Taylor Haley & Bennett Younts
June 30, 2018 • Lowndes Grove Plantation
North Carolina natives (and residents) Taylor and Bennett met when the two were sophomores at N.C. State University. 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 says, “but as we neared the park there was a small break in the rain.” He hustled Taylor along to Shakespeare’s Garden, where Bennett says he thinks she caught on thanks to the photographer he 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 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 joined Taylor’s mom in planning a destination wedding (the excited mother-in-law-to-be had, in fact, booked Lowndes Grove Plantation and Gregory Blake Sams Events before Bennett had even popped the question). The bride first leaned toward a subtle palette, then toward a pink and green one, but was wary of looking overly Lilly Pulitzer. So she leaned to the West Coast, toward the Beverly Hills Hotel, to be precise, with its 1950s pink neon sign, vivid palm wallpapered spaces, and swanky style. The result? You’re looking at it.
As for the couple, they fit right into the Rat-Pack atmosphere. Proof: At the wrap of their swanky soirée, she was in a flouncy little white dress and his bow tie dangled undone. They paused a moment before heading down a gauntlet of send-off sparklers, then entered the melee, where, amidst the sparks, Bennett twirled, dipped, and smooched his Mrs. in the most Hollywood of moves.
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