South Carolina Destination Wedding Photography
Destination Wedding Photography is a dream of mine. Who doesn’t love to travel - and when I get to let that creativity behind the camera run wild in a new town with new sights and new friends - that sure sounds like a dream to me. For the past two years I’ve been blessed to travel for some amazing weddings (check out my wedding in Waco Texas last year!), and it was the best thing to end my busiest wedding season yet.
So how in the heck did you get a wedding in Charleston, you ask? Flash back to middle school when I rode bus #2 and met my very best friend for life, Nikki. Nikki introduced me to many great things and great people in my life, including a friend group that led me to my hubby (here’s the story!). Nikki and the beautiful bride here, Steph, were roomies in college. I met Steph when I visited IUP, Steph followed my business from the start, asked me to photograph her reception and BAM! We got a destination wedding.
Steph and her hubby Neil actually live in Edinburgh Scotland (wish I could have photographed THERE!), and after Steph moved “across the pond” from a journalism job in Manhattan and she and Neil met in a writing group, its been love ever since. How lucky am I to get to capture it?! These two officially tied the knot in Scotland earlier this year, but since Steph’s parent’s live in Charleston, it seemed the perfect place to celebrate state-side with friends and family of the bride’s.
Saturday started “normally” enough as any other wedding day - the bride and groom surrounded by family and close friends, fastening buttons, straightening ties, lacing up THE COOLEST SHOES IVE EVER SEEN, and other relatively normal wedding prep activities. Since the day was a reception celebration, we didn't have to worry about a first look or ceremony, so we were able to jump right into family photos under the Spanish Moss covered Oaks in the beautiful Charleston humidity. I made a point to try and incorporate as much local foliage into their portraits as possible (with a lovely greeting by some local fire ants across my foot while doing so). We danced on docks and posed by palms and captured some of my favorite wedding portraits of all time. Enjoy them below!
Then, the boat! We did a non-traditional receiving line by having the bride and groom greet each guest as they boarded the boat, and then laughed and munched the night away cruising the magnificent bay. I’m not big on cake (imagine that, I can eat free cake once a week for half the year and I don’t like it), but the amazing baby bundt cakes Steph’s family found from a local bakery made me reconsider. The dinner menu was the stuff of dreams with way more choices than your typical wedding spread - so much so that I didn’t even miss the magical Pittsburgh cookie table or pierogi’s that harken of home.
After an epic champagne spray and an extremely tired goodbye in the hotel lobby, my magical weekend away came to an end. I am so grateful to do what I love, and even more grateful to share that with people that I love. I hope you enjoy this piece of my heart and these incredible moments in Charleston!
