An Outdoor Ceremony in Spring

Sarah and Erich are two very special people who found each other and fell in love. They are both very expressive and they often are talking at the same time! But that is what makes them so adorable together. They both love their families deeply and love spending time with them whenever possible. And the most important person in their life is their little Chloe who is the center of their world.

Beck and I met Sarah and Erich several months before their wedding. We immediately clicked and we were so honored that chose us to assist them with planning their wedding. There were emails, phone calls, texts and meetings over the next several months making sure that all the details...big and small...of their wedding day were coming together. Sarah, Erich, Chloe and Maureen (the bride's mother) now hold a very special place in our hearts.



We want to share their very special wedding and the beautiful pictures that Trinity Photography captured from the day. Enjoy the pictures and how it all came together for Sarah and Erich.

Sarah says, "We wanted to have a destination beach wedding but more than anything, we wanted my 95 year old grandma to be able to watch her granddaughter get married. Both of us really enjoy golfing. So the look of The Links at Stoney Point was a perfect substitute for the beach theme we were going for with a classy golf green twist!

The weather was a very important element because our wedding ceremony was being held outside. Many days were spent worrying about the 50% chance of rain and storms in the South Carolina afternoons in spring. The overall atmosphere was also a big element because we wanted it to be perfect and enjoyable not only for us but for our families and friends as well.

Erich and I were able to personalize our wedding with several different touches. We had some lovely paper fans for all the guests to stay cool with during the ceremony. They were personalized with our names and wedding date. The fans also acted as our wedding favors. We made our guestbook together with a collage of pictures from our engagement shoot. Everyone was able to see and enjoy the pictures while signing the book.

The flowers (The Floral Case) were well worth the money that we splurged and they made the wedding absolutely perfect. They were all shades of purple and white...from calla lillies to hibiscus to some gorgeous greens.

We are also glad we splurged and got It's Your Party to help in coordinating everything and making the day perfect and go so smoothly. (Ah...so sweet!)  It helped me to keep a clear mind and know that someone else was in charge.

For the ceremony, we chose the traditional Episcopalian vows which are gorgeous in their own way. We had the wedding party walk down the aisle to "Marry Me"  by Jason Durelo. I was escorted down down the aisle by my mother to the classic " Cannon D". Even today, Erich tears up when he hears Cannon D start playing.

The entire wedding day was perfect but my favorite part was seeing my amazing groom tearing up as I walked down the aisle to him. Being able to finally see him was a big relief to me and warmed my spirits. Watching my little girl walk down the aisle as my amazing little beautiful flower girl also made Erich and me so happy. It meant that we have finally become one.

Erich's favorite part of the day was watching his bride and her mother walking arm in arm down the aisle to say I do. It meant he would be able to hold on to me the rest of the night and celebrate with our wonderful family and friends. Having his brothers, father and closest friend by his side through it all meant so much to him as well.

My amazing bridesmaids and maid of honor surprised me with a gorgeous picture of my father in a turtle locket to walk down the aisle attached to my bouquet. This made me so happy and really brought a very emotional aspect. It meant the world to me that my mother gave me away. It also meant so much to me to have my grandmother there as well as all my family that traveled from all parts of the world including England. It was so heart warming to see all the support from all of my family members.

When it was time to go, we had sparklers for everyone to light up the stairway as we left to go home to finish packing and head to Jamaica for our honeymoon and begin our life as husband and wife.

You can't have a real wedding without a real love story!  Sarah and Erich's love story adds a very personal touch to their beautiful wedding.

It all started when I walked into Skin's Hotdogs and applied for a job.  I finally got the job by calling and checking on my application over and over. By about the third call, Erich said to me "I lost your application. I will call you when I find it."  I never got a call so I called yet again and finally he said for me to come in for the job.  That's when it all began.  Three months later we hung out together for the first time. It was magical and for the next week we spent time together every night getting to know each other better. I soon discovered that I had met "the one".  We quickly found out how much each of us enjoyed traveling together.  We traveled to Georgia for me to meet his mother and also made several trips to the coast. Seven months later we took our first plane trip together to San Juan, Puerto Rico to visit Erich's family for the first time. Instantly I fell in love with the amazing town, the beaches and the history of Puerto Rico. A few short months later we traveled to Puerto Rico again. This time we took our sweet Chloe with us. We then made it a regular thing to travel down. On March 17, 2014, we took a trip as a family down including my mom. Little did I know Erich had asked my mom for my hand in marriage and she had carried my ring on the plane to Puerto Rico, the Island of Love.  On March 19th, Erich and I went for a lovely walk on the beach at sunset. Erich was behind me and he asked "What would make this even better?". I turned around and he was on one knee and said, "if you marry me". On May 17, 2015 at sunset, I said "I do". Who would have thought all this would have come from me begging for a job with a 6 month old adorable little girl. I could not be a happier mom and wife. We have come a long way in our relationship from the first meeting to overcoming many arguments. We have grown from the mistakes and arguments into having a lovely marriage and this is just the beginning! ~ by Sarah


Vendors:
Venue and Caterer - The Links at Stoney Point
Photographer         - Trinity Photography
Florist                    - The Floral Case
Coordinators         - It's Your Party! Events & Weddings
Rentals                  - The Rental Center

A Wedding Day Filled with Tradition and Flair

Michelle Brooks Photography

The story of how Olivia and Josh met sounds like the perfect script for a movie with their wedding day being the final scene! Their  wedding was beautiful and filled with so much love.  
The ceremony took place at the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Anderson, South Carolina with a traditional Catholic observance. But Olivia and Josh were able to add their own personal and modern touches throughout the service. The reception was held outside at the beautiful home of the bride's aunt and uncle. The area by their pool was not only beautiful but an ideal place for entertaining guests.Olivia and Josh also managed to add  so many extra special touches to their wedding day...including a '66 Mustang and a vintage handkerchief for Olivia's "something blue". With all the casual and elegant touches, you will agree that Olivia and Josh couldn't have chosen a more perfect setting to begin their life together.

The bride's description and Michelle Brooks Photography's images for their wedding highlight how important family and tradition are to them.
By Jane White, wedding coordinator at It's Your Party! Events & Weddings

Our Wedding - 
     Since we are Catholic, an outdoor wedding wasn't really an option -- (unless someone knows about an outdoor Catholic church that I don't know about!). We knew that an outdoor element was something we could incorporate for the celebration afterward. Josh loves the outdoors and there's something about the whole style of twinkling lights in trees and casual elegance that I love. 

Our faith is extremely important, so keeping a traditional Catholic wedding was important, but we also wanted to be able to incorporate some more personal and modern aspects to really make the ceremony and reception special for us. For example, although all of the music was played on the organ or piano, we used the Beyonce cover of 'Ave Maria' for the bridal party to walk down the aisle, 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' by Simon and Garfunkel for one of the prelude songs, etc. Although a Catholic wedding is structured, you are allowed to pick your own readings. Josh and I picked some of our favorites that we read over the course of our pre-martial classes. We picked readings that had the same theme...what it means to become one, respecting each other and what it takes for a lasting marriage.  We're both luck to come from families whose parents are still together and are a true testament to what it means to have a long and loving marriage.

     Josh's wedding band actually belonged to his grandfather. His Nana gave it to us and we had it resized. His grandparent's married in September, too, back in 1956. They had their wedding date and names engraved inside the band. Josh's grandmother told us we could remove the engraving but we didn't want to because it made the ring that much more special. For my "Something Blue", I had an extremely old handkerchief that belonged to my Great Aunt. It is about 90 years old. She also had owned a Catholic bookstore so as a wedding gift I also received her Bible that came from her store.

     It's hard to pick only one favorite part of the wedding day! I think I loved the feeling I got right after the ceremony was over when we walked through the doors. The feeling that you've been waiting and planning for so long finally coming to fruition. Finally being married and seeing all the faces of the people we love the most there for us on such an important day really meant a lot. What was Josh's favorite part of the wedding day? In his words, "The First Dance".

     I work at an advertising agency, so I am really lucky to have some helpful friends who are great graphic designers who helped me design our Save The Dates, our programs and even design a logo for our favors (little bags of coffee). Our guestbook was a printed skyline of Columbia, SC which is where we met. 

     The wedding day was a big day for Josh because he has a '66 blue mustang that he has had since he was sixteen years old that he and his dad have been restoring. He told me on one of our first dates that he was going to drive it away at his wedding. After multiple visits to his house and seeing it sitting on blocks for him to actually be able to drive away on our wedding day was huge. I was so happy that he got to see something he worked so hard on come to life.

     My aunt and uncle were kind enough to let us use the perfect venue for our reception, which happens to be their home! Their outdoor area by the pool is not only beautiful but lends itself to entertaining guests. You are able to see everything from most locations around the whole yard. With the help of my aunt, some friends and It's Your Party, it turned out being perfect and so beautiful...from the beginning of the evening until the end!

     I was thankful we enlisted the help of some close family friends for things like the flowers (Sandra Bagwell) and our table runners (Arleen Bobinski), both mothers of the groomsmen. They did a wonderful job!

      For the reception, we definitely knew we wanted a DJ who would get everyone on the dance floor to have a good time. We love to have fun, so it was important that everyone have a good time at the reception, especially after a structured ceremony.

What aspect of the wedding are you glad you splurged on? 

     Definitely photography. Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love photos, so the hunt for a photographer was a big decision. I love Michelle Brooks' work, and she did not disappoint. She was also willing to work with me when we moved our wedding date--so i actually shot my bridals a year before the actual ceremony. There are actually a lot of photographers out there who take nice pictures, but for me, I can tell when I look at someone's work and they just have "IT". There's a difference between capturing photos and capturing the feelings that go along with the entire day. Not everyone can do that and I think we achieved it. I'm thankful that I will have so many pretty photos to look back on and remember the day perfectly (plus my bridesmaids looked beautiful!).

      

      You can't have a real wedding without a real love story! Olivia and Josh's story adds a personal touch to their beautiful wedding photos.

           Our story sounds a little unbelievable but i'll tell it anyway! Josh and I met when we were both attending the University of South Carolina. In Columbia, there's a few areas along the river that have paved paths you can walk along. One day in March of 2010, I was walking my puppy and Josh was coming back from fishing with his dog (with an armful of food and a drink in his hand). As we passed by each other, our dogs instantly started circling each other, which resulted in our leashes getting tangled, and ultimately with me accidentally bear-hugging this boy from behind, as he dropped and spilled everything in his hands. I would like to say the rest is history, but at that time we did not exchange numbers or even names..however we did both come home to our roommates (my matron of honor and his groomsman) and explain the random incident, never thinking we'd see each other again, of course.

          Flash forward one month later, and we wound up at a mutual friend's birthday party. I didn't recognize Josh but he approached me and asked if I had a dog. "You're the guy from the river.."  My best friend and roommate who knew about the incident was also at the birthday party.."So this is the guy you ran into at the river that day?" Which of course pleased Josh --"OH you've been talking about me, huh?" ...enter Josh's roommate, "So this is that girl you told me about from the river?" ---"OH you've been talking about me, huh?!

           Ironically enough, I had just moved a couple streets over from where Josh was currently living in Columbia. As we talked that night, we learned that we were from the same hometown (what are the odds?). Surprisingly enough, we STILL did not exchange numbers or contact info. Eventually, Josh found me online and we became 'friends'. Finally, on Cinco de Mayo in May of 2010 (two months later), he asked me to go eat Mexican food and that was our first date, and four years later...NOW...the rest is history.

When did you know you'd found "the one"?
     It sounds silly but I think I knew that I'd found the one when situations would come up that Josh handled differently than some of my past boyfriends. Josh was so laid back and took everything in stride. Instead of getting upset with me about something, he would just try to help the situation instead. That was new and I was almost waiting for him to do something wrong to make me like him less...or to mess up in some way...and it never happened. I only liked him more and more. That's when you know you can't let them go!
Was there a special proposal? What made it meaningful?
     Josh is such a romantic which is one major thing that attracted me to him. His proposal was no exception. He led me to believe we were just going down for dinner in Charleston after a University of South Carolina football game. He timed everything perfectly. Though he didn't know his way around Charleston, his goal was to get us on the beach at Sullivan's Island at sunset. When we finally made it to the beach, we walked a little ways and I saw a stool and a guitar on the beach. He had one of my bridesmaids who lives in Charleston set it up for him. He played the song "Marry Me" by Train. He NEVER sings in front of anyone, so it was really sweet. He got down on one knee and said sweet words and asked me to marry him. On top of all of that he had hired a photographer!
What challenges have you had to overcome as a couple?
     We were long distance for about two years while I was finishing school and Josh was working. That was challenging at times so we were really thankful when we could finally live in the same city again. However, throughout the distance we made it work. Josh put in a lot of driving miles traveling from Atlanta and Greenville to see me.

Vendors:

Photographer - Michelle Brooks Photography

Caterer - Kathy & Company 

DJ - Kalu Records & Entertainment

Cake - Gretchen's ABS Cakes

Wedding Coordinators - It's Your Party! Events & Weddings

Rental Company - Professional Party Rentals

Makeup - Cotton Rouge