini for 5 days, and finished in Athens for 3 days. It was incredible; beautiful views, delicious food, and friendly people. We loved that we were able to explore all the history and culture and learn so much, while also having days to relax and simply enjoy the scenery.

the details

Hometowns

(Kimm) St James, NY & (Ken) Buffalo, NY

Reception Location

The Oyster Point Hotel

Photographer

Red Bank Studio

Officiant

Ruth Schwandt (Ken's Grandma)

Bride’s Gown

Allure bridals

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Kimm and Ken at The Oyster Point Hotel

the details

Hometowns

Reception Location

Photographer

Officiant

Bride’s Gown

Bride’s Shoes

Bridesmaid Dresses

Hair

Makeup

Groom’s Attire

Groomsmen Attire

Flowers

Cake

Invites

Music

Videographer

Rentals

Honeymoon

Brides Jewelry