Then We Saw It Differently

When Talyn and Nathan Silva were wed at the Harbour Town Lighthouse on January 16, they had known each other for many years. Busy lives in northern New Jersey seemed more like city than suburb, and life always had a way of filling up. They got to know each other first as friends.

Talyn moved to Hilton Head Island in 2013, and when Nathan came to visit in 2017, a new kind of chapter opened up. Bridging the distance, Talyn and Nathan began to see their relationship differently. “The first time Nathan came for a visit, of course I took him to the lighthouse,” Talyn said.

“My first impression was the beauty,” Nathan recalls. “After the city, it was like opening my eyes.”

A Wider Horizon

Staying connected over the miles showed the couple something more real to them than distance, and when they decided to wed, it was in spite of, rather than because of, a lot of circumstances. “We’d gotten good at making each other more important than that,” Talyn said. “We knew we had something bigger.”

“Because of the beauty,” Nathan said, “we thought about an outdoor wedding, like the beach. The lighthouse gave us all of that plus what’s good about being indoors, too. We didn’t have to worry about the weather.”

The lighthouse offered places for private moments on the viewing deck, as well as guest time inside. By the time Nathan came to Hilton Head Island for his first visit, Talyn was on the team at The Club Group, which manages the Harbour Town Lighthouse and other Sea Pines properties. Lighthouse keeper Nadia Wagner was already a friend.

Like Planning with Sisters

“There are a lot of things the lighthouse offers that you can’t find anywhere else, but for us there was this, too,” Talyn points out. “It felt like family was helping us plan our day. Nadia knew just how to make arrangements special at the lighthouse, and my best friend, Jenn Tompkins, pointed us to things I might not have considered on my own.”

One of Jenn’s suggestions resulted in a way of remembering their wedding day that really brings it to life. Caitlin Ryan of Memory Lane Portraits and Jack Deere of Beach Photography Hilton Head collaborated on a wedding video that puts friends and family right there and right then, even for those who couldn’t make the mid-winter trip.

Something So Exceptional

Like the love they discovered and chose to honor here, the Harbour Town Lighthouse was something familiar that took on a deeper meaning. “This is how we wanted it. This is what we wanted to do,” Talyn said. “I was confident in who I was marrying. I love him with all my heart. We wanted our wedding our way, and the lighthouse gave us that with perfection.