Wedding at Drayton Mill | Elizabeth and Ethan

Elizabeth came to us for her dress and fell in love with one. The caveat was that she really wanted sleeves and this dress didn’t have them. Thankfully we have a great relationship with the ladies over at Staar Tailors in Anderson and they were able to advise us on how we could add sleeves. That sealed the deal for Elizabeth and she said Yes! to the Sumter dress. Over the months of working with Elizabeth on her dress, she decided that she needed a planner for her wedding too. We talked about how with a full room flip, one was definitely needed. She chose to hire us for her wedding day too and we’re so honored that she did! We love getting to be there on wedding days for brides who purchase their dress from us. Her wedding was at 1800 Drayton Events in Spartanburg and it is such a fun space!! We loved working with the vendor team on this wedding and love all of the photos Kendall captured from this day.

Elizabeth and Ethan's love story

Ethan and I met on the first day of high school freshman year in English class. We were friends all of high school but never dated. I dated one of his friends all of high school and into freshman year of college. My sophomore year of college Ethan kept coming to Clemson to tailgate with my friends and family before football games. Ethan showed up time and time again, even though I wasn’t ready for a relationship. Finally, the next year we went on our first date on Valentines Day. We met in downtown Greenville, halfway between North Greenville and Clemson, and had burgers at Carolina Ale House. We made it official two months later in April. The rest is history.

We dated for about 2.5 years before Ethan proposed. We were in New York City with my parents for a Christmas trip. We had dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant and then walked to Times Square. My mom was taking a picture of us in Times Square, and after she had taken the photo I turned to go get my phone and I saw Ethan moving out of the corner of my eye. I turned back around and he was on one knee!

I knew Ethan was the one when he continued to pursue me for almost an entire year even though I told him I didn’t want to be in a relationship. He was RELENTLESS and that was really impressive to me because no other boy I had talked to and told that had given me the time of day after. My favorite thing about Ethan is how unique he is! I have truly never met anyone like him. He can be shy upon first impression, but once you get to know him he is very passionate and quite quirky. He constantly keeps me laughing. We always have fun together.

Anyone else tear up reading this? No, just us....okay... *wink wink*

The most memorable part of their wedding day

The most memorable part of our wedding day was writing and saying our own vows during our ceremony as well as saying traditional vows. It was so special and I will cherish that always. I loved that we didn’t do a first look. Because of that, everything during the ceremony felt that much more raw and authentic since it was truly our first time seeing each other all day. I also loveddd our reception. Our dj was awesome, and we had sooo much fun on the dance floor with all our friends and family celebrating.

Their reception was so so fun! The dance floor was always full and the photobooth back drop was seriously #goals. Their DJ, Will, is one of our favorites and we recommend him to all of our brides and use him for our in store events.

Why Elizabeth chose Katharine Marie Weddings

I am very organized and did extensive research before selecting each of our vendors. I felt 100% confident and fully trusted our entire vendor team. However, we chose to hire you because after discussing the possibility with you, you made us think of some things we had not considered such as planning and coordinating arrivals of vendors day of and things like who planned to place the napkins on the table during the ceremony flip. We were also extremely impressed with how you handled the dress fiasco. After my original dress arrived yellow, you had a solution same day for making sure I got my dream dress on time in the right color and making sure I stayed calm in the process.

The Experience at Katharine Marie's Bridal Boutique

When I was dress shopping with you, you actually listed to me. You didn’t force me into trying on anything I didn’t like or try to convince me of any certain style. You were also extremely helpful in helping us understand how we could customize different dresses to make my vision come to life. Most importantly, you didn’t pressure me to chose a dress and make a purchase at the end of our appointment. This was extremely valuable to me because I am a very analytical person. I knew I wasn’t going to have that “ahh ha” moment. I knew I was going to have to go home and really think about what I wanted, and I didn’t feel pressured to have that moment when I was trying on dresses. The dress I picked was my absolute dream dress after we added the custom sleeves. I would pick that dress time and time again. I felt amazing on our wedding day.

Elizabeth chose our Sumter gown as her wedding dress. While this looked absolutely stunning as is, Elizabeth knew she wanted a dress with sleeves. We worked with the designers to get extra lace pieces and Staar Tailor worked their magic to create her custom sleeves. Her dress turned out perfect and we love all the photos of this dress!

Advice to other couples planning their wedding

The advice I would give couples planning their wedding is to do your research before hiring vendors and meet with the vendors to make sure you are a good fit. Also hire you. Even people like me who think they don’t need a wedding planner, they do. You made the entire day effortless for me. You handled any issues that came up and made sure everything was executed perfectly and seamlessly according to my vision. I have been a part of wedding parties with couples who do everything themselves, and it is awful. It takes away from the entire day and you really lose focus on relaxing and cherishing how special the day is.