Last October we had the pleasure of travelling to Sea Island, Georgia for a special three day weekend wedding celebration for our clients Sarah and Albert. With just nine months to plan and design a magical weekend for a magnificent couple, it was all hands on deck making this wedding possible with some of the best vendors in the industry playing a part. I’ll be sharing more about those vendors throughout both this post here highlighting the Welcome to The South Soiree welcome party, and then the secondary post later this week highlighting the wedding day, but it truly takes a village to make magic happen! There’s a reason I say that so often with our line of work.
My specific role with Sarah and Albert was to serve as their wedding planner, conceptualize their various event designs, and then help bring together everything as seamlessly as possible throughout the weekend. Sea Island is a unique property in the sense that they do a lot of tasks under one roof, respective to separate departments – floral, design, rentals, catering, beverage, shuttles, and much more. So while it was admittedly interesting to create a vision and select tangible goods for my client only to hand them over to other teams for execution, this event was indicative of how good things can come out of teamwork.
With that being said, the beautiful photos here from Henry Photography highlight the welcome party hosted at Sea Island’s The Retreat the evening prior to the big day. In the planning process, Sarah and I honed in on a French blue / chambray color palette with design elements like buffalo check, mercury glass, magnolia foliage, and pops of peach. After all this was a wedding with a 100% destination guest list so exuding as much Southern Hospitality (and charm) as possible was important. We also wanted the welcome party design to feel uniquely different from the wedding design which I will highlight in a separate post.
Sea Island helped facilitate separate cocktail hour lounges for the female and male guests, complete with matching decor, spirits, and food in each. From Sol Fusion’s impeccable live music and fresh mint mojitos with customized wood stir sticks as guests arrived, the dinner comprised of an abundance of Southern themed food stations, and live music on the back deck as the evening came to a close, this event could have passed as the wedding day itself. What a way for Sarah and Albert, and their families, to welcome their nearest and dearest.
As everyone left The Retreat for the evening our team had the pleasure of handing out the most impeccable custom gifts to eager and excited guests. Curated by Jamie and her team at Marigold & Grey they were packaged with personalized goodies, most specific to the South. The couple’s monogram lovingly created by Moya of MM Ink was used throughout the gift contents like on the sugar cookies, custom tote bags, and water bottles. But my personal favorite detail was the trifold welcome document that took weeks to perfect. It was a guide to Sea Island for guests to enjoy with a schedule of events, shuttle itinerary, and custom watercolor map of Sea Island illustrated by Jess of Simply Jessica Marie. Guests were just delighted to be handed such a beautiful, thoughtful and admittedly HEAVY gift as they boarded their shuttles back to their respective hotels!
One of the many personalized details, as I mentioned above, included welcome cocktails handed out on trays as guests walked into the party. The drink itself was a freshly prepared mint mojito in a traditional silver mint julep cup and adorned with a fresh sprig of mint. But my favorite detail would have to be the wood stir sticks with again, the couple’s calligraphed monogram etched on them. Jenn and Jules created so many beautiful laser cut details for this event and it was a pleasure working with her to make even the small touches shine.
Handsome groom to be and beautiful bride to be. Two souls means for one another!
Inside the main reception space of The Retreat is where the design team at Sea Island and the florists at The Vine brought the vision to life on a larger scale. This event oozed Southern charm and really created an approachable and welcoming space for the nearly 200 people who had arrived to Georgia to celebrate Sarah and Albert. The buffalo check overlays on our round tables and the pop of peach on the tablescapes (from real Georgia peaches!) really brought everything full circle while allowing what we had planned for the next day to stand alone and feel uniquely different. Those chairs from Beachview were absolutely perfect!
Our delightful couple! They had these looks of pure joy on their faces for nearly three full days.
You can see the wedding celebration here.
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Photography: Henry Photography / Planning, design, coordination: Rhiannon Bosse Celebrations / Venue: The Retreat at Sea Island / Catering, alcohol, design execution: Sea Island / Floral: The Vine / Rentals: Beachview / Entertainment: Sol Fusion, East Coast Entertainment / Beauty: Be Pretty LLC / Stationery and calligraphy: MM Ink / Acrylic goods: Jenn and Jules / Welcome gifts: Marigold & Grey / Linens: Nuage Designs / Watercolor illustration: Simply Jessica Marie / Bride’s dress: Halston Heritage / Shoes: Steve Madden / Earrings: Kendra Scott / Groom’s suit: Balani (custom)