To call this wedding pretty is the understatement of the century. It’s more than pretty. Much more. And with one peek into the gallery of Landon Jacob’s photos you’ll see why this winter Charleston affair is a fairytale lover’s dream come to life. Let’s not waste another minute and get the swooning started right here.
From the Bride…Stephen and I married here in my hometown of Charleston this past December. Planning a winter wedding made me a little nervous, but if there’s one thing I love about living in the lowcountry, it’s the mild winters and the fact that “cold” means just above 60!
Stephen’s family is from Maryland so when choosing our ceremony and reception locations, we wanted to make sure to highlight both the historical beauty of the downtown area and the stunning view of the Charleston harbor. We were married in a small intimate chapel downtown with 120 of our closest friends and family and held the reception across the Cooper River at Harborside East. We wanted our wedding to be fun and familiar with subtle hints of warm, classic Charleston charm. Harborside East ended up being the perfect venue for us, and we even got a bonus view of the annual Christmas boat parade! My husband and I pride ourselves on being a green household, so in decorating the reception, we made sure to incorporate as many recycled, upcycled, and DIY details as we could. Stephen and I spent hours upcycling wine bottles to create warm centerpieces, used over 4,000 recycled corks to give character to our outdoor candle votives, and constructed a cork backdrop we hung behind our cake. We also used vintage maps collected by my parents over the years to create paper flowers we placed on our cake. Stephen and I are an active couple- we love running and biking together, so it was so “us” to have a custom tandem bike with our names on it to top our delicious 4 tier cake.
For our wedding colors, I wanted a pastel pallet that didn’t look too “Christmasy.” The bridesmaids wore long silk chiffon dresses in misty blue and Stephen and his groomsmen wore classic black tuxes. We recycled the excess material cut from each of my lovely bridesmaids dresses to make the groomsmen’s’ boutonnieres. Other homemade details throughout the wedding included our bookmark save-the-dates, formal invitations, bridesmaid bouquets, and peppermint bark wedding favors. It was fun including the entire family in the DIY process and made everything that much more personal for us. Not to mention, in the end, it saved us a ton of money and kept our budged under $15,000.
Our wedding day went by so quickly and I knew it would, so several times throughout the day, I would take a moment to stop what I was doing, look around, and take everything in. I can remember everything like it was yesterday. The love and support shown by everyone was remarkably humbling; it was a fun night for everyone and our friends and family danced the entire time! When Stephen and I look back on our wedding, we can honestly say it was the best day of our lives. It was better than we could have ever imagined. I think my husband said it best when halfway through our engagement, he said, “The details aren’t that important…I just want to get married!”
[dotted]
Wedding Photography: Landon Jacob Productions | Day of Coordination: Lady in Waiting Events | Floral Design: On a Limb + Horst Floral Shop | Church: St. Luke’s Chapel | Caterer: Cricket & Kyle | Cake: McKenzie’s Bake Shop | DJ: Sinclair Ray with The Music Maker | Makeup: Dannon K. Collard | Wedding Dress: Allure | Shoes: Jen & Kim | Bridesmaid Dresses: Bari Jay | Groom’s Tux: Vera Wang | Flower Girls’ Dresses: PrettyFlowerGirl.com