Written By Melissa Reardon
Photographs By Lucy Cuneo
A transplant from Virginia, Weston “Wes” McAfee vividly remembers the first time he saw his future bride-to-be. Charleston native Dana Elaine...
Lainey Faulkner certainly wouldn’t have turned her nose up at a trip to Chicago. That’s where boyfriend Trip McMahon told her he was taking her as a belated Valentine’s Day gift. But when they arrived at the airport and he pulled two tickets to Paris from his pocket, she could hardly contain her excitement. “I was amazed,” she recalls, “I’m not that easy to surprise!” Unbeknownst to Lainey, though, the surprises were just beginning. Walking through the rainy Paris night after a day spent idling in galleries and cafés, Trip paused next to the Seine and got down on one knee. “I threw my arms around him and said, ‘Yes!’ and the ring almost fell into the river!” Lainey laughs. Because Trip’s parents own a house on Spring Island (just outside of Beaufort), the two D.C. dwellers decided to tie the knot in an outdoor ceremony under the live oaks of the Old Tabby Ruins. Says Lainey, who grew up in Philadelphia, “I wanted it to be like a lawn party from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel: demure and elegant, with nothing fussy or showy interfering with the natural splendor of the surroundings.” With the help of event planner Tara Guérard of Soirée, the couple hosted a graceful, vintage-inspired Southern wedding for their Northeastern friends and families. “People ask why we chose Spring Island, but really, how could we not?” says Lainey. “Honestly, there’s no ballroom in my hometown that could have competed!”
