A Shore Thing

When Margaret Mueller and Christopher Hall took a weekend trip to Charleston seven years ago, it was the start of a beautiful relationship—or rather, two beautiful relationships. “We fell in love in Charleston, which meant we also fell in love with Charleston!” explains Chicago native Margaret. “We developed so many fond memories of the city over the years, and thought it would be fitting to hold our wedding here. Many of our guests had never been to Charleston, so we wanted it to be a real vacation for them as well.” Together with Kristin Newman Designs, the couple came up with an “elegant, intimate, and family-oriented” event—a weekend-long affair where guests bunked together at a sprawling beach house, strolled to the ceremony in flip-flops, and feasted on tiramisu instead of a conventional layer cake. Margaret’s golden rule? Keep things in perspective. “If your guests only remember one thing about your wedding 20 years from now, what do you want it to be? For me, the most important thing was that they remembered it as a beautiful day that they really felt a part of.”