Charleston in May feels exactly how you'd want a wedding day to feel. Warm, unhurried, the kind of air that makes everything look a little softer. Ashlee and John got married at Runnymede Plantation on the Ashley River, beneath a live oak that has been standing for over a thousand years, and it was exactly that kind of day.No performance. Just a day that was entirely about them.

Ashlee + John | Runnymede Plantation Wedding

Charleston, SC · Moments with Mae

Their dog had full run of the day... Not a prop. Just present.
There was another moment that said a lot about John's people. The men on his side of the family had quietly spent time restoring his old Mustang and surprised him with it on the wedding day. That's not something you plan for on a shot list. That's just family knowing who someone is and showing up for them in the most specific way they could. It was the kind of thing that happens and you just hope you're ready with a camera.

Runnymede has a way of doing something to a wedding. You come through the gates, down a canopy-covered path draped in Spanish moss, and by the time the tree comes into view, everything else quiets down. It's one of those venues that doesn't need anything added to it.

Ashlee and John knew that. They kept things close. Family and friends gathered in a circle around them under those sprawling branches and that was it. The people who have known them longest, on a warm afternoon, watching them commit to each other.

What stood out most was how grounded it all felt. Ashlee and John weren't trying to make something for anyone else. They were honoring what actually matters to them, including each other and the life they've been building together.

"It was the craziest feeling looking at our photos for the first time and processing that it really was John and I in the photos."
- Ashlee 

If you're getting married at Runnymede Plantation or anywhere in Charleston and you want someone to show up and document the day the way it actually was, I'd love to hear about it. I travel for all of my weddings. Travel is included, no additional fees.To see more of this wedding day continue scrolling.