Nor'easter Wedding Leaves Brick Couple With Beautiful Memories

BRICK, NJ — Their hotel flooded. The bride's father nearly was unable to get his tuxedo. And they worried that their tent was going to blow away.

But in the days after Megan Zuckerman and Alec Blihar got married on Sept. 26, the crazy moments created by the nor'easter were crowded out by the joy of sharing their wedding weekend with family and friends, including a double rainbow at their welcome party.

"It was a bright silver lining," Megan said.

Like many couples, Megan and Alec, who are both 32, had been planning their wedding for several months. They had locked in the date at the Water Witch Club in Highlands in September 2025, more than a month before they formally got engaged, because the venue only hosts 12 weddings a year.

The property sits on the bluffs in Highlands, one of the highest points on the East Coast, and has a scenic view of the Shrewsbury River and beyond to New York City.

"It was so beautiful," Megan said.

The couple had been discussing getting married for a while, Megan said, and they had purchased their home in Brick in March 2025, so the wedding was simply the next step.

They had the venue for the entire weekend, and had everything planned out for their 134 guests, with a welcome party on Friday night, an after party for guests who wanted to continue to hang out after the wedding Saturday night, and a farewell brunch on Sunday morning.

As the nor'easter that dumped more than 4 inches of rain on Monmouth County headed for the area, Megan and Alec began making adjustments, they said.

That started with doing their first look on Thursday at the venue, instead of Saturday before the ceremony as they had planned.

"Some of our vendors — hair and makeup, and our photographer — were available early," Megan said, so they took advantage of the calm before the storm.

By Friday, friends and family who were coming from long distances, including some who drove from Maine and others who flew in from Florida, had arrived, and they took advantage of the beautiful evening with photos of the double rainbow, even as they had some concerns about what Saturday would bring.

Saturday morning, the turn for the worse by the weather forced them to scramble when they and 35 of their wedding guests were forced to evacuate from their hotel.

The couple had booked a block of rooms at the Beachwalk at Sea Bright, on the stretch of Ocean Avenue that's a strip of land and sea wall between the Atlantic Ocean and the Shrewsbury River. It was an eight-minute drive from the hotel to the Water Witch Club, a nice, short trip.

But Sea Bright frequently floods during storms, and this nor'easter was more of the same. The flooding, however, was worse than usual, with the combination of water driven into the back bays by the strong winds, astronomical high tides from the full moon and the rain bringing as much as 4 feet of water into the streets.

"We had just started our hair and makeup at the venue," Megan said, and her father, Robert Zuckerman, was headed back to the Beachwalk to get his tuxedo.

Alec was at the hotel, meanwhile. He was supposed to be getting dressed at the hotel before heading over to the venue.

"I woke up and saw the water and said I’m just going to pack the car and get out of here," he said. "I didn't want to take any chances."

It was about 9 a.m., as high tide was expected to peak, when they were notified the hotel was being evacuated and all of the guests booked there would have to find other accommodations.

"Fortunately we had booked other rooms at the Marriott in Red Bank," Megan said. So between brushes of makeup and curls and bobbypins, she started calling the Marriott to see if they could book rooms.

"My hair and makeup people were so great, they were so patient with me taking calls," she said.

Because of the storm, their cell phone service at the venue was inconsistent.

"Calls kept getting dropped," she said. But they made contact with one of their friends who was staying at the Marriott and that friend went to the front desk to try to arrange for as many rooms as possible.

The evacuation also forced them to cancel their planned after-party at Brothers Daley in Sea Bright, Megan said, but the Marriott was able to accommodate them at the hotel.

"We brought leftovers from the wedding," she said.

They also canceled the planned morning-after brunch, which was supposed to be at the Beachwalk, which Megan later said was a blessing because she had been feeling stressed about having to rush back to the venue afterward to gather their decor and other items.

While they scrambled on the accommodations, Megan's father had a bigger challenge: His tuxedo was still at the Beachwalk.

"He was planning on going back to the hotel to get ready," she said. "We didn’t have a ton of parking at the venue, so nobody was going to drive, they were going to take a shuttle from the Beachwalk to the venue."

With the hotel being evacuated, Robert Zuckerman had to go back to the hotel to get his tuxedo and belongings. But as he headed back, he encountered a roadblock at the Highlands Bridge on Route 36, Alec said.

"They had coned off the whole street and the bridge," Alec said. But the roadblock was manned by the borough's public works department.

Robert Zuckerman explained his dilemma, Alec said, and the public works employee told him, "You’re going over at your own risk because I’m not supposed to let you go."

So Robert Zuckerman continued over in his Honda CRV and got to the hotel, which was "right on the edge of where it got really bad" in Sea Bright, Alec said, retrieved his tuxedo and belongings and got out as quickly as he could.

"The water came up the back parking lot" at the hotel, Alec said, but the deepest part of the water was at the front, at the entrance on Ocean Avenue.

Once they got to the Water Witch Club, the rest of the day went mostly smoothly, Alec and Megan said.

"Almost all of our guests came," Megan said. One decided to leave early when the hotel was evacuated out of concerns about getting home after the wedding.

And while the wind predictions caused some anxiety about whether the tent they had rented would be OK through the storm, their ceremony went off without a hitch as scheduled at 3:30 p.m.

"Timewise we were right on schedule," Megan said. And they enjoyed the evening, even joining the band on stage for a couple of songs.

"The dance floor was filled all night," Megan said.

"Our band was great," Alec said. "People I didn’t expect to be on the dance floor were up dancing."

Heading back out to the Marriott on the shuttle posed some challenges because trees had come down on the roads at the Water Witch Club, but the delays were short, Alec said.

And while the day was stressful, "I was definitely more calm than I thought I would have been. But I didn't get to enjoy the getting-ready process," Megan said.

"I wanted power so the band could still play and food that was hot," Alec said. "As long as I could have a wedding, that's what mattered."

That was the advice Megan offered to brides and grooms who find themselves in situations beyond their control.

"Even if it doesn’t turn out as you envisioned, it will still be memorable," she said. "I loved the way it turned out."

"Obviously there’s things that always go wrong." Alec said. "Don’t let the things that go wrong outshine the things that go right. So many things went right."