The world was Craig Conover and Charley Manley’s oyster when they finally got together for their first date on Southern Charm.
Viewers got an inside look at the outing Craig planned for him and Charley at his friend’s oyster farm during Season 11, Episode 9, and on the Southern Charm After Show, the pair detailed all of the unseen moments that cameras did not show.
For starters, they put a lot of thought into the planning. According to Craig, he based his idea on Charley’s love of oysters, of course, but the location provided them with the added benefit of privacy.
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“I was like how fun will this be?” he remarked on the After Show. “Also, it will get us away from the people in Charleston — and by people, I mean our friends.”
Craig elaborated that whenever he and Charley “would be having fun” while out and about around Charleston, she would “get nervous” about what Salley Carson or Venita Aspen might think.
How Charley Manley ranked her first date with Craig Conover
Charley, meanwhile, praised Craig’s creativity.
“It was seriously so fun,” she gushed. “He knows how much I love oysters [and], like, thought that it would be cool to be able to see this process. And I appreciated that. Like, I appreciated that the date was an experience. It wasn’t just sitting down at dinner. [It was] something that I’m interested in, and, like, a cool thing that I would never go and do, like, on my own, you know? I would never think to go and do that.”
While Craig was occupied with the logistics, Charley remained laser-focused on the “difficult” task of planning the perfect date outfit — and narrowly avoided a fashion emergency, in the process. As she told it, the Toteme rain boots that she ordered specifically for the outing had yet to be delivered by the time she was ready to leave.
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“Luckily, I know the route of my UPS driver,” Charley said. “And, like, immediately, whenever I pull up, he knows. … So, I was able to wear those boots. I wore little overalls. They were cute. It was hot.”
When a producer asked her to rank her date with Craig, compared to others she’d gone on in the past, Charley gave a high score.
“It was, like, a nine out of 10,” she declared. “It was a good date. It was a fun day.”
What happened on Craig Conover’s date with Charley Manley
Craig, meanwhile, remarked that he likes a girl who can “handle her own” in nature, and this date turned out to be a very hands-on experience.
“We held a million oysters in our hand, like the babies,” Craig added. “Then, at the end, like, they had shucked us, like, a dozen oysters. And we sat up on this, like, deck on top of everything and looked out over the Lowcountry.”
Viewers saw the latter part play out during Southern Charm‘s Jan. 28 episode, when Craig and Charley snacked on mollusks amid conversation about each other’s dating histories.
They both decided by the date’s end that another outing was in their future, but the oysters’ aphrodisiac effects “didn’t lead anywhere,” Craig joked on the After Show.
“Well, you know, [it] led to a FaceTime call on the way home, just being like, ‘That was so much fun,'” Craig added. “It was fun being innocent with someone.”
In the meantime, get a sneak peek at what’s still ahead for Craig and Charley in the Southern Charm midseason trailer.
