It was raining when I pulled into the hotel lot in Warminster. Not hard, but enough that I checked the forecast on the walk in. By the time Stephanie had her dress on, the clouds were gone and the rest of the day ran under a clear August sky.
Stephanie and Kevin were married on August 22, 2026, at Northampton Valley Country Club in Richboro, Pennsylvania. I was their wedding photographer, and I photographed the day on 35mm black and white film and digital. The venue sits on a golf course in Bucks County, with a red timber pergola over a pond and a fountain running behind the ceremony site. They got ready a short drive away at the Home2 Suites in Warminster.
The morning belonged to the wedding party. Kevin’s groomsmen had time to relax and enjoy some downtime after getting ready. A couple of floors above, Stephanie’s bridesmaids, Krystal, Helen, and Zariah, did her hair and makeup themselves. Their friend Erin, who would officiate later that afternoon, was in the room with them.
Stephanie made every flower arrangement herself: the bouquets, the pergola garland, and the centerpieces. She also put together the welcome table with fans, tissues, and bubbles. There is a frame from the getting-ready room of her laughing with one hand on her cheek, still in her pajamas, that tells you most of what you need to know about how the day would go.
The first look took place on the hotel grounds, on a path through the tall grass along a row of spruces. Kevin waited there with his back turned. Two of my favorite frames from the year come from that patch of grass: one of the two of them small against the trees; the other, on film, with the grass in the foreground and the two of them walking back toward the cars.
The ceremony was at the pergola, later in the afternoon, with the fountain behind Erin as she spoke. Stephanie walked in on the arms of both her parents, carrying a bouquet tied with a long blue ribbon. Partway through, she and Kevin stepped to a small table and signed their own marriage certificate. Pennsylvania allows a self-uniting license, and they chose to use one, so the signing was part of the ceremony rather than something that happened afterward in an office. Then the kiss and the walk back up the aisle with Kevin shaking hands and pointing to the guests as he went.
Cocktail hour was inside and on the patio. The reception was inside, with Stephanie’s tall white hydrangea centerpieces at every table. Her mother gave a toast. I did not catch the words from where I was standing, but Stephanie’s face while she listened says enough.
Bill Reilly of Starbright DJ ran the music, and he ran something I had not seen before. It’s called a song rush. Every table came up to the front in turn, posed once for a straight photo with Stephanie and Kevin and once for whatever they wanted, and the whole room had to be through before the song ended. It worked. There is a frame of the table with the paper fans that I would put against any formal group portrait.
The dance floor went the way a good one does. Foam light sticks, Stephanie’s father in a fedora, her mother out there with him. Near the end of the night Stephanie and Kevin stepped out to the pavilion. The pond was black by then and the fountain was lit from below. Kevin dipped her, she laughed, and that is the photograph at the top of this post.
They walked back up the candlelit steps to the reception holding hands, the same steps Stephanie had come down with her parents a few hours earlier. The candles were still burning.
Venue: Northampton Valley Country Club, Richboro, PA
Getting ready: Home2 Suites by Hilton Warminster Horsham
Officiant: Erin, friend of the couple
Flowers and decor: the bride
Hair and makeup: Krystal, Helen, and Zariah
DJ: Bill Reilly, Starbright DJ (starbrightdj@gmail.com)
