When Heather Barrie took a side job at a little Cuban restaurant in South Carolina, she never guessed her personal life would also benefit from the overtime. She and fellow waiter Sean Ahern were working at the restaurant to make ends meet until their businesses were up and running, and in the process, they managed to fall in love. With each passing sunset they watched together their love grew stronger, culminating in a surprise proposal two years after her fateful job began.

While most brides stress over the planning of such a momentous occasion, Heather felt considerably less pressure as she was, by then, a full-time event designer and planner with professional connections that helped enormously in creating the wedding of her dreams. “I was lucky enough to know all of my vendors, and so my decisions of who to hire were easy,” she explains. Finding a venue that captured Heather and Sean’s love of the outdoors brought the couple to the Cotton Dock House on Boone Hall Plantation in Charleston. With its oak-lined avenue leading to the property, even the entrance created an idyllic southern backdrop. As a nod to their courtship, Heather and Sean used the open-air quality of the dock house to enhance the romance by scheduling the ceremony to coincide with the setting sun. They added sheer panels of fabric to the rustic space to soften the dusky light, and candlelit lanterns hung from above to create a warming glow. One hundred guests were seated in the round to embrace the bride and groom, and they showered the couple with fall leaves upon hearing the words “I do.”

After the ceremony, the guests were ushered indoors to enjoy a fireside cocktail while the dock was transformed into a relaxing lounge area––the perfect spot to enjoy the last signs of daylight while sipping the signature drink: “amaretto sunsets.” Heather decided to keep things simple when planning her reception décor by relying on elements from nature to develop the look, creating an enchanted world with branches, leaves, and birds. Natural beauty infused all aspects of the wedding¬¬––the dance floor was canopied with leaves floating overhead––and a palette of rust, cream, green, and brown enhanced the crisp and cozy atmosphere of autumn in Charleston. (Even the bridesmaids wore chocolate brown dresses with custom-made rust and brown sashes.)

Once inside the reception hall, guests dined on blue crab and artichoke ravioli with steamed local clams (harvested by a friend), as well as osso bucco with roasted winter squash and brie mashed potatoes.

For a woman who knows parties, Heather was particularly impressed with her cake designer, Jim Smeal. She had such faith in his talents that, supplying him only with the colors and theme, she gave him complete creative freedom to design her dream cake. In return, he created a fitting masterpiece of four round tiers with branches and leaves woven delicately throughout. It sat on a roughly-cut piece of wood and boasted two woodland birds, one nesting atop the cake and another gathering sticks at its base. While small enough to be missed by some, the personal touch of the birds left a huge impression on the bride. “It showed me that Jim had really put a lot of thought and heart into the design.”

But before the cake was served, the gathering was brought to its feet when Heather and her father took the floor for their traditional dance. They started off slowly, but mid-way through their spin around the floor the music––and the mood––changed to the up-tempo song “Rockin’ Robin.”

At the end of the night, the newlyweds waved goodbye from a vintage red Corvette en route to their honeymoon to fall in love by sunset all over again.