Brooke Mullikin knew exactly what she didn’t want her spring wedding to be: boring, traditional, stuffy, and impersonal. As for what was on the “must” list? Just one thing: “I wanted it to feel like an enormous party,” says the Georgia native who met Ohio-born Trey while attending Clemson University. “We like to entertain, so I wanted our wedding to feel like an extension of that with all our friends and family present.”
Since most of those friends and family are spread out across the United States, the couple—who have lived in Chicago for six years—decided on Charleston for their wedding locale. “We loved the history and the Southern charm,” says Brooke. “And it was really important to us that guests could walk around the city for the whole weekend and not have to drive.”
With fun and festivity at the top of the agenda, designer Heather Barrie-Ahern of gathering: floral + event design centered the celebrations on a palette of aqua, orange, and hot pink—a combination, she says, that “you don’t see in your average wedding. A lot of brides stick to safe or trendy palettes, but Brooke really took a chance on something different.”
It was a chance that certainly paid off. “If you look at this wedding,” says Brooke, “everything about it is me. I’m cheery; I wear a lot of bright, funky colors; and I’m outside as often as I can be. And of course I love a good party.”
