It’s great to be back at the Grande Dunes Ocean Club in Myrtle Beach. This was my first wedding of 2018 at this location. It’s also great to be working again with some of the best wedding vendors in Myrtle Beach. The wedding planner Sarah McCall of Stunning and Brilliant Events, DJ Ryan Robinson of Globaltruth Entertainment, and Samantha Huff at the Ocean Club. I’m making this blog post in the middle of Hurricane Florence, so I’m really hoping my power stays on. It’s only a category 1 now, so I’m not too worried. While it wasn’t hurricane-force winds for this Ocean Club wedding, we had one of the windiest days of the summer for the wedding ceremony! The bride and groom stayed positive, and we ended up with a lot of great wedding pictures from the day.
I always love getting ready pictures of the bride and groom at the Ocean Club because of all the window light in the dressing rooms. I got some great shots of the bride and bridesmaids on the Ocean Club balcony and inside with the natural light from the large windows. The bride and groom wanted to do a first look before the ceremony so we decided to do it by the columns in front of the main entrance. This actually worked really well, and I got some great emotional shots of the bride walking up and putting her arms around the groom. Doing pictures in this area as well as on the hill over to the side of the club, kept us out of the wind and helped everyone’s hair stay nice, at least until the ceremony.
With the strong wind, we actually ended up with some really great shots of the bride’s dress blowing that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. I did a lot of photoshop work on one picture so that even though the bride’s dress was blowing, the groom’s jacket tails were lying down flat. On windy days at the beach, there is a constant ocean salt spray. I kept trying to keep my camera lenses out of the wind, but by the end, they were coated in a salt film. A tip if you get a slight haze on your lenses from the salt, the new dehaze slider in Lightroom can work magic. With a little contrast and dehaze adjustment, you can hardly even tell the lens was dirty.
I arrived at this wedding about 45 min early to set up a new photo booth system I recently built. I didn’t charge this bride and groom for the Photo Booth because this was just a test run. My wife, Lizeth, came along to help me set up and operate the booth. I’ve got a nice collection of a lot of the typical photo booth props. I’ve also got a couple of unique ones that everyone seemed to love, including a Mickey and Minnie bride and groom hat that my wife bought at Disney World. I’ve also got a genuine Colombian Sombrero and Poncho that I bought on my trip to Colombia, I forgot to bring them this time, but I’m going to in the future.
Everything went pretty well with the Photo Booth, but I’ve now made a couple of improvements. I now have a much wider photo backdrop and well as switching to a real camera instead of relying on the iPad Pro camera to take the pictures. Now the pictures from the Photo Booth will look almost like professional shots instead of like snapshots. The quality is not so important for the small Photo Booth prints that the guests are getting at the wedding, but the professional quality pictures will be great when they get to download them after the wedding in full resolution! I hope you enjoy the pictures below. Let me know in the comments if you do!
Bridesmaids on the balcony Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride and bridesmaids dressing having in the doorway Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bridesmaids laughing with the bride Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Unique flower bouquet Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bouquet with wedding invitation Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Tiffany ring box Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Beautiful Ocean Club ballroom Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groomsmen favors Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Best man putting cufflinks on the groom Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Helping room with his tie Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom adjusting tie in the mirror Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom adjusting his tie Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bridesmaids helping bride with her dress Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Grandmother checking out the bride’s veil Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride standing in the doorway light with a flowing dress Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride standing in the window light Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bridesmaids sitting on a couch together Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom waiting on bride for the first look Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride walking up behind groom for the first look Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom seeing bride for the first time Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Emotional first look with bride and groom Grande Dunes Ocean Club
First look hug with bride and groom Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride and groom portrait in front of the columns Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Kiss by the columns Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groomsmen with nephews Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groomsmen in front of front columns Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom standing in front of the groomsmen Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groomsmen picking up the groom Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Grooms and groomsmen on the hill Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom with his nephews Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride getting a kiss from her nephews Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride with her two sisters Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bridesmaids in front of the columns Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bridesmaids taking a fun picture leaning out from behind the bride Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride standing by the front columns Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Closeup of bride leaning against the columns Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Signs to the wedding all along the beach walkway Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Boy carrying sign in front of bride Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Happy groom seeing the bride Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride walking towards the groom Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride holding grooms hands during a windy ceremony Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom looking at the bride during the vows Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride putting on the ring Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Literally tying the knot Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Right before first kiss Grande Dunes Ocean Club
First kiss after the ceremony Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Happy bride and groom after the ceremony Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bridal party having fun walking down the beach Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom lifting up the bride for a kiss with bridal party cheering Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groomsmen lifting up the bride Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bridesmaids dropping the groom Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom holding the flowers with the bridesmaids Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groomsmen walking down the beach Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groomsmen having fun on the beach Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride and groom standing in front of the ocean
Kiss in front of the ocean Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride and groom holding hands in the wind Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Kiss in the wind on the beach Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Big dip in front of the ocean Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom lifting bride into the air for a kiss Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Kiss with the flowers in the foreground Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Windy wedding day Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride looking at the groom with her dress blowing in the wind
Bride looking at the groom Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Kiss behind the dunes Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Kiss on the beach walkway Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Kiss on the hill Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom looking at the bride on the hill Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom carrying bride into the reception Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom carrying bride into the reception Grande Dunes Ocean Club
First dance with fog machine Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Kiss in the First dance with fog machine Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Dancing on the cloud wedding photography – Grande Dunes Ocean Club – Myrtle Beach
First dance with fog machine Grande Dunes Ocean Club
First dance with fog machine Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Picture of the rings sitting on a starfish Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride dancing with father Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom dancing with mother Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride and groom feeding cake Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Bride putting cake on groom’s nose Grande Dunes Ocean Club
My wife Liz working the Photo Booth Grande Dunes Ocean Club
DJ Ryan getting the group dancing Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Having fun at the Photo Booth Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom taking off the garter Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Groom taking off the garter Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Lots of Photo Booth props Grande Dunes Ocean Club
Dancing in my photo booth prop hat Grande Dunes Ocean Club