It’s easy to say one of your couples is unique. After all, we relish the fact that all of our couples are so distinct and interesting. But with Caitlin and Aaron, there’s hardly anything normal about them. And I mean that as the highest compliment.
A few bits of evidence: They have chosen to live in Vietnam; Aaron has a bold, thick-lettered tattoo across his chest that says “Born to be Pleasant;” the first thing Caitlin did after putting her wedding dress on (with her hair and makeup just completed) was jump on the bed and have a pillow fight with her sister, and then 10 minutes later crawl on her knees like a tiger along the dirty aisle of their rented trolley; and they got married in a jail.
The reason I love all of the above-mentioned items: Caitlin and Aaron do things their own way and are not one bit worried about what anyone thinks.
We had two big connections to Caitlin and Aaron from the start. Aaron is a documentary photographer, and a really, really good one at that. When we first saw his work, we were immediately intimidated and worried we would never be able to impress him. Aaron is the one who found us and approached us about their wedding. However, after the initial contact, we realized that I had grown up with Caitlin’s sister Alyssa during my high-school years. Alyssa and I spent many summers together on the beaches of South Carolina, staying up too late with friends, listening to loud punk-rock music, testing the boundaries of our newly discovered adventurous spirits, getting into a little trouble. Caitlin was the younger sister that I met only once – and I remember her as a defiant, independent 15-year-old just coming into her own.
And on top of all of that, this wedding would take place in my hometown of Charleston. I knew the city well, had explored it to no end through the years, and was worried I wouldn’t be able to see it in a fresh light as a photographer. But meeting Caitlin and Aaron changed all that. It was no longer simply a wedding in Charleston; it was Caitlin and Aaron’s wedding – two people we were immediately enamored with. We couldn’t wait to tell their story.
Their ceremony and reception took place at the Old City Jail, designed and coordinated by the awesome girls at Kristin Newman Designs. For cocktail hour, guests weaved in and out of the old cell rooms sipping cocktails, painting a very different picture from the jail’s earlier life as a prison for pirates and other hard criminals. The reception was the perfect Southern summer party, with a dose of Aaron and Caitlin’s carefree abandon. The last hour of the reception found all the guys shirtless and sweaty (even the band’s keyboard player), the girls barefoot, everyone picking each other up, free-pouring drinks down each other’s throats.
We are so thankful to have been chosen for this dynamic wedding full of creative people who prefer to live life on the edge. We know we’ve made lifelong friends in Caitlin and Aaron and are already counting the days till we can get over to Vietnam for a visit.