A Tides Beach Front Destination Wedding in Folly Beach South Carolina
Destination wedding weekends are always so much fun for everyone included! We chose to leave Graeme at home with my parents but brought Georgia with us, along with Neil’s parents, because she was a tiny 3 month old nursing baby. Madison & Andre’s wedding was on a Friday (smart because venues are usually cheaper AND you have the whole weekend to spend with friends and family that traveled for you!) so we flew over to Charleston early Thursday. We drove out to Folly Island – such a cute place!! – just in time for me to spend an hour during excellent early evening light to scout out one of the portrait locations that Madison had her heart set on – Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve. What a beautiful isolated beach area! I’m glad I scouted it out before I took them there for bridal party and bride & groom portraits because we had limited time and it’s not a small beach!
We started the next morning at The Tides hotel where I photographed Madison and her girls in their hotel room, where they all got ready, in view of the hotel pool, Folly Beach, and the pier. A very picture perfect setting for a beach wedding! Neil spent time with Andre and the guys until it was time for us all to head out to the Heritage Preserve to for their first look. After moving into portrait time, we decided right then and there that the four of us would return there for their Day After Session Saturday morning at sunrise because it was that perfect! I could have shot there all day!
The ceremony was on the beach in from of The Tides hotel, with the ocean and the pier in their background. Their alter had streaming seashells and I cannot think of a better alter decoration than that for a beach wedding! Madison, Andre, Neil, and myself spent some more portrait time after the ceremony on that beach and under the pier walkway, because DUH if it’s there, I have to shoot there! It would have been a waste to not! The reception ended the wedding day inside the hotel with dancing, yummy food catered by the hotel restaurant, but our night didn’t last long because first thing the next morning, we picked Madison & Andre up before there was light in the sky, to drive back to the Preserve for MORE portraits! Those will be on the blog tomorrow and they made the lack of sleep the night before SO WORTH IT!
