Charleston is one of those magical places that everyone should visit, and once you have, you want to live there. I know that if not for the humidity I would move there in a heartbeat! So when I get wedding submissions from places I love like this one, I live in them for a little while. And I want to live in this wedding!
From the bride, Megan:
What made you pick Charleston?
Owen went to college at The Citadel, and had always wanted to get married at the chapel on campus. Both the campus and the chapel held a lot of memories for him. We also loved the fact that we could have this very formal military wedding but could also find a reception site that was relaxed. Plus, what’s better than a Southern wedding?
Favorite moment of the day?
There were so many favorite moments of the day! Sentimentally I have two moments that stick out in my head: one was seeing him at the end of the aisle right when the chapel doors opened (I’d been waiting all day for that!). The other was when my father gave a welcome speech to the reception; my father rarely, if ever, cries, but he by the end of the welcome he had tears coming down (and so did I). But there were a lot of other moments or just points during the day when I had to pinch myself. For example, all of my bridesmaids and I got ready in the hours before the ceremony. They all had arrived in Charleston at different times so just having those few hours to get our hair done, and sit around and drink champagne and talk, was something that will stick with me.
Did you do any DIY or incorporate personal details into your wedding?
Ha! I think our unofficial theme of this wedding was “personal elements” or “DIY”. Our reception was an old house west of downtown Charleston, and we really wanted people to think that when they came into the house, they were coming into our house. So both families brought with them a lot of framed photos from their own homes – of their own weddings, of our grandparents, of Owen and I at various stages of our lives and our relationship, etc. Our wedding planner then staged the photos throughout the house so you felt like you were actually in our home. I also wanted to make sure both my grandmother’s were represented at the wedding; so, around my bouquet, I wrapped a handkerchief from my maternal great-grandmother and then tucked in my paternal grandmother’s rosary in the stems. We also handmade our favors; there is a winery close to where we lived, and so we went several months before the wedding and made two large batches of wine, then went back in the days leading up to bottle the wine, make the labels, cork them, etc. My mom handmade the table runners for our reception tables (buying the fabric, sewing them together, etc.) I also made our save the dates – we did them in the shape of a luggage tag, printed the save the date message on one side and put a photo of us on the other. We had several chalkboards of various sizes throughout the wedding; they were table signs and parking directions and just overall decorations. My mom actually made all of them; she went out and bought wood and chalkboard paint and painted the wood. Then, she found some old vintage frames and painted them white, then put them all together. On the morning of the wedding a friend of ours, who is a graphic artist, hand wrote on all the chalkboards, making some amazing designs and decorations. And
Owen and I are big cookie lovers, much more than cake. So we had cake available as dessert, but we also had a cookie bar set up a few hours into the reception. The cookie bar had two flavors from the baker that we loved (double chocolate and Snickerdoodle), but they also had chocolate chip (my favorite growing up). The best part, though, was that when Owen was deployed my family would mail him these special cookies that have been in our family as long as I can remember. He loved them, and they were family tradition, so our baker said if we gave her the recipe she would make them for us and have them available. And she did! So we had this cookie bar with little glasses of milk that people could snack on throughout the night.
Owen LOVES classic Mustangs – he owned one for a while and they are his favorite car. So, as a surprise, I asked our wedding planner to see if she could find a classic Mustang that we could use as our getaway car. To this day I don’t know how she did it, but she magically found a 1967 classic Mustang convertible. We kept it as a secret and didn’t tell Owen how we were leaving the reception, so the first time he saw it was as he was approaching it. We really did want as many personal details in our wedding that we could fit in (even our wedding colors were somewhat intentional – blue, green and white. Owen’s college colors are blue and white, while mine are green and white).
How’s that for DIY and personal details!? Such a charming Southern wedding isn’t it? And sooo pretty too. I love that shot of Megan’s veil blowing – I have one of me that looks almost exactly like it from my wedding. Congrats Megan & Owen on a lovely wedding and on your marriage!
Do you love Southern weddings, or Charleston, as much as me? What is your favorite detail from this one? On a totally different note – did you see the Hunger Games this weekend (I did!)? What did you think?
{Vendors} Photography: Richard Ellis Photography / Planner: Sara Hosch, Southern Protocol / Ceremony Venue: Summerall Chapel, The Citadel / Reception Venue: Legare Waring House / Florist: Branch Design Studio / Caterer: Gourmet Bay / Cake: WildFlour Pastry / Band: The Swingin Richards / Gown: Ulla Maijia
