When we arrived at Melody’s room at the Georgian Terrace hotel on the morning of her wedding, she was wearing pink and purple argyle kneesocks (pulled all the way up), with shorts and custom purple Converse All-Stars, which had the words “Let Love Win” embroidered on the sides (“that’s our motto,” she explained).
Melody and Michael have a unique, quirky relationship. Everything is funny, all the time, but everything is also very sentimental, and tender. Amid all the laughing and joking, it always surprised me to see how tender and emotional these two were with one another.
Melody is a filmmaker, and the daughter of Marc Weinstein, founder of the well-loved national pizza franchise Mellow Mushroom. Michael owns a Mellow Mushroom restaurant in Charleston, S.C. They discovered one another through the Mellow Mushroom, and after becoming friends, realized one day they should really try dating.
Which brings me to my point about their quirkiness, which is absolutely adorable and wonderful, by the way. For their third date, Michael surprised Melody by dressing up as Pee Wee Herman because he remembered that was her favorite TV character. That was one of her first indicators that Michael was going to be a keeper. Even still, she made him change before going out. “I couldn’t be seen in public with him like that!” she told me on the wedding day.
They also have a thing for gummy bears, which were woven into every part of their wedding day at the High Museum – the groomsmen wore custom ties with the gummy bear shape embroidered on the bottom; the ceremony aisle was lined with large neon gummy bear lights; and guests lined up and held small gummy bear keychain lights as Melody and Michael made their grand exit at the end of the night.
Melody and Michael also planned lots of surprise entertainment for their guests, including a kids dance troupe “crashing” the first dance, which turned into the Thriller dance with the bride and groom and the wedding party (performed perfectly, I might add); and a drag queen dressed as Beyoncé lip-syncing and performing the “All the Single Ladies” dance.
Ben and I jumped into the limo with the newlyweds at the end of the night and rode with them back to the Georgian Terrace. After exclaiming over and over again “That was the best party I’ve ever been to!” Melody kicked her feet up, settled into Michael’s lap, and cracked open a box of Mellow Mushroom pizza, which had been handed out to guests as a late-night snack. They shared the pizza and laughed and laughed, interspersed with kissing, cuddling and seemingly endless gazes of adoration. Ben and I were clicking away at every moment, but they seemed to not even notice we were there.
Yeah, these two are going to be just fine.