Hilton Head Monthly Voice Voice of the Lowcountry 
Putting the ‘Happy’ in Your Happily Ever After
Traditions evolve and trends change, but weddings will always elicit the same emotions, whether you’re the groom or the guest. And any event filled with love, joy and hope deserves to be breathlessly anticipated and exceptionally well planned.
PHOTOS BY GEORGE STREET PHOTO & VIDEO
Trascontinental romance sprouted at Hilton Head Island restaurant
Not every pair of newlyweds gets a restaurant menu item named after them. But not every couple’s love story is quite like Justine Hale and Nikola Milosev’s.
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.”
Weddings are wildly diverse variations of essentially the same exact thing: Two people in love, pledging their commitment to each other for life. No two weddings are alike, because no two couples are alike, and that’s what makes every single wedding uniquely special.
Here come the brides!We asked couples who attended Hilton Head Monthly's 2016 Hilton Head Bridal Show to submit an engagement photo for a chance to have their wedding featured in an upcoming issue. Photos were posted to our Facebook page and readers voted on their favorite couple using "likes."
With 612 "likes," the winning couple was Jason Johnson and Carolyn Harvey. The big date is set for Sept. 24, 2016. We will feature the wedding in an upcoming special bridal section.
Thanks to all who voted!
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.
Wedding trends don’t jump drastically from month to month or even year to year. But there are subtle shifts in colors, styles and menu choices that keep things fresh from season to season, allowing each couple to shine a new light on an age-old tradition.
If you’re looking for ways to keep your nuptials on trend but uniquely yours, try a few of these tips to give your guests — and yourselves — a day to remember.
Anyone who knows Gina Jacobs knows she loves to cut a rug...
Since her husband, Rob, is a pastor at LowCountry Community Church in Bluffton, she gets to go to the weddings he performs, which ends up being seven or eight a year.
“When people ask Rob to perform a wedding, they say, ‘Hey, is your wife going to come?’” the Bluffton Middle School guidance counselor said.
Getting married in the Lowcountry is a classic decision that never goes out of style. Sunsets on the beach, live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, Southern plantation clubhouses overlooking perfectly manicured grounds — couples would be hard-pressed to find more romantic wedding venues than the area we’re lucky enough to call home.
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.”
