Wedding ceremony at a chapel with the reception at Kimbels in Wachesaw Plantation

This was my second wedding this year at the beautiful Wachesaw Plantation in Murrells Inlet, SC. Some of my favorite wedding pictures in my galleries have been from Wachesaw Plantation. Symmes, the bride, began her preparations at Stox & Co salon in Litchfield. I met them there to get some pictures of the hair and makeup prep and just some fun pictures of the bridesmaids hanging out before getting dressed. At the salon, they actually have a large private yoga studio area where the bridesmaids were able to get dressed. I walked around and took some nice pictures of the salon itself, the bride getting her makeup on, and fun pictures with the group.

Featured Vendors:

• Equipment Rentals: EventWorks Rentals
• Musician: Rebecca Nissen
• Cake Designer: Incredible Edible Cakes
• Transportation: Carolina Limousine
• Makeup: Stox and Co.
• Floral: Carolina Charm
• Band: Permanent Vacation
• Ceremony and Catering: Kimbels at Wachesaw Plantation Club

Wedding ceremony at the Pawleys Island Community Chapel

Symmes and Brian chose to have their ceremony at the Pawleys Island Community Chapel instead of at Wachesaw. After the salon, a trolley bus picked up the bridesmaids to take them to the chapel, then picked up the groomsmen and other guests. This chapel is very pretty, with lots of windows and great light inside. They were easygoing about the photography rules as well. I was allowed to take pictures as everyone walked down the aisle and also to take pictures during the ceremony as long as I stayed in the back. I also set up an extra flash in the back of the auditorium to brighten up the group during the ceremony, especially for the family portraits. I was even given a useful tip. If I stick my camera in the right place through the latticework on the top balcony, I could get an unobstructed view of the ceremony. This worked out really well, and I got a great overhead shot.

Beautiful wedding pictures in the clearing with the live oaks at Wachesaw

After the ceremony, the wedding party took the trolley over to Wachesaw Plantation. We went directly to the large clearing under the live oak trees that has the beautiful white house in the background. We actually started from the opposite end of the clearing, away from the ivy-covered white house, so the trolley had room to park. I actually think I prefer this because the house is more out of focus in the distance, and you see a lot more trees in the background as well. We had unusually hot weather for May, so everyone was suffering in the heat. I tried to do the pictures as quickly as possible to get the group back in the trolley and heading to the Kimbels restaurant for the reception. We still got a lot of nice shots of the wedding party, as well as Symmes and Brian, standing under the oak trees before heading out.

Reception at Kimbels restaurant in Wachesaw Plantation

With the sunset being so late, it was still too early to get beautiful sunset pictures by the Waccamaw River when we first arrived. The bride and groom went ahead and did the first dances and let everyone begin eating dinner. Then, I pulled them and the wedding party back out for some pictures in front of the spanish moss-covered live oak trees by the river. I always love the way the sunlight filters through the trees and the moss at sunset. It’s also beautiful, with the sunlight reflecting in the Waccamaw River at sunset. I used an off-camera flash with a Cheetah SoupBowl softbox to add some additional lighting to the pictures.

It was still extremely hot and humid, so avoiding some sweat and shine in the pictures was hard. It’s a long process to go into photoshop and touch up a sweat and shine, so I only do it for pictures requested by the bride and groom. I don’t do it for all the pictures I put in a blog post. However, Lightroom has a new texture slider and brush that is really useful for some quick face and skin touch-ups. It doesn’t, of course, do as well as when I go into Photoshop and do specific touch-up work. However, it did help me quickly do some skin smoothing to many of the pictures I posted below. I think this will be a very useful tool in the future.