In 2011, Elizabeth Bazzetta accidentally body checked Nicholas (“Nick”) Grossman at a local dive as she bellied up to the bar. “He tapped me on the shoulder to let me know how rude it was,” she says. After more or less blowing him off, she went back to her girlfriends until Nick’s pal persuaded her to talk to his friend. A few hours later, Elizabeth says she knew Nick was the one.
Years after, the couple hopped aboard a helicopter to celebrate their third dating anniversary. When they swept past the Charleston skyline and hovered over Folly Beach, Elizabeth looked down to see Nick’s handiwork—“Will you marry me?”—scratched across the sand. Her tearful response: “Of course!”
Although both are transplants to the Holy City—Elizabeth hails from Oklahoma and Nick’s from Pennsylvania—both knew Charleston was where they should marry. “It’s where we met, where we fell in love, and where we’ve built our life together,” says Elizabeth. Their decision to wed at Boone Hall Plantation was just as simple, as it met both Elizabeth’s “extremely girly” leanings and Nick’s masculine style. The next move? Nick decided on a navy tux, which set a palette of dark blue (for him), blush peach (for her), and gold (for an accent). From there, things fell into place, says the bride, thanks to A Charleston Bride’s design and planning, Elizabeth’s dad’s bankrolling help, and her mother’s tireless support.
Come the morning of the wedding day, while planner Lindsey Shanks lined the drive in front of Boone Hall’s plantation home with florals in shades of ivory, light pink, and verdant green for an aisle that was flanked on each side by a garden, designer Katherine McDonald arrived to make sure Elizabeth’s custom gown fit like a glove (it did). Next? The bride’s brothers oversaw the toddler flower girls’ naps while Elizabeth and her maids were getting portraits snapped. (The ZZZs were slow to kick in, so one little gal opted out of her duties and spent the vows snoozing away on Lindsey’s shoulder.)
After a charming ceremony, Nick’s dad tooled the newlyweds around the site in his 1930 Model A Ford before the Cotton Dock reception. When Elizabeth and Nick joined everyone
and dinner was underway, the toasts began, but none of them held a candle to the 20-minute opus from the father of the bride. “He bragged about every moment of my life,” Elizabeth laughs. “Everyone left knowing what I got on the LSAT, how well I handled the stress of the bar exam, and what grades I got in every year of school. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
And for the final pièce de résistance? That came weeks later when the newlyweds watched their wedding video from Citrus Ceremonies. In it, the film crew asked Nick when he knew he’d marry Elizabeth, a question she’d never posed to him. The first night I met her, he answered, bestowing yet another gem upon the story of their serendipitous romance.
Written By Melissa Reardon
Photographs By Lucy Cuneo
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