KATHRYN & HAYDEN SCHERTZER

Photographer: Heather Gunter Photography Wedding Coordinator: Bailey Grinde, Pinehurst Resort

Think a Christmas-themed reception at the Carolina Hotel is enough fodder for a made-for-TV movie? Try saying your vows at a church where your family has been members for more than 200 years. Kathryn walked down the aisle of First Baptist Church in Rockingham to “Edelweiss,” a song her mother sang to her nightly as a child. Through tears, her father promised only to share her, not give her away. And a matron of honor gave a toast that ended with the 20-member bridal party donning oversized panda heads and flooding the dance floor for an epic performance. The reception was a celebratory end to a six-month-long engagement that started when Hayden popped the question in Wilmington, where the two met when Hayden was in the Marines.