Where does one even begin with this Island House wedding and gorgeous couple? In fact, I don’t even know why it’s taken me so long to get this blog post published. This wedding was too good not to share. Jade approached me about their Charleston wedding at the Island House with over a year’s notice to have lots of time to plan. This is great because it gave us enough time to do engagement photos on the West Coast! So. Much. Fun. I did manage to write about that trip to San Francisco to do their west coast engagement photos over the Summer of 2015 (read about that here). I’ll never forget that trip for so many reasons. One of those is that I learned a little more about these two love birds as a couple. I’ve known Jade a while now because she used to work with my husband a long time ago. I’ve always known her to be super sweet, kind, and definitely a bit adventurous. But on this trip, I learned that she is also very generous, caring and A LOT of fun! She just happened to find a guy that is quite the same and pairs well with her. They truly are perfect together.

 Matt and Jade had been really good friends for a while before deciding to date and I can’t express enough how that can be a really important thing for a relationship. They’ve been through a lot together including surviving a long distance relationship for months. If you can survive that, you’re golden! They did.  Since they had done enough long distance dating Jade packed up and moved to the west coast to live with Matt. Lucky for me I got to visit them and do their engagement photos in one of their favorite cities (see other blog post). I’ve never been to the West coast and I’m pretty sure San Francisco is now my favorite city (sorry New York). I think about it daily, it’s that good….or I’m that crazy.

Island House weddings are becoming some of my favorite weddings to photograph in Charleston.  I knew Jade and Matt’s wedding would be one to remember for a long time and I was super antsy all year waiting for their day to arrive. Plus it’s just always fun photographing a friend’s wedding.  Their wedding weekend started with a dinosaur themed rehearsal brunch on Halloween. That’s right, a dinosaur themed rehearsal brunch. Seriously, when we chatted prior to the weekend about wedding details they had me at dinosaur themed. I arrived at the Island House for what I just knew would be a spectacular day and really having no idea just how spectacular it would be, seriously. This family knows how to throw a party! When I entered the house I could hear the sweet sounds of Jade’s favorite metal bands playing in the bridal room as the lovely ladies from Harlow salon did hair & makeup.  Jade is not your typical bride. She was so chill and easy going that day. I really don’t know how she managed to be so chill. Maybe it was the genre of music she happily chose to listen to while getting ready. A bride after my own heart. Ha!

The preparation time of a wedding day can provide some great candid moments to photograph. There’s always those really great emotional moments and some super funny ones as people are getting ready. There was not a lack of these moments during this time on their wedding day. For instance, Jade had me do some boudoir photos for her to give to Matt on their wedding day while we were in San Francisco. Jade was trying to decide how to deliver the book of photos to Matt, who was getting ready downstairs at the Island House, she thought up the ridiculously funny idea to have his grandmother hand deliver it to him. Yes, you read that right. We whipped out some cellphones and used FaceTime so Jade could watch the whole thing while remaining in a separate room. It really was a pretty funny moment that I don’t think anyone will forget.

 Jade and Matt wisely chose to do a first look on their wedding day. I said it before and I’ll say it again and again, a first look can really help you enjoy your day more and give you so much extra time to spend with your spouse. Not to mention you get to knock out all those photos ahead of time. That’s exactly what we did and we had such a blast with their photos.

The wedding ceremony was just as I imagined and perfectly suited for them.  The reception was an insane party! No really, it was wild and awesome!! When I say Jade and Matt (and their families) know how to throw a party, I really mean it. It was non-stop dancing all night with tunes perfectly chosen by the always awesome DJ Wade.

…this wedding had it all….fabulous decor (yay pumpkins!), a wedding party carrying large balloons, the perfect ceremony, fabulous weather, a super fun photo booth, great food, lots of dancing, a late night snack of chicken and waffles, more dancing and why not throw in a little rain to end it all? OH, and someone brought the cutest little puppy! Aaah!!

I could go on and on…. but there would be no room for photos so take a look!