Fun Jersey City Wedding with a Manhattan Skyline Backdrop

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Today we’re sharing a real wedding that initially caught our attention for its iconic backdrop, but soon had us swooning over its gorgeous style and pretty details too.

Kimberly and Matthew are a Jersey Shore couple, who started out as friends and fell for eachother over a year of concerts, sports teams and hanging out. They got engaged at the top of a lighthouse on Kimberly’s birthday, which was followed by a big surprise party with friends and family to celebrate.

So as you can imagine, their wedding was quite the celebration too!

Captured by Jenelle Kappe Photography, they said their vows with an outdoor ceremony at Liberty House, beneath the Manhattan skyline across the river, then spent the evening on the dancefloor, after enjoying special brews, Champagne, ice-cream sundaes and mash potato (the dream, right!).

This couple are pretty awesome so it’s fitting that their wedding was pretty awesome too. Oh and how could I forget? They’re expecting a baby this month – congrats guys!

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The Setting

The second we stepped into the Liberty House Restaurant and saw the view of NYC I knew it was the one! It was breathtaking and the venue was just gorgeous.

Luckily someone had cancelled their appointment that day and the event stylist was happy to have us fill the spot. I immediately called my husband Matt and described to him how perfect the venue was. He gave me the go-ahead and I put down our deposit on the spot.

Choosing the Liberty House as our wedding venue was the first step in helping decide on a theme and style. It helped me choose the style of my dress as well as the bridesmaids dresses.

We also found an aisle in Michaels that had a vintage blush collection of shabby chic vintage décor. I bought a few picture frames, vases, candle holders etc. to start planning and kept imagining how well this décor would fit with our wedding at the Liberty House.

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The Decor & Details

I planned my wedding along with my Aunt Marla, sister, Jacqueline, and cousin, Samantha. The Liberty House also provided an event stylist who was very helpful – Alexandra Argernio

I had an old antique suitcase of my mother’s that I thought would be the perfect piece to use to collect wedding cards/gifts. Marla & Samantha decided to take on this project.

They started by finding a map of Italy & Greece. (This is where Matt and I were taking our honeymoon) They lined the entire inside of the suitcase with maps. They then created a beautiful banner that said cards in decorative paper and string. They had it hanging hand inside the suitcase. It turned out awesome!

There was one florist in the area that added a fabric draping over the ceiling in the reception room. Matt and I both really wanted it from the beginning but was a little pricey so we weren’t planning on having it up. Luckily there was an event a week earlier at the venue and the draping was there for us to use. We loved it!

For favors, we decided to purchase all of our guests a lottery ticket. We found cute bags on Etsy and had lucky in love printed on the front of them with our wedding date. These were at each place setting for our guests.

The view alone at the Liberty House was enough for us and we wanted to keep the rest elegant and simple.

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The Music

The father of the bride, Paul decided he wanted to write and record an original first dance song for the father-daughter dance.

He began writing and recording in the studio the entire year leading up to the wedding. He coordinated with our DJ and provided him with the final song before the wedding.

Kimberly was waiting all year to hear this. Her father wanted it to be a surprise on her wedding day. It made our day even more special.

Mother-Son dance: ‘My Wish’ by Rascal Flatts

First dance Bride & Groom: ‘I Choose You’ by Sara Bareilles

We took dance lessons at Fred Astaire. Although we practiced some dance moves ahead of time we ended up just being natural and going with the flow of how we were feeling at the time.

We were so caught up the excitement of the night, everything we practiced went out the window.

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The Photography & Videography

Matt actually went to middle school with our photographer Jenelle Kappe. Although they had not seen each other in years they were connected through Facebook.

We had both always admired her work and when it came time to look for a photographer we immediately thought of her. Contacting her was easy and she was a pleasure to work with along with her second shooter Parker.

Our videography, Steve Kang was referred to us by Jenelle Kappe. We did a thorough internet search, read reviews, watched YouTube videos he had created and were both impressed.

Shortly after we contacted him, Steve asked to take us to dinner to discuss details. He was very personable and wanted to get to know us and our style. He took notes and offered to help us in any way he could throughout the entire wedding process.

You can watch the wedding film here.

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Favourite Moments

Matt and I were given advice from a few of our friends who said make sure you stop a few times during your wedding, find each other and take a look around.

Enjoy the moment because it goes by so fast. We did this and it helped us to really appreciate everyone that was there for us that night.

We loved watching everyone dance and have a great time celebrating us.

The Refreshments

Our signature cocktail was Champagne with strawberries. The best man, Jeffrey Baker, brewed three kegs of special beer for our cocktail hour (Big Day IPA, Handlebar Session, & Wedding Wheat ). These were set up at one of the bars for our guest to enjoy. He plans on opening up a brewery in the near future… Currently known as East 5th.

Our cocktail hour was filled with many stations, one of the favorites was the mashed potato bar.

Dinner was sit down. Guests had a choice of Grilled Filet Mignon Rosemary & Pecorino Cheese Polenta, Glazed Baby Carrots, Pearl Onions, or Cabernet Demi-Glace & Herb-Crusted Scottish Salmon Lemon-Scented Mashed Potato, Green Beans, Parsley Sauce.

The wedding cake was vanilla and chocolate with fudge. We added on an ice-cream sundae bar for dessert – this was a guest favorite.

Advice for Other Couples

Take advantage of Pinterest but don’t get overwhelmed. Find your style and stick with it. Etsy: It has everything! Look to Instagram for inspiration.

Definitely know your budget before you start and stick to it. Not worth dealing with the stress of money issues.

We cut back in a few areas: Kimberley’s favorite thing is fireworks. She really wanted them but after looking over price decided it was not worth the money.

We decided to have half of our centerpieces tall and the other half short..this helped us save a little. Another area where we saved a little on cost was going with a DJ instead of a live band.

We splurged on our honeymoon. We spent a week in Italy (venice, Florence, Rome) and another week in Greece (Mykonos & Santorini). Our travel agent helped us plan every detail of our trip and we couldn’t have done it without her. We would highly recommend this once in a lifetime trip to other couples.