Real Weddings

Real wedding: Lindsay Dodge & Mark Finger

A kiss at the end of the rainbow

With every glance at the forecast leading up to her nuptials last March, Lindsay Finger thought she might be facing every bride’s nightmare: A rainy wedding day.

“The weather forecast called for stormy weather on March 14, and we even went to the extreme of renting a tent because it didn't look like the weather was going to cooperate,” says Finger, who married Hilton Head Island native Mark Finger that spring day at Belfair Plantation. “The morning of our wedding, I woke up, looked outside and saw the sun shining for the first time in three days.”

Real Wedding Allison Wessel and Nick Cuca

Love in the Lowcountry

Allison Wessel and Nick Cuca wanted to treat their guests to an authentic Lowcountry wedding. Though Wessel grew up in the Lowcountry, her groom was from Chicago, where the couple lives, and for many of their guests, the wedding would be their first time on Hilton Head Island.

“We wanted to make it feel like you weren’t just anywhere, you were in the Lowcountry,” said Wessel, 28, a digital manager for the McDonald’s Corporation. “There’s no better place for that than Honey Horn. It being an outdoor venue was just perfect.”

Real Wedding: Terri Cox & Matt Cramer

All About Family

What’s your favorite part of a wedding? When asked this question, so many people love to answer: “Seeing the groom’s reaction to his bride.” The look on the groom’s face when his bride walks down the aisle says everything, doesn’t it? With all the focus on the bride, sometimes it’s so spectacular to see what the groom has to say.

Real Wedding: Maria Phelan Curran & Robert Johnston Williams V

Coastal Elegance at Sea Pines

Three words describe the wedding of Maria Curran and RJ Williams: classic, beautiful and coastal. Isn’t that every Hilton Head Island bride’s dream? A destination wedding of sorts for Curran and Johnston, who reside in Raleigh, North Carolina, but who frequent Hilton Head because of a family home, this wedding reflected the natural environment of Hilton Head and the beauty of Sea Pines. Of course, it was also reflective of the love the couple share and their families.

Real Wedding: Abby McDougall & Ryan Olson

Love at First Sight

In the summer of 2007, which many of their close friends and family call “The Summer of Love,” Ryan Olson and Abby McDougall met at a fish fry at the McDougall home. Olson's brother, Erik, had just moved in across the street and he was visiting for the summer. To this day, Olson claims there was a light shining specifically on McDougall’s head when he first saw her. It’s his version of love at first sight.