Real OBX Wedding: Carrie Kulp & Joey Harpstrite
October 7, 2021
Interview By Emily Moliken, Submitted by Pullen Weddings
Ceremony Location: Rodanthe Public Beach Access
Reception: Backyard of Their Home
Florals: Ordered Online
Caterer: Sharkeys BBQ & Seafood Catering. Local to Tri-Villages. Seasonal Food Truck
and Mainly Catering (Neighbor of the Couple)
Officiant: Groom’s Uncle Joe, Nonlocal (Hawaii) | Photographer: Daniel Pullen
DJ & Videographer: Coastal DJ & Video (Adrian)
Keeping It Local
While the Outer Banks may be one of the most desirous locales for a destination wedding, for those, who call our long stretches of beach their backyard, this place still offers something as unique as the love stories it hosts. So for Carrie Kulp and Joey Harpstrite, who tied the knot this past October, marrying in Rodanthe —where the couple permanently resides— was an easy choice. Carrie and Joey, originally from Pennsylvania and Hawaii, respectively, met and fell in love on these shores and saw no better place to encapsulate their love than where they found it. The two are avid surfers and water sport enthusiasts; Joey teaches kiteboarding and is a sponsored foil surfer.
A Family Affair
Carrie explains that Joey’s Hawaiian family is no stranger to the beach, so the week surrounding their nuptials was one filled with kiteboarding, surfing, and exploring the waters around the couple’s Rodanthe digs. Having both sides of the family around was not only a beautiful chance to show off their island home but unabashed free labor —a labor of love, but some helpful extra sets of hands, nonetheless. The families bonded over decorating the Harpstrite home, making the call on the wedding day to uphold their plan of an outdoor ceremony on the beach at the Rodanthe public access with a subsequent garden party in their backyard. “It didn’t feel like a party I just showed up to,” Carrie recalls, noting that because everyone contributed to turning their home into an event space, they were ensured a profoundly personal and familial wedding that could not be replicated anywhere else.
Love Everlasting, Beach Ever-changing
In reminiscing on her wedding, Carrie pointed out something incredibly poignant that most who live on the Outer Banks have come to realize, easily missed by the occasional or even perennial tourist. “The beach is always changing here,” she notes. “Looking back at the pictures from our wedding, the beach looks totally different than what it looks like right now.” I am talking to Carrie only a few days after a storm has caused tons of backwash to swallow the roads in the Tri-Villages, making some impassable and completely altering the look of the very beach upon which they married. “We look at our wedding as capturing this very specific moment in time, and it’ll never be exactly like it was.” The beautiful impermanence of the Outer Banks at once makes it an incredibly unique wedding destination and a bittersweet reminder that just like love, places will grow and change over time, for better or worse, our island quite literally both thick and thin.
A Garden Party, Naturally
“My sisters described it as ‘garden party,’” Carrie responds when asked about the aesthetic of their ninety-five guest affair. Carrie procured their flowers online, foraged for most of the greenery used on the tables in the local marshes, and kept things “simple, white and green and natural.” Following suit and keeping things as intimate as possible, the couple’s two-year-old, Clara, acted as chief flower distributor. The ceremony and reception were beautifully captured by well-known Buxton-based photographer Daniel Pullen, one of the area’s best producers of Hatteras-area photos, notably ones showing the changing beaches as a product of our sometimes extreme weather. We received the most positive feedback from our guests on Adrian, our DJ,” she goes on. Adrian of Coastal DJ & Video transformed their backyard into someplace exciting and new. By incorporating young nephews as assistant masters of ceremony, playing great music, and hosting the event perfectly, Adrian “made it feel like it was his backyard, his party” in the best possible way.
A Bit Too Much Togetherness
The theme of this wedding, it seems so abundantly clear, is we’re all in this together. With two sides of the family pitching in to pull off the shindig and a bride and groom taking on active roles in setting up the morning of the wedding, there was no sense of absentee bridezillas and party-grooms off pampering themselves at a resort in this marriage. Instead, the informality showed the true colors of a couple solidly together, already sharing a daughter and a life in Rodanthe. Carrie laughingly shares the moments of her processional, her walk to Joey down the aisle, the quick kiss the couple typically shares accidentally stealing the thunder of groom kissing bride, officially. “We’re just so used to it. I completely forgot to wait and accidentally gave our first kiss early.” The two were married by Joey’s namesake, Uncle Joe, who incorporated Hawaiian traditions and blessings from a faraway shore. Following the ceremony, the couple forsook the coveted sunset wedding photos and snuck off for a quiet moment alone and a quick cell phone selfie “for themselves.”
