Sweet Shades!

Spring 2017

WRITER CREDIT:

PHOTOGRAPHER CREDIT:

Sweet Shades! | Locally crafted garden umbrellas offer your guests respite from the spring sun (and bespoke style)

wedding Big Day weddings Garden garden umbrellas umbrellas inspiration Martha Stewart

Edisto Island’s Anne Girault—the powerhouse behind local company Boutique Tents—has long been a secret weapon of posh wedding planners locally and beyond. And it’s no wonder: her über-stylish custom cabanas and hand-painted aisle runners add pattern, color, and pizzazz to every fête they touch and have been featured in the pages of Inside Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings, and House Beautiful. For warm-weather affairs, we’re especially smitten with her canvas garden umbrellas that are as stunning as they are sensible for shading an alfresco cocktail area, guest sign-in station, or outdoor ceremony seating (the latter is a smart trend we’ve spied of late).

“I’m a maximalist in every sense of the word,” says Anne, who draws inspiration from interior design, art, and architecture, as well as, in the case of Big Day commissions, colors and patterns found throughout an event’s design. “That may be a graphic motif from the invitation suite or a wallpaper pattern from the venue,” says Anne, who collaborates closely with couples (or planners) from sketch to finish to ensure the umbrella fits perfectly within the wedding’s aesthetic. The best part? When made with all-weather canvas fabric, the sturdy wooden umbrellas can bring style and sentimentality to your newlywed nest’s garden, patio, or deck for years to come.

Get Yours Going

Prices vary based on fabrics used and the intricacy of the valances. Expect orders (all are custom-made) to take roughly two weeks to produce. For more information, contact info@BoutiqueTents.net.

Images by (toile umbrella) Adrienne Page Photography & (white umbrella) Liz Banfield

The Wedding Row

December 10 2018

Arlene & Andrew | Engagement Session

After connecting on Tinder (both are adamant that they were each on it for a short, short while) Charleston residents Arlene and Andrew met at a local café where she says she knew she was in trouble—...

December 7 2018

Kayla & Reed | Legare Waring House

Did you know we typically save our most blockbuster weddings to post on Fridays? It’s true. So knowing that, and that this couple got engaged in Italy (on a gondola in Venice, no less), and that they...

December 6 2018

Brooks & Tryvge | Private Residence

Seems like you don’t even need to be Irish to have some of their fabled luck. Take Trygve and Brooks for instance: The pair met in Columbus, Ohio, via Match.com and went on their first date on St....

December 5 2018

Mike & Kierstin | Boone Hall Plantation

Any first date can be intimidating, and especially so when it’s a blind date. In fact, butterflies got to Kierstin so bad when she was set up by a friend to meet Mike, she canceled. Luckily, Kierstin...

December 4 2018

Olivia & Sam | Magnolia Plantation & Gardens

After dating for three-and-a-half years, Olivia and Sam were visiting her family in Columbia, South Carolina, for the Fourth of July when the whole crew decided a day trip to Charleston was in order...

December 3 2018

Ashley & Brian | Engagement Session

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...

November 30 2018

Paula & Tyler | Boone Hall Plantation

Yes, Paula and Tyler’s Boone Hall Plantation wedding is a dream to look at. But we have to say the backstory to their day is just as inspiring. There’s just something about a couple who knows...

November 29 2018

Vendor of the Month: Ginny Leavitt of the Healthy Bride Experience

Is wedding planning getting to you? Say hello to Charleston’s newest feel-better motivator, Ginny Leavitt, the health coach behind Healthy Bride Experience, a program that helps brides-to-be look and...

Feature

Fine Print

Feature

All in the Family

Ashley Bakery marries off its last daughter with a grand finale of confections

Feature

Pomp & Circumstance

Adhering to Indian traditions, one couple’s dream wedding dazzled some 450 friends and family with vibrant color, jubilant dancing, and ornate décor and dress

Feature

Tiers of Joy

Wedding cakes may be a centuries-old tradition, but that hasn’t stopped them from evolving right alongside wedding design. Here, we share a few swoon-worthy styles by local pastry chefs.