Southern Weddings

Ceara and Nate’s wedding continued in beautiful style under a gorgeous tent set on her family’s land. More than the lovely details, though, there’s something that sticks with me about this wedding. From Ceara: “The whole weekend is etched in our minds as a profound celebration of life and love and family. Two weeks before the wedding, my father was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer. He decided not to tell anyone outside the family before the wedding, but we all had a heightened awareness throughout the weekend that this was time out of time. And it was. My father was his exuberant self and seized the opportunity to celebrate his family and friends on land that had always been sacred to him. We are all so grateful to have the incredible photos and film of him in his element.” That, my friends, is what weddings are all about — celebrating family, life, and love. Big thanks to Christian Oth Studio for sharing this beauty with us.

The weather on our wedding day was: Beautiful, but major storms were predicted for Friday night. Our rehearsal dinner was to be outside by our pond and we had tent coverage for dinner but not cocktails. At the last minute my planner, Jung, found some tents for the cocktail area, but I made her take them down as soon as they were up – they were filthy and ruined the beautiful view! Practicalities weren’t first and foremost in my mind. Heavy winds and a purple sky portended massive storms and Jung thought I was crazy, but obliged. Much to her relief and my delight the clouds cleared just as guests arrived and it turned into a perfect evening.
Our favorite detail of the wedding was: On Friday night as we gathered by our pond for drinks a baby alligator joined us, sunning himself on the bank below. During the ceremony on Saturday an eagle flew overhead as we exchanged vows. Obviously these weren’t details we had any hand in arranging, but they added to our sense that we were marrying at the right time in the right place.
Funniest moment? In retrospect it is pretty funny, and somewhat surprisingly at the time we thought so too—the ceremony began at the exact late afternoon moment the gnats descended. I had just assumed spraying would be enough, but all of our local guests could time the insects’ arrival to the minute. Throughout the ceremony Nate and I gripped hands so that we wouldn’t scratch, but our many flower girls, ring bearers, and most members of the wedding party couldn’t keep still. If you look closely at the photos, there is a halo of gnats around all of our heads. I don’t think everyone thought it was so funny—some of our guests looked like they had the chicken pox for weeks! Luckily they all said the experience was well worth the scars.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? Without a doubt, logistics. The first hurdle was planning the wedding from New York during my first year of law school, but we were both happy to use the wedding as an excuse to head down to Charleston on the odd weekend. Then there was the problem of hosting 200+ people on our rural land, where the only space open enough to fit a tent was a remote field once used to land airplanes. I have to credit Jung and Josh, our wedding planners, with pulling it off—they figured out a way to bus everyone in, throw up a tent, cook dinner for 225 guests and power a 10-piece band in a field in the middle of nowhere!
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day? There is not just one moment — the whole weekend is etched in our minds as a profound celebration of life and love and family. Two weeks before the wedding my father was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer. He decided not to tell anyone outside the family before the wedding, but we all had a heightened awareness throughout the weekend that this was time out of time. And it was. My father was his exuberant self and seized the opportunity to celebrate his family and friends on land that had always been sacred to him. We are all so grateful to have the incredible photos and film of him in his element.
Three adjectives that describe the day are: Natural, irreverent, magical.
What’s next for you as a couple? What are you looking forward to in the future? We are expecting a baby boy in July, leaving me just enough time to graduate from law school in May!