Taylor & Bennett | Rehearsal Dinner



North Carolina natives Taylor and Bennett met when the two were sophomores at N.C. State. Five years after they had become an item, they were in Manhattan where, says Bennett, “The ring was burning a hole in my pocket!” As the skies opened up, the pair took a cab to Tavern on the Green in Central Park, and Bennett sweated through every block they passed, trying to come up with a Plan B proposal to his Plan A (an open-air ask before dinner). “I thought I was going to have to propose in the back of a New York City yellow cab,” he tells us, “but as we neared the park there was a small break in the rain.” He hustled Taylor along to Shakespeare’s Garden, where he says he thinks she caught on thanks to the photographer Bennett had hired. The woman, decked out in a yellow poncho was waving and waving at the couple when they appeared. “I guess she didn’t understand the whole ‘Hide in the bushes’ thing,” says Bennett. “I then got down on one knee and asked Taylor if she liked the ring, and then if she would marry me. She said ‘Yes’ to both.” After that most auspicious beginning, the two planned a destination wedding in Charleston, one that kicked off with a rehearsal dinner at Cannon Green planned by Gregory Blake Sams Events. Take a peek here, and check out the spring issue of Charleston Weddings to see their “Beverly Hills-styled” wedding day…it hits newsstands in mid-March. (Oh! And be sure to visit the bride’s stationary shop—@shopsurcie!)

Event Design: Gregory Blake Sams Events | Florals: The Wildwood Flower Designs | Photography: Virgil Bunao | Videography: Cinema 843 | Venue: Cannon Green | Linen: La Tavola | Projector: Technical Event Company | Piano: Fox Music House | Groom’s Cake: Ashley Bakery

The Wedding Row

April 17 2019
Kyleigh met Nick when she was in Cardiff, Wales, getting her master’s degree. (Her friend had convinced her to give Tinder a shot, and her “first, last, and only Tinder date,” she says, was the born-...

April 16 2019
We don’t know about you, but these past few days of shorts weather have had us daydreaming about summer. Brandy McGhie, owner of local luxury event planning company Classic Planning & Design Co...

April 15 2019
Tricia and Brandon were in the same fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary here in Charleston, but their love story didn’t begin until a college football game 14 years later. The South Carolina...

April 12 2019
Designer Lela Rose has a saying we can all toast to: “Nothing says chic like matching your drink to your dress.” Fashion stylist Lindsey Nowak took that as a challenge, linked arms with Reagan Barnes...

April 11 2019
Taylor and Sam may be from Virginia and live in Waco, Texas, but the Palmetto State holds a special place in their hearts. They met at the University of South Carolina when Sam, a freshman fraternity...

April 10 2019
Thank goodness for Joe Quick—the mutual friend who lived up to his name and set up Avery and Henry when all three were in high school in Atlanta. After his pleas for them to meet went unheeded, he...

April 9 2019
Gillian and Phil met while studying abroad in Ireland. But because they attended different schools stateside (he was at the University of South Carolina, she was at The State University of New York...

April 8 2019
Here’s how Emmy and Josh explain how they became an item: “Josh had been courting Emmy for quite some, and on one evening in June at Dillon’s pub in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, he decided...