Beautiful winter wedding for an older couple at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club

I had the privilege of photographing a recent wedding at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach for one of its previous presidents. This couple was so extremely friendly, nice and relaxed about everything it made my job very easy. When I first arrived at the clubhouse, the bride’s children and grandchildren hadn’t yet arrived. We just chatted for a while and I went around and got detail pictures of the ballroom decorations. The beautiful flowers on the tables were by South Gate Design, and they also had the Tim Clark Band there for music. They are a great band I’ve worked with many times and always a lot of fun at weddings. I took a few HDR shots of the tables and ballroom interior with my ultra-wide lens, so I could capture the view outside the windows as well.

The ceremony was held on the patio surrounding a fire pit that is on the far side of the Dunes Club clubhouse. Typically, they hold the weddings out on the front lawn, but this is a great spot for a smaller ceremony like this one. There is also a lot of nice shade here which is great for preventing harsh shadows. The bride walked into the ceremony with her grandchildren, and the groom had his son for his best man. The groom even had his mother, who is in her 90s, sitting with the group for the ceremony! I loved some of the close up shots of the bride’s face during the ceremony, she got quite tearful during their vows. The soft light, there in the shade, was very nice for the ceremony pictures. If there was one thing I could have changed, I wish they had centered up on the steps for the ceremony. I should have asked before where they were standing, I could have suggested it, but it still worked out fine.

After the ceremony, we quickly did the family pictures, including with the groom’s mother so she could go back inside. The bride and groom weren’t up for going down in the sand for pictures, so we just did some on the lawn behind the clubhouse. The evening sun was still a little stronger than I would have liked for these. Next, we went to the steps leading up to the golf course overlook. The shade was perfect once we got to this area and we got some beautiful pictures. Finally, I took some wedding portraits of the couple on the golf course and over by the old oaks. I especially loved the ones of them walking down the golf course together, and of their huge smiles as they embraced and looked into each other’s eyes.

I only stayed for a couple of hours of the reception. But it was plenty of time to get some fun pictures of the group dancing to the Tim Clark Band. It was great that the groom was still able to get a first dance with his mother even with her age, I made sure to get a lot of pictures. I was actually surprised how wild the group got as the evening went on! I also just had to get a bunch of macro shots with the bride’s ring. I think that was the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen up close! I did some focus stacking to get more of the diamond in focus. This was such a sweet and friendly bride and groom, I’m so glad I got to take the pictures for their wedding. I hope you enjoy the pictures below, if you are thinking of having a wedding at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club please let me know!