Stella Maris Roman Catholic Church & Family Residence on Sullian’s Island
Victoria Frank and Carmine Peluso’s tale is the stuff rom-coms are made of. In 2009, when the then-New York City residents and French Culinary Institute students paired up for a class on cooking onions, they mixed about as well as oil and water. “Carmine was super bossy,” laughs Victoria. “I thought to myself, ‘What a know-it-all.’” Little did she know, he had the exact same impression of her.
Still, a few months later, they ended up on a dinner date that culminated in a midnight walk across Manhattan. “I was dying for that good-night kiss,” recalls Victoria, who got her wish. “After, it started to snow, and I knew right then and there it would be my last first kiss.”
With such cinematic stops and starts, the bar was set high for Carmine’s eventual proposal. When the time came, both had been living in the Lowcountry, and he asked Victoria to meet up for a stroll along the beach at Sullivan’s Island, starting at her parent’s house. When Victoria arrived, she came across a path of rose petals and followed them to the porch where he’d laid out an immense feast complete with terrific wine, a seaside view, and a killer sunset. He dropped to one knee and, laughs Victoria, “I cried so hard I’m pretty sure the folks on the beach thought he was breaking up with me.”
Though their courtship may sound like a Katherine Heigl flick (or, better yet, read like a novel by the bride’s mom, Dorothea Benton Frank), Victoria brought everything back to the classics for her nuptials. A Shakespeare buff (and College of Charleston theater grad), she had long imagined a Midsummer Night’s Dream-styled wedding, and called upon Cory Winn Lambert of Sage Innovations to translate that idea into an autumn fête. The result was a lush baroque affair in which florals of peach, eggplant, and berry hues abounded; golden cutlery sparkled against golden linens; and foodie elements like herbs and whole fruits nodded to the season—and the newlyweds’ professions.
Indeed, cuisine reigned on the Big Day. “Our guests were eating the entire time,” Victoria boasts. That morning, the bridal party (who’d had a sleepover at the family beach house) loaded up on Mama Frank’s pancakes. And that evening, as an ode to Carmine’s Italian upbringing, Cru Catering served antipasti plates, charcuterie boards, carbonara, and handmade gnocchi with perfection.
As the night drew to a close, Victoria and Carmine took one last bite of their opulent, gilded cake and started dreaming of wine and cheese dates on their Parisian honeymoon. Cue the credits, and fade to black.
Indeed, cuisine reigned on the Big Day. “Our guests were eating the entire time,” Victoria boasts. That morning, the bridal party (who’d had a sleepover at the family beach house) loaded up on Mama Frank’s pancakes. And that evening, as an ode to Carmine’s Italian upbringing, Cru Catering served antipasti plates, charcuterie boards, carbonara, and handmade gnocchi with perfection.
As the night drew to a close, Victoria and Carmine took one last bite of their opulent, gilded cake and started dreaming of wine and cheese dates on their Parisian honeymoon. Cue the credits, and fade to black.
Kyleigh met Nick when she was in Cardiff, Wales, getting her master’s degree. (Her friend had convinced her to give Tinder a shot, and her “first, last, and only Tinder date,” she says, was the born-...
We don’t know about you, but these past few days of shorts weather have had us daydreaming about summer. Brandy McGhie, owner of local luxury event planning company Classic Planning & Design Co...
Tricia and Brandon were in the same fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary here in Charleston, but their love story didn’t begin until a college football game 14 years later. The South Carolina...
Designer Lela Rose has a saying we can all toast to: “Nothing says chic like matching your drink to your dress.” Fashion stylist Lindsey Nowak took that as a challenge, linked arms with Reagan Barnes...
Taylor and Sam may be from Virginia and live in Waco, Texas, but the Palmetto State holds a special place in their hearts. They met at the University of South Carolina when Sam, a freshman fraternity...
Thank goodness for Joe Quick—the mutual friend who lived up to his name and set up Avery and Henry when all three were in high school in Atlanta. After his pleas for them to meet went unheeded, he...
Gillian and Phil met while studying abroad in Ireland. But because they attended different schools stateside (he was at the University of South Carolina, she was at The State University of New York...
Here’s how Emmy and Josh explain how they became an item: “Josh had been courting Emmy for quite some, and on one evening in June at Dillon’s pub in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, he decided...