Charleston Garden Elopement under Spanish Moss Trees

The beautiful southern elopement by THE HAPPY BLOOM was featured in Issue 16 MAGNOLIA ROUGE MAGAZINE and we’re delighted to be sharing it with you today. Despite growing up only a few short miles from one another, it wasn’t until a series of happy accidents occured that Tina & Lily’s paths crossed. They like to call it fate. Fast forward a year and two proposals later, wedding planning was underway. Being rather fond of road trips, the couple were in the midst of planning their next one when it struck them that they should use it as a opportunity to elope. Having never been to the South, it was the beauty of Charleston and Savannah that inspired their elopement. “At this point, we’d been engaged for almost four years, and whilst we would have loved to share our special day with family and friends, the idea of going on this incredible road trip and eloping in a place that just seemed so whimsical and romantic really felt like us – and so that’s what we decided to do!” In keeping with the overall feeling of their Charleston, South Carolina venue-Magnolia Plantation and Gardens-they opted for a colour scheme that would work well with the garden backdrop. The sage colour of the Spanish moss inspired both the girls’ wardrobe choices and also came into play when creating their ‘picked from the garden’ bouquet which was made up of several varieties of foliage.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROPOSAL: Tina: “Well, the first time I asked Lily to marry me, it happened as a spur of the moment thing. We’d been dating for about a year and I’d already known for a while that she was it, she was my person and that would never change. So one night while we were laying in bed talking, I just came right out and asked her if she would marry me, and she said yes! I didn’t even have to think about it. I’ll never forget that night or how happy I was in that moment. I say “first time” because when I asked her, I didn’t have a ring and I wanted to be able to ask her with a ring. So one week later, after I’d gotten her a ring, I took her to a beach and asked her again on top of a rock where we sat on our first date, and thankfully her answer was still yes.”

TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR WEDDING DRESS/ATTIRE: We wanted something whimsical and light, so we decided on a colour scheme that went with our garden backdrop. Lily had hoped to find a floral dress or a dress with colour and the Jenny Yoo dress was just that. It was flowy, floral and romantic, all of the things she’d hoped for. When she tried on the dress, we both knew that would be the one. While deciding on a colour scheme for the wedding, we really fell in love with the sage colour of spanish moss, so when Tina found a sage coloured suit, we knew that it would be perfect.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE OUT TO A COUPLE PLANNING THEIR WEDDING? Don’t overthink it! Don’t forget the reason you’re having the wedding in the first place. It’s about the two of you and your love, always remember that, and everything else will fall into place.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT? The night before our elopement we practiced reading eachother our vows. Tina couldn’t get through them without crying and we had a good laugh thinking about what the day of would look like. On the day of, it was just the opposite and Lily was the one who couldn’t get through them without crying. Oh, and a shetland pony ate part of Lily’s bouquet!

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WOULD CHANGE OR DO DIFFERENTLY? We could say that we would have liked to plan better or not wait until the last minute to finalize certain things, but in those moments we created some really great memories that we wouldn’t have had
otherwise. So, no we can’t say that we would have done anything differently!