Turtles, starfish, and sailboats: a sun-filled aquarium wedding from New Jersey

January 22 2014 |  
Photos by: Carole Cohen Photography
All photos by Carole Cohen Photography.

Ben and Erin hosted their ceremony and reception at New Jersey's Atlantic City Aquarium. The pair included a ton of darling details like blue and teal striped pinwheels and planting a tree together for their unity ceremony. They also opted to leave several seats intentionally empty during the ceremony, and marked these spots with a handwritten tribute to family and friends who couldn't be there to celebrate.

The "under the sea" theme continued into the reception, where guests danced under hanging boats and sat at tables decorated with knots and anchor-covered gift bags. Turtles and fish swam around the crowd while they partied, but the starfish-adorned wedding cake is perhaps the sweetest detail of the night.















Vendors!

Photography: Carole Cohen Photography • Venue: Atlantic City Aquarium • DJ: Matt Lawler • Music: James Day and the Fish Fry • Succulents: Blooms • Cake: Victory Baking Services

Stephanie Kaloi

I was the editor of the now-defunct Offbeat Families, and owner/photographer at Stephanie Kaloi Photography in Portland, OR.

  1. This is adorable……but from the title picture, all I could think was where can I find those shoes?! 🙂

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  4. That venue is fantastic (TURTLE!)! This is a little odd to notice maybe, but it's nice to see a wedding featured where the officiant is a judge but the couple aren't being married in a courthouse. This is one of the more unexpected things that people seem to find odd about our upcoming wedding – people hear we're being married by a judge and some of them jump to the conclusion that we're eloping. Even among our fairly secular friends, it seems much more common to be married by a friend who was ordained online than a judge.

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  7. I love these pictures! We're also looking to use this venue to get married and we had a few questions. How many guests did you have? Did you have dinner in the first level of the aquarium? Where would you have held the ceremony had it rained? What time of year was this? Who catered the event and from what business did you rent chairs, the dance floor, etc.? Thank you so much in advance for all your help!

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