An elegant Floridian wedding rich with Southern tradition

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Spanish moss, ancient oak, blush details and a stately manor – this Florida wedding bridges the gap between modern wedding style & traditional Southern charm.

Yesterday, we declared our love for the ever-trendy King Protea flower (and it’s up-and-coming cousin the Pincushion Protea) growing wild throughout our South African honeymoon. Well, as luck has it, bride Sian is South African herself and was sure to include the beautiful bloom in her bridal bouquet – just one of the many beautiful contemporary pieces of decor included in this Floridian scene.

While the decor feels modern and elegant, Sian and Blake made sure to include plenty of southern tradition in their wedding and buried bourbon a month before the wedding at the spot where they read their vows. Southern folklore says that if you bury the bourbon exactly one month before your wedding day, that it will ensure a day without rain.

Molliner Photography says, ‘Folklore or not, the weather couldn’t have been better when these two promised each other forever.’

Our Love Story

We met during our final semester of nursing school. We were on a road trip through Box Spring, GA, Savannah, GA, Charleston, SC and then two other stops in Virginia. I had no idea he was going to propose.

After spending the day wandering around Charleston, he took me to a little park on James Island facing the Cooper River Bridge. We were going to watch the sunset; he had walked back to his truck to grab a blanket to lay on the grass. We were the only ones there, we sat for a while, and then an elderly couple arrived.

Blake stopped the man and asked if he would take our photo. The elderly gentleman wasn’t quite sure how to use the camera feature, so he showed him. And then the gentleman proceeded to take our picture. He started giving directions – how far back to step, which way to turn etc. I thought it was funny and cute – he was taking his photography seriously.

Blake asked nicely for the man to take a wider framed photo and began to kneel. He was proposing, I was flabbergasted, and the elderly gentleman taking the photos started to yell out loudly “look at this, look at this” to his wife. It was just a rush of emotion and excitement.

The Dress & Attire

I had purchased a different dress originally because I did not want to splurge on the one I loved. But later, I went with the “you only get married once,” thing and bit the bullet to buy my Inbal Dror gown and I have no regrets. The only alteration I made (other than sizing alterations) was to add spaghetti straps.

I have a necklace, given to me by Blake that has a blue opal stone that I wore as my “something blue” and my shoes were light blue as well. Blake’s suit was custom made by Jos. A. Bank and was a medium blue, his accessories were brown.

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Photo by Molliner Photography via Bridal Musings

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The Venue & Wedding Style

We like to think our wedding was fun, romantic and refreshing. It was traditional but still easy going. We chose the very first venue we visited. Our venue owner even told us to view more locations before we decided – we saw one more, but knew The Bellemoor Plantation was it. It is the most beautiful outdoor location. It’s got a bit of everything all in one, without being too much.

We were married under a large oak tree and had our cocktail hour in the jasmine garden. Our reception was outdoors, as well, and the guests were free to roam around the property and enjoy the trees and flowers, the ponds and also the birdhouse, which is home to white peacocks and doves.

I wanted the color scheme to be light, so we went with blush, whites and creams, and light grey. We had fresh floral centerpieces but decided to let the venue be our main décor. We had flower petals leading up to our alter, under a giant oak tree.

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Favorite Moments

It’s difficult to single out moments because we truly loved it all. But just having our friends and family celebrating with us, really was very important. Saying “I do” takes the cake, but our literal cakes were amazing too. Our first dance, dancing together as husband and wife throughout the night, and the groomsmen using their sabers.

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The Photography

Our photographer, Molliner Photography, was recommended by a close friend, and once we looked at her work, we knew she was what we wanted. It was the same for our videographer The Garrs. We loved their style, and they had worked at our venue before, as well.

The Reception

Our guests enjoyed the cocktail hour in the jasmine garden. We went with a “served buffet” as our food choice for the reception; we had options for everybody. We ended the night with the dancing, a champagne toast from the groomsmen using their new sabers to cut the tops of the champagne bottles off and a sparkler send off. It was more than we could have dreamed of.

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Advice to Other Couples

We loved Minted for all our stationary; also Paperless Post if you go the modern way (their designs are so cute but we wanted paper products). We also used Wedding Wire to help keep on schedule. Zola is great for your registry because it pulls products from other websites.

We had a year to plan, and it was more than enough time for us. We started planning as soon as we got our venue, so we didn’t have too much to do the last few months before our wedding date and that relieved some stress.

For day-of advice, savor each moment. It really does just fly by, try not to get sidetracked by minor details, and remember what the day is really all about.

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Photo by Molliner Photography via Bridal Musings

The Honeymoon

We honeymooned in the Dominican Republic. It was amazing! We stayed at The Majestic Mirage in Punta Cana. It’s an all-inclusive resort on the beach with literally every amenity possible. We went sailing, we took a jeep tour up into the towns and mountains, coffee and cigar making we even took a private helicopter ride to a local island nearby. Everything was affordable and beyond expectation; we would definitely recommend it.