Pastoral Perfection | A pair of Brooklyn creatives head to the bride’s family’s stomping grounds down South for a wedding day filled with love, laughter, and shenanigans
You know it’s meant to be when the whole animal kingdom approves of your wedding. At Liz Kulze and Thomas Winstanley’s celebration last May, two eagles joined the rehearsal dinner from a branch across the river, a peacock and some cows supervised wedding day set up, and an alligator swam up to hear their vows firsthand.
No, they didn’t tie the knot at a zoo; they wed at Plum Hill, a property in Yemassee, South Carolina, that has been in Liz’s family for decades (and was featured in the film Forrest Gump). “I like to think that the land itself had a hand in raising me,” says Liz. Throw in the fact that her parents wed there some 33 years prior, and it was always going to be Plum Hill. “To get married elsewhere would have felt like a betrayal,” Liz says.
As for the couple’s romance, that began five years ago in Brooklyn. One night over dinner, two of Liz’s friends spontaneously (and serendipitously) made her an online dating profile, and Thomas was the first—and only—date that stemmed from it. “After a few months, it was hard to imagine our lives without each other,” Liz says. Three years later came an engagement at Thomas’ folks’ Provincetown, Massachusetts, home. “We went for a walk on the beach, had a long, teary chat, and came back to our parents who were waiting with champagne,” she remembers.
That same down-to-earth, family-first approach characterized the couple’s Big Day. Liz tackled most of the design herself, enlisting Ooh! Events for logistics, rentals, and coordination. “I remember how truly authentic this event was to their lives,” says Lisa Thomas of Ooh! Liz’s mother, a health and wellness guru, helped devise a delicious reception menu featuring rice grown at Plum Hill by Liz’s sister. Her dad handpicked local craft beer and wine while Thomas mapped out the Bloody Mary bar, which was stocked with pickled vegetables, bacon, shrimp, and hot sauce. A final tailored touch? Following the ceremony (which was held at noon to help ward off mosquitoes), a record player belted out albums from the couple’s own collection.
Perhaps the most memorable part of the day, however, was unplanned. After dining, Liz’s sister whipped out a massive tarp, a bottle of laundry detergent, and a hose, creating an impromptu homemade water slide. Uncles stripped to their boxers, the wedding party hit the slick stretch in their Big Day best, and even Liz’s mom took a spin. “At the end of the day,” says Liz, “we celebrated not only our marriage, but also our families and Plum Hill, a place that means so much to us.”
We couldn’t come up with a better love story than Taylor and Jonathan’s if we tried. They met while she was in dental school and he was completing his medical residency. (She’s a dentist, he’s a...
Who doesn’t have a soft spot for college sweethearts? Liz and John met their sophomore year at Providence College in Rhode Island, not knowing that nine years later John would propose on the very...
Oh my gosh is he a good guy! After meeting at work (at the Daniel Island Club), Ginny says she didn’t even know she was on her first date with Daniel when he offered to spend an afternoon helping her...
OK. So these two New Yorkers are kind of a big deal (she’s a VP at a hedge fund group and former account head at the Olgivy agency with an MBA and he’s a marketing director at a Big Apple firm and...
We want to be invited to *that* New Year’s Eve party! We’re talking about the one where Mount Pleasant native Bree met Mobile, Alabama-born Josh, and the two hit it off enough for us to be talking...
Lanier and Luke met in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, during a Friendsgiving supper one November along with some 30 pals. That run-in led to a friendship that turned into a romance and by 2017, the two were...
O.M.G. You are so going to love these two! For starters, they tricked—yes, tricked—their families into a shared Thanksgiving vacation in Charleston that turned into a surprise wedding for them and...
We hate to do this to you, but we have to tell you some things about bride Sarah Grace that might very well intimidate you (like it did us). Yes, yes, yes, she and her sweetheart Martin (aka “Bug”)...
