Hilton Head Monthly Connecting the Lowcountry 
Sometimes when you’re in love, one set of wedding vows just isn’t enough.
Caroline Santorum and Lee Ayres exchanged traditional wedding vows on June 11 at Sea Pines Country Club in front of 215 family members and friends. But a couple hours before that, they exchanged a different set of vows, promises of love and devotion they wrote themselves.
For a bride who grew up in Sea Pines and a groom who hails from Louisville, Kentucky, the Harbour Town wedding of Megan Dolyniuk and Stewart Koch on May 7, 2016 — the same day as the famed horse race in Stewart’s hometown — was a destination wedding with a bit of derby celebration.
They may have married young, but Morgan Welch Blackburn, 21, and Robert “Robby” Blackburn, 24, had a pretty long courtship, considering.
“They were first kiss sweethearts,” says Amy Welch, who helped her daughter Morgan plan the June 11 wedding at Harbour Town Yacht Club. “They met in parochial school; she was in his little sister’s class and she fell in love with him at 12 years old.”
Though she grew up in Pennsylvania and lives in Colorado, Katie Koropey Windmoeller had long dreamed of having an outdoor wedding on Hilton Head.
“We chose Hilton Head because I went there every summer, and we’ve had a house there for many years. It’s kind of my special place. And that’s where Jason proposed,” Windmoeller says. “Plus it was always my dad’s dream to see one of his daughters get married on the 18th hole of Harbour Town Golf Links.”
The Oct. 17, 2015, wedding of Michelle “Shelly” (Caskey) and Charles “Trey” Fore, III was a storybook Lowcountry event. The destination wedding for the couple, who live in Greenville, SC, and 100 family members and friends began on Friday evening with a Lowcountry Boil at the inn’s Moreland Landing, which guests attended via the trolley through Wilson Village in the picturesque Palmetto Bluff. Hosted by the groom’s parents, the night included dinner and live entertainment by a duo, with a special serenade from the bride to her groom.
Meredith and Patrick Richling’s beach wedding at Sea Pines Beach Club was picture-perfect, right down to a well-placed cloud.
The Fayetteville, North Carolina, couple, who married June 6, 2015, chose Hilton Head Island for its accessibility to both sides of the family — hers from Georgia and his from North Carolina. But after 15 months of ironing out details with wedding planner Beth Baldwin, a sudden storm cloud threatened to douse their beach dreams.
Jerome Clark and Michelle Hall knew exactly what they wanted for their wedding — “Manhattan chic meets Southern charm.”
So when it came time to choose a location for their nuptials, Hilton Head Island seemed like the perfect fit. And after months of planning, their special day finally arrived. On May 23, 2015, Michelle and Jerome joined each other in love and matrimony at an intimate ceremony at The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa.
Kelly (Schuler) Hackman’s biggest wish for her wedding was that it take place outside. She and her groom, Dan Hackman, chose Colleton River Plantation Club — and the Lowcountry in general — for its breathtaking backdrops and gorgeous greens, which the Northern Kentucky natives were familiar with after vacationing here for many years.
But 2015 was a rainy year on Hilton Head, and the couple’s June 29 nuptials were nearly washed out.
Tracey Mancini has been a wedding coordinator for 25 years. She’s seen countless brides walk down countless aisles. But some weddings — like Hayley and Jake Jackson’s — stay with her long after the “I dos” have been done.
“There are certain ones that absolutely stick out that I fall in love with, and Hayley and Jake’s wedding was one of them,” says Mancini, senior wedding and events specialist for Celebrations Catering & Events. “Hayley is beautiful, she was a stunning bide, but also so organized in the planning that she made it heavenly easy for me.”
