I've always been a huge fan of Shannon Michele Photography, so when I laid my eyes on Kristin + Brenden's Charleston wedding, I just knew that it had to find a home in A Lowcountry Wedding Mag! I might be a little biased, but Hibernian Hall is the perfect Charleston wedding venue. Right in the heart of Downtown, this Holy City landmark mixes history with a healthy dose of charm. Beautiful bride Kristin and her bridesmaids looked like the perfect Southern bridal party as the all rocked fabulous LulaKate frocks. Sara York Grimshaw killed it with her reception design of burlap runners, lace, mercury glass and flowers in a dreamy blush color palette. Even though we wanted to, we couldn't include everything in the magazine, so to find out a little more about Kristin's big day, check out her answers below and to see all the details here!

How did you decide on your venues for the ceremony/reception? St. Lukes was an obvious choice because of its simple elegance, the history, and the most beautiful courtyard outside! The reception venue was a little more difficult to nail down because there are sooo many incredible venues in Charleston. When we toured Hibernian Hall we both fell in love from the first step inside the iron gates. The walk up the staircase, the incredible rotunda, the stage, the chandeliers, all of the detail in that room was what sold us! It also didn’t hurt that it used to be an old Irish Society Hall and Brenden is Irish. ;)

1.When, Where, How did you meet? What is "the story" behind Kristin and Brendan?

Brenden and I both attended UNCW however he was 4 years ahead of me and to our knowledge we had never met. Brenden grew up in Raleigh as did one of my roommates and we often had house guests visiting from Raleigh in order to take advantage of the beach. Well these house guests were friends of Brenden’s as well and he would come over to see them and hangout at our house. Oddly enough, even when he was at my own house we never met!! Years later we were at Wild Wing Café in a large group of friends and when he and I introduced ourselves our friends stopped in their tracks and all said “Wait y’all don’t know each other??” NOPE! In all the years of our shared mutual friends and close encounters at the same place and the same time, we never met until the summer of 2010. It didn’t take long for us to start bantering back and forth with our own witty humor and the rest is history!

When did you know Brenden was “the one”? I knew Brenden was the one pretty early on. We went on a weekend trip to Raleigh to stay with some of our friends (yes we were both friends with them before we met) and I remember thinking that everything was so easy with him. We always had a great time together and fed off of one another’s personality. My mother always said to marry my best friend and Brenden is definitely my best friend!

How did he propose? Brenden told me we had reservations for dinner one night and I needed to be ready by 6:30pm. This wasn’t out of the ordinary because we loved to surprise one another so at 6:30 I walked into our den and found him fidgeting with his computer. We had just come back from a weekend trip to Hilton Head and I had been complaining about how we were horrible about taking pictures together, so he told me to sit down because he had put something together to show me just how many pictures we had taken together. On our TV a slideshow started to play of every picture and experience we had shared together! I was so into the slideshow I hadn’t noticed Brenden slide down on one knee until the last slide said “Kristin…… I have something I need to ask you… “ and when I turned there he was! It was the most perfect proposal! He then took me to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse where we had our first date! It was a great night!

Why Charleston? I grew up in Atlanta but Charleston was always somewhat of a second home. My parents met and married in Charleston and moved back a few years ago. Brenden and I would visit often and we fell in love with the history and romance of downtown Charleston. We also knew that we would be having a fairly large wedding and that our guests would be traveling from all over the country so we wanted them to come to a place that we loved and that had a lot to offer. It didn’t surprise us when the RSVP’s started coming in with all “Yes’s”! Who doesn’t love this city?!

Tell me about finding your dress/your bridesmaids dresses- After a day of unsuccessful bridal gown shopping we had our last appointment at Lula Kate downtown. My sister and I started pulling dresses to try on when she held one up and said “what do you think about this one?”. It was different than all the dresses I had been trying on but it was exactly like a dress I had picked out of a magazine months earlier. It was the third dress I tried on that day and as soon as I put it on I knew it was my dress (something I didn’t think I’d ever say). It was simple yet unique, sporty yet sexy, comfortable yet elegant… I was in love! I knew my colors for the wedding were going to be blush pink and champagne and of those two colors pink would look best on a bridesmaid dress. I chose different styles of tops for the dresses that all incorporated a ruffle and let my bridesmaids select their top and skirt style. They looked fabulous all together!

What is one piece of advice you'd offer to another Lowcountry bride? Make it yours! There are so many details that go into a wedding and you may not have a strong opinion on all of them and that’s fine. BUT speak up when it matters and don’t be afraid to make it your own! Brenden and I wanted to incorporate a few things that represented us into our big day so we elected to do a gourmet popcorn bar instead of a candy bar to pay homage to Brenden’s film past, we served late night fried pickles and chicken salad sandwiches as well as a signature drink from our favorite spot in Wrightsville Beach, played with our floor plan so that guests were encouraged to mingle and dance, and used a local book of photos from the lowcountry as our guest book. I think the more personal the wedding the more memorable it is!

Charleston Wedding Vendors

Ceremony Venue: St. Luke's Chapel / reception venue: Hibernian Hall / Cake: Publix / Caterer: Hamby Catering & Events / Florist: Sara York Grimshaw Designs / photographer: Shannon Michele Photography / Videographer: KLC Video Productions / Bridal gown + accessories: LulaKate, Kate Spade / Bridesmaids dresses: LulaKate / Groomsmen attire: Vera Wang / Entertainment: Fantasy Band

Charleston Wedding {Kristin + Brenden} Hibernian Hall

WELCOME