James and Cynthia 's Wedding in Wilmington, North Carolina

The story of our wedding

Hi! I wanted to tell you about our wedding because it was SO, so incredibly beautiful thanks to our amazing vendors, friends and family. And because we had to overcome quite a few hurdles caused by both hurricane Florence AND Hurricane Michael. Hurricane Florence was devastating to Wilmington and all of the Southeast US and hit just 3-4 weeks before our wedding. We had planned an outdoor Garden ceremony at Airlie Gardens, followed by a cocktail hour and reception at a historic downtown venue, 128 South. Unfortunately, Hurricane Florence severely damaged our ceremony location, Airlie Gardens, and all of their remaining 2018 weddings had to be canceled...ours included. So, in just a few weeks’ time, we had to move our ceremony to our reception location, (which thankfully we had,) alert all guests, change transportation, timelines, and so much more. Then, as if the one storm wasn’t enough, Hurricane Michael rolled through the region the day before our wedding and unfortunately, prevented approximately 10 guests from making the wedding last minute. All that being said, we had the BEST DAY and BEST weather ever (on our actual wedding day) and truly couldn’t believe how smoothly everything went. The details we put so much thought and care into — the original signature cocktails (NC bride’s featured ‘Cheerwine,’ Maryland groom’s featured ‘Old Bay,) the Polaroid guest book made by my dad, the ‘I believe in Wilmington’ Freaker koozies made by a local Wilmington company, the Donut wall from NC locals, Duck Donuts — were all things that not even the storms could negatively affect. We are SO thankful that despite a couple of hurricanes, and having to change our overall day from what we had originally envisioned, that ultimately our wedding was able to happen with (most of) the people we love so dearly! We are very blessed!