At the Charleston, South Carolina, wedding of Kelly Brothers and Miles White in December 2023, guests were in for a delicious treat: The mother of the groom—who also happens to be the beloved caterer Callie White, the creator of the recipe for Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit—executed the menu and hosted the entire fete at her home.
In the hyper-planned wedding world of Charleston, one of the country’s number one destinations for nuptials, a backyard union with home-cooked food has become an anomaly of the best kind. Especially when said backyard opens onto sweeping Lowcountry vistas, and dishes like gumbo get served straight off the kitchen stovetop—alongside a parade of delicacies such as crab hush puppies, wood-fired local oysters, and yes, plenty of biscuits—for guests to enjoy as the sun sets over the marsh.
“Kelly and Miles wanted an intimate, at-home wedding with a focus on things that mattered to them,” says event designer and planner Heather Barrie, of Gathering Events. The couple, who attended grade school together in Charleston, reunited in 2019 when Kelly returned to the city to complete her master’s degree at the Medical University of South Carolina.
“In sixth grade, Miles wrote me a series of love poems and left them in my locker,” Kelly recalls. “Unfortunately for me, I never responded to his poems. Years later, as an adult, I finally realized what I had been missing.” Since they set their celebration to happen close to the holidays, the couple wanted to keep things relaxed and authentic. To pull off a subtle nod to the time of year, Barrie and her team brought in foraged greenery, wispy smilax, white amaryllis, and other delicate blooms. But one of the most memorable touches arrived with every beverage: A specialty cocktail napkin emblazoned with “Take a Chance on Romance”—a line from one of those sixth-grade notes penned by the future groom to his future bride.
