On Sunday evening, a VIP cocktail party was held at the new home of David and Beth Simmons on Tradd Street. Guests milled on the back patio, enjoying the breezes through the bamboo stalks. Tre, from Granville’s, did the catering. I am so use to seeing him with his gigantic dog, “Biggie” at the dog park that it was odd to see him in his chef’s jacket.
My second Spoleto party on Sunday was the Chamber Music Tea Party held at the home of Price and Louisa Cameron. Guests sauntered over to their house after seeing part of the Chamber Music series at the Memminger Auditorium.
From the backyard, you can see the steeples for St. Lukes Lutheran Church (left) and the Unitarian Church (right). This is the “Holy City” after all!
The hosts, Price and Louisa Cameron.
A donor luncheon was held on Sunday at the home Steve Stewart on Montagu Street. It was a very “Charleston” affair, which included a stunning garden, ladies in hats and men in seer sucker. Big cumulus clouds rolled by, providing intermittent breaks from the sun. There’s actually been a lot of talk about the weather this year at the Spoleto Festival as it’s actually a good 10-degrees cooler than it was last year, and a welcome break from the humidity. The catering was done by Mediterra Catering.
Memorial Day Weekend kicks of the Spoleto Festival and there were parties and events all weekend to cover! Saturday was the big Opening Weekend Gala at the Gaillard Auditorium. Guests attended a performance of either Monkey: Journey to the West or the Boston Ballet before entering the lavishly decorated Eastern inspired auditorium dining on Asian cuisine.
You will notice that this years Spoleto poster is of a horizontal design! This is a first.
The hanging lanterns and patterns lights across the floor gave this auditorium more pizazz than it’s ever seen before!
The Buddha in the background is in homage to one of this year’s most popular productions, Monkey: Journey to the West.
Beth and David Simmons with Julia Forster, Director of Development for the Spoleto Festival.
Anne Darby Parker with Mayor Joe Riley and his wife.
Not to be outdone by Bedon’s “Spoletini”, this party had it’s own “Ginger Monkey”, a white Cosmo with ginger-infused vodka.
The dinner entertainment included martial arts performances and a Chinese dragon.
Last night was the infamous Bedon’s Alley party with all the who’s who of Charleston attending. This year’s theme was “La Bella Cinderella” and though I didn’t see any glass slippers, I did see an ice slipper down which the very tasty “Spoletini” was served! (The Spoletini was created by Carolina’s and is a mix of Stoli blackberry, limoncello, prosecco and with a twist of lemon and a blackberry in the bottom.) Yum!
As always, Bedons got rather packed as the night grew on. A society editor from the New York Social Diary was there encouraging me to take photos of those dressed to the hilt in Cindarella wear as well as some of the hosts of the party. He’ll also be at the Gala tonight, so look pretty, let me take your picture and you might just get into his NYSD!
In honor of my friend Ida, who is off traveling the world and missing Spoleto this year, here are a few familiar faces for you from last night….
The “Spolitini”
And the ice (glass) slipper it is poured down, into your glass!
On the right are Bev and Wally Seinshimer
Robert Lange and his wife, of RLS.
Marcus and Marni Durlach
Johnny Tucker and Leigh Magar with their fabulous hats.
Perhaps this is the evil stepmother?
John and Meredith Dunnan
The clock is about to strike midnight, watch out Cinderella!!!
For the past two years, I have been asked to photograph all the social parties that the Spoleto festival and its patrons give. It’s a jam-packed week of parties and events and cocktails and celebrations. I absolutely love it as it gives me a way to be involved in the 17-day long festival and I get to hob nob with some of Charleston’s artsy patrons.
Last night was the Memminger Re-Opening Celebration. A black-tie dinner was held at the Riviera Theater beforehand and the guests walked down to the newly restored Memminger Theater to see Amistad, an opera based on the historically true story of a slave ship being taken off the coast of Long Island by the US Coast Guard in 1839.
The night started at the Riviera Theater for dinner….
I love the Riviera Theater and its art deco design.
After dinner, the guests walked down the street to the Memminger Theater and got the red carpet treatment.
After the opera, guests were treated to a champagne and dessert party outside of the theater. The most interesting dessert I tried was the “truffled potato flavored ice cream sandwith”. It tasted just like a truffled potato, but being an ice cream, that was weird!
The flowers were done by Lotus Flower and the rentals by All Occasions Party Rental.
The lighting on the Memminger changed colors every few seconds and the spotlight on the sign made a really cool shadow!
This is one of the weddings that I have been meaning to blog for a month now! Elizabeth and Dave were married on an amazingly beautiful day back in April. For those of you not from Charleston- if you don’t want your well-dressed men to sweat into a giant puddle in the Lowcountry heat, getting married in April and May is a great idea.
The ceremony took place at Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church, over in the Old Village. It’s an old, white wooden church and you must be a member in order to get married there, which makes it a little more exclusive. Being the number 3 destination wedding spot, Charleston is full of wedding and reception venues. But a lot of the churches have strict policies in place about who is allowed to get married in their church.
The house that the reception was held in is a beautiful old “cottage” on Sullivans Island. With Dave being a home builder and Elizabeth an interior designer, and with the look of the reception being “shabby chic”, it was the perfect spot for their party. I am dying to know more about the history of the house, but the walls were all bead board and it had a great wrap-around porch with a tent in the back.
Chista Hovis Special Events of Greenville, SC was the coordinator for the event. She likes to plan weddings that are a little more creative and out of the ordinary. And though she’s based in Greenville, she does a lot of work down here in Charleston.
We grabbed a couple shots of Dave and his groomsmen before the guests started to arrive. I think he’s looking really happy here about the big day.
The bouquets featured tulips that had the petals flipped open. It was a very cool new twist on the tulip!
Elizabeth enters the church on her dad’s arm.
The bridesmaids wore these great dresses and the colors really stood out and sang “Springtime!”
Dave and Elizabeth’s beloved cocker made a brief appearance for the group photos. I think every wedding should include your best friend!
Elizabeth and her dad danced the “shag” and they were darn good at it too!
I have to say that hands down, the fries at their reception were THE BEST french fries i have ever tasted. I don’t even want to know what they were fried in, but Events by Stephen Duvall did an awesome job.
The cake! This was made by a friend of Elizabeth’s whose name I need to find out. It was beautiful and tasty. I like the shots of the slices laid out on the table.
Because Dave is a home builder, and the two of them are just a fun couple and wanted to personalize their wedding, the dance floor was hand built out of flooring material. And there were Sharpies out for people to sign it and wish them well. I thought this note was very appropriate!
The beautiful old house.
Over the weekend, I had the fun job of photographing an elopement! It was a planned wedding for Brent and Amanda, but a surprise for everyone else! they had found information about Middleton Place Plantation plantation online, and drove into Charleston a few days early in order to get their marriage license for the big day.
It was a small, but beautiful affair. The “guests” included myself, the minister, and the minister’s wife, who held the video camera. Oh, and there were several alligators in attendance as well as we were by the butterfly lakes. But the wedding was well thought out, complete with a wedding cake for the two of them.
It’s always a treat for me to be able to photograph at Middleton as it is a stunning property with endless spots for beautiful backdrops. I highly recommend it as a venue!
This past Saturday, Michael and Jenny celebrated their wedding at the William Aiken House. The intrepid Emmy Loyd of Peacock Events did an excellent job of making the entire weekend run smoothly and did a knock out job of making the William Aiken House look amazing. Jenny and Michael are a fun couple and Jenny was constantly throwing out photo ideas to me. Since we’d hung out for a couple of hours during the bridal portrait, she was a lot more relaxed in front of the camera and Alyona and I got some great shots!
I don’t always get to photograph the invitation, but I love to do it. So if you’ve got a wedding booked with me, send me one of your official invites and I will be sure to get some shots of it on he wedding day, surrounded by your colors and flowers. This is also a great shot to have in the event we submit your wedding to one of the many wedding magazines to be published. Wedding magazines love to see the details!
This was a totally spontaneous shot. As soon as someone mentioned the groomsmen arriving, Jenny headed ot the window for a sneak peek.
OK Florist designed the flower arrangements for the entire wedding weekend. The Spring green and soft white flowers looked great against the William Aiken House.
Michael, the groom, had a great personality. You could tell that he really adored Jenny and his heart was fully invested in this marriage.
I love the look on the ring bearer’s face as he gets the final touches on his tuxedo out into place. He looks pretty serious here.
Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Burnett!
Jenny wanted a shot of the wedding party on the balcony and I thought it was a pretty fun and different shot of a big group of people.
I love this moment of pure joy as she’s dancing with her dad!
Ahhh… the William Aiken House at dusk. I love these long exposures that show a bit of the ambiance. there’s a perfect time to take this type of photo, after sunset, but when there’s still a bit of light in the sky, which shows up as a nice royal blue.
After a sparkler departure, the ever popular Charleston Black Cab takes them away.
Back in early April, Jebb and I had the honor of traveling down to Brays Island, SC to photograph Chris & Kim’s wedding.
These two Chicagoans visit the Lowcountry often and set their hearts under getting married under a giant oak tree on Brays Island. And we did every dance known to man to get the rain to stop falling. But unfortunately, it just wouldn’t stop. But fast thinking wedding coordinator Jen Mahoney was on the case to make sure that they were married with a great view of the tree instead.
Kim nieces were the flower girls and I’ve never seen a more enthusiastic pair. From getting their hair curled to making jokes, they were the entertainment during the “getting ready” part of the day.
This is one of the flower balls that the flower girls got to carry. It was a really fun and colorful piece and a modern take on the flower girl basket. This was an accidentally long shutter speed with a rear curtain sync flash, but I kind of like the effect!
Kim’s dad walked her down the aisle and this is moments before the ceremony began. Her smile is contagious.
Even though the rain kept us from celebrating their ceremony under the big oak tree, it did let up enough for us to do the group shots outside with the oak as a backdrop. I loved her color choices with the bridesmaids dresses and the flowers! The colors really popped and it was perfect for a spring wedding.
Here’s Kim under the fabled oak. Brays Island is a spectacular spot of incredible beauty… giant oaks, dirt roads, and lots of wildlife. I could spend an endless amount of time photographing there.
And we did a lot of shots of Kim and Chris with the oak tree. This was taken with a fisheye lens to accentuate how big and far reaching this oak is!
This is a detail shot from the seated dinner at the reception. Even the candles were colored and tiny little touches like that really add to the overall look. It’s all in the details.
I don’t know the history on the armadillo grooms cake, but I do know that it was exceptionally well crafted and was a work of art. Maybe he’s a mascot?
Here’s the reception from afar… Behind me were about 50 egrets perched in the trees next to the marsh, hoping to avoid the alligators, just as I was when I took this shot!
