When they met up for a reunion with a group of their fellow missionaries a year after all had spent a week in Savannah, Georgia, Ashley and Brian hit it off—bigtime. That encounter launched the pair into a seven-year relationship, though much of that stretch found Brian, a Marine, stationed in Beaufort, South Carolina, while Ashley attended the University of South Carolina in Columbia. “It was difficult,” says Ashley of the time apart, “but those years of traveling on the weekends gave us some of the best memories and the best friends we could have ever asked for in many different places.” When the two got a fur baby together (a cockapoo named Scout), they simply had to get him to the beach. (What’s cuter than a puppy discovering sand and sea? Not much!) On that auspicious first visit to the shore, Brian got down on one knee and asked Ashley to marry him. Soon after, Ashley and Brian called up the talented Charleston duo Aaron and Jillian for a downtown engagement session, and we can’t help but melt over the photos. As for their wedding, these two cuties will say “I do” next June at the Harrietta Plantation in McClellanville (just north of Charleston) on the same day as their first date and at a place that Ashley and her father frequented when she was younger. We can’t wait to see all the details from the Big Day, but for now, let’s admire their dreamy downtown session that’s loaded with charm.
Images by Aaron and Jillian Photography