How do I begin this fantastic upcoming New Year? By having the honor and privilege to photograph this amazing wedding for my clients Kristin & Gabe on New Years Day, at The American Theater, located in the heart of Downtown Charleston Upper King Street. It Opened in 1942 as Charleston’s premier movie house. This venue is a perfect place to have a wedding, it is adjacent to one of Charleston favorite venue The William Aiken House all run by the fantastic company, Patrick Properties Hospitality Group, a first class organization.
A beautiful marquee with the bride and groom name was there as I arrived. As I walked in being from LA myself, I noticed it has a Hollywood style with red carpets beautiful chandeliers of the grand ballroom, where the reception was going to be, and the ceremony taking place at the private film screening stadium-seat cinema. The couple chose to incorporate and mimic that by creating a comic theme, which was very cool, the groom and groomsmen wore a lapel representing the characters, the translucent panels had the Green lantern(TM), Spider-Man(TM), and much more. The tables had the Hollywood theme, academy awards in a popcorn box, and the center pieces were stars, the cake had three tiers with old 35 mm film, wrapped in bows around the cake. A very well designed and orchestrated theme. The wedding and ceremony went perfect, family and friends enjoyed a fantastic night and all welcomed the New Year and this wonderful couple. Thank you so much for making me a part of such a wonderful occasion.
Here from the bride in here words is how this day became:
Gabe and I met in film school in 2012. I had not even graduated high school when I started at the Carolina Film Institute. There were five other people in the class. One day, Gabe and I were asked to stand in front of the class, holding hands, so our professor could show everyone else a particular shot with his camera. Everyone laughed and commented that we were so cute. We had barely spoken before that moment. I was chosen as Gabe’s director of photography on his project, so we were working very closely with each other on the pre-production aspects. I spent many of my days in Spartanburg with him and his son, Hayden. I fell in love with Hayden immediately, and with Gabe nearly as fast. We were at a mutual friend’s house on June 2, 2013, when he kissed me for the first time. On December 7, 2013, Gabe proposed to me at a park while we were taking family pictures. Hayden ran up to me afterward and told me that it was okay for me to marry his dad. We told our parents the next day and started planning the wedding.
2013 and 2014 were rough years for us. My father was in a motorcycle accident in West Virginia that nearly killed him. Gabe was in and out of the hospital because of a concussion. We decided together that we wanted to start off the year 2015 on a positive note. What better way to do that than to get married? My parents volunteered to pay for the wedding, and his parents volunteered to handle the rehearsal dinner. It was a beautiful event. We found The American Theater at the very last minute, and everyone involved was so courteous and welcoming. The theater is beautiful on its own, but the event coordinators and my family went above and beyond. We had movie posters in each of the mylars, they put out names up on the marquee, and they rolled out the red carpet for us. It was magical. While all that had been settled, we could not find a photographer. My mom sent me several photographers in Charleston and told me to pick one. I looked through each person’s photos, but after I saw Michel’s, I knew we wanted him. We read through his reviews and I started to panic. “He’s so popular and famous! He’ll never take our pictures!” But he accepted and was so wonderful from day one. He’s incredibly detail oriented and very organized. He went so far out of his way to get what I believe to be amazing shots. He made us laugh, and took his time to make each shot perfect. We also hired a videographer through Michel, and we could not be more pleased with both of them!
