5.19.2023

Every little girl dreams of their wedding day, and over the years I’ve had multiple dreams on what such a day would look like spanning from a gorgeous Italian shindig to an elopement with “Elvis” officiating in Vegas. Much to my mother’s surprise and delight, Taylor and I ended up planning the perfect (in my humble opinion) wedding week in Kiawah Island this past May that fulfilled my every dream.

Back in September 2022 (three months before we were engaged), Taylor and I outlined our wedding in the notes app of my phone on the drive home from spending Labor Day weekend at Pickwick Lake with close family friends. We both had a list of important people in our lives we wanted to share the day with, yet ultimately wanted our marriage ceremony to just be shared with immediate family. Over the weeks (that turned to months) that followed names were added, a ring was purchased, and I waited “patiently” with well manicured nails. We got engaged on November 30, 2022 while taking Christmas card photos that scheduled several weeks prior expecting for it to be an engagement shoot.

Fair to say I was wonderfully surprised.

(Pro-tip: Anytime you think you might get engaged take your Apple Watch off.)

We started planning immediately despite life being crazy: I was 3.5 months into a new job, a lawsuit from my former employer regarding my non-compete was coming to a head, and my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Other than our marriage ceremony, the most important thing to us when we started planning was family time given our scattered loved ones across the country. A Memphis wedding wasn’t something we were very keen on, so I started looking into resorts that offered multiple activities like biking, golfing, paddle boarding, spa time, etc.. It didn’t take much googling to fall in love with Kiawah Island and all that it had to offer.

Once the location and month of May were picked I started combing back thru old saved Instagram images and my favorite bridal website, overthemoon.com, for inspiration and potential vendors. I happened upon a micro-wedding in Kiawah Island from the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and fell in love with the simplicity of the day. Those photos became my main inspiration as I mapped out where on the island we would stay and what our big day would look like. Thankfully, I found several amazing vendors from the Charleston area that were able help me pull off every detail while planning from 695 miles away!

We started by renting two houses near each other, one with a breathtaking live oak tree in the backyard that the house was built around. I knew immediately this is where we would host our wedding dinner. The other home was equally as beautiful with marsh views and a large porch that ended up being perfect for our welcome dinner together.

First wedding stop once the Christmas holidays were over? Maggie Louise in Memphis for dress shopping! Given our shorter than most timeline, getting a dress ordered without having to fret over expedited fees and shipping dates was key. There aren’t enough gushing words to describe how wonderful Molly and the ML gals were at making the day with my mom & sister so very special.

Next, Iron Clay Catering, who came highly recommended by a planning friend, was booked for our wedding dinner. Then the fun design choices began! I knew I wanted a color scheme of coastal blues, old school film photos, and bamboo folding chairs. The latter being an odd specification I know, but a google rental vendor search lead me to Cheers! Charleston Event Rentals. Their inventory of bamboo chairs and Juliska bamboo dinnerware delighted my inner Palm-Beach-retiree-spirit, and were immediately booked. Ariel Cameron Photography was a no-brainer. Ariel and I once played on the same kickball team and both love Auburn. I’d been admiring her magical photography, both film and digital, for a few years and the stars aligned with her availability to travel to Kiawah! I then stumbled upon Lily and Flowershop thru Instagram and quickly became obsessed with the beautifully quirky and loose bouquets she made + everything in the intimate celebrations tab on her website. We scheduled a phone call and talked thru favorite flowers, inspiration photos, and how I envisioned the table being set come big day. Obviously Beanstalk Collective was commissioned (wink, wink) to tie all the details together with the paper goods. I won’t lie, after having penned many invitations and envelopes over the years for other events it was surreal to design my own wedding invitation suite but a fun way to incorporate some of Taylor and I’s favorite things in the big day.

Come May everyone safely arrived in Kiawah and we soaked in every ounce of time spent as a family during the week. The day before our wedding the gentlemen played golf at The Ocean Course, partly in the gale force winds + gushing rain, but thankfully the angels blessed us with cleared skies and mid-70s temps that evening for a beautiful and delicious rehearsal dinner at The Atlantic Room overlooking the Ocean Course 18th hole. We woke early the next morning—Wedding Day!— to light rain that thankfully cleared off by 8am so that we could get the lights hung and table set before it was time to get ready ourselves. Pampered & Pretty helped the ladies get ready at the wedding “treehouse” while the gentleman enjoyed lunch at the Ryder Bar followed by getting ready at the marsh house.

Once dressed and ready, I stayed hidden during family portraits so that Taylor and I wouldn’t see each other before our ceremony on the beach. Coastal Limousine of Charleston made sure everyone got to the boardwalk beach access, which was about 1.5 miles away from the houses, on time. The rings were almost forgotten at the house which has made for a funny story to tell since then, but thankfully remembered just in time before the Bailey family departed for our last car trip all featuring the same last name.

From my original inspiration photos a boardwalk “aisle” was a must and this one lived up to my expectations. It was such a special moment to walk down it towards Taylor with both of my parents.

Following family portraits, the limo picked everyone but Taylor & I up to return to the house for cocktail “hour.” We stayed on the beach with Ariel for some more photos and soaked in all the dopamine from the afternoon. Once photos were done we returned to the house in time to enjoy the last few appetizers not devoured by our family. We made it officially official by signing our marriage license with Kevin, our friend and officiant. Toasts were then made and dinner started just as the sun was setting for a magical candlelit dinner.