Picking Our Wedding Venue

 

Photography by Me

On the steps of the Gadsden House the day of our first walkthrough! 

As part of our wedding blog series, I felt like multiple blog posts were appropriate. There was so much thought and planning put into our wedding celebration, I didn't want to have just one long blog post to cover it all! So today, I'm sharing details on why we decided to get married in Charleston and how we decided on our wedding venue. 

Deciding on Charleston

After we got engaged in October 2018, we were so excited to begin planning. Being a wedding photographer myself, I knew venues and photographers were the first two things new brides checked off their list. However, I had no idea they were doing it 1.5 even 2 years in advance! We had talked about where we wanted to get married and we decided since our families would have to travel for our celebration, we thought it would be fun for our guests to make our wedding weekend a mini vacation! Literally everyone had to travel for our wedding, so we thought, why not get married in a place we both love? 

Photography by Me

That's how we decided on Charleston, SC. 

Cole being the history buff that he is, he loved visiting the city! We had been on quite a few carriage rides and each time we learned something new. Me, well I just loved how charming the city was. It seemed as if everywhere you turned, there was a beautifully maintained home with window boxes over flowing with blooming flowers. Beautiful architecture, the horses, Spanish moss, and the ocean all in one place! Charleston was a photographer's dream and after visiting there a few years back, I knew that was where I wanted to get married. 

Picking Our Wedding Venue

Photography by Lauren Fair

We began searching for venues and we narrowed it down to about three different venues to really dig into. The Gadsden House was always at the top of my list. Again, as a wedding photographer, I knew that location would serve as a beautiful backdrop for our big day. The large windows allowed for natural light to fill each room, the neutral painted walls, those porches and the lovely courtyard. I was sold! It just took convincing Cole. 

Like I mentioned earlier, Cole loves history. Being a Naval Officer, he especially loved history about the Military! Well it just so happens, the Gadsden House was built by Christopher Gadsden who presented his son with the property as a wedding gift. If you've ever seen of the yellow flag with a coiled up snake that says "Don't Tread on Me", well Christopher Gadsden was the designer of that flag! And my husband wore that patch on his uniform everyday. As soon as we discovered the history behind the home, Cole was sold. 

Another thing that I had always dreamt of was an al fresco dinner under twinkle lights. It just so happened that the Gadsden House had a beautiful courtyard that could serve as our ceremony space and our reception space. The Gadsden House checked off every item on our wish list of what we were looking for in a wedding venue! Not only was it the most beautiful setting for our celebration, the team that runs the Gadsden House is beyond and so wonderful to work with. 

Stay tuned for next week's post about why hiring a wedding planner was the best decision we could have made for our big day!

XOXO, Emily

Photography by Lauren Fair

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