Engagements and Proposals

Featured photos and stories of Myrtle Beach engagement sessions and surprise marriage proposals

You can check out all my latest engagement pictures on Instagram or Facebook!

Looking at each other under the moss Caledonia Golf and Fish Club

Engagement pictures at Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawleys Island

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I had a fun winter engagement session at Pawleys Island’s Caledonia Golf & Fish Club this past weekend. This is a beautiful former site of a southern rice plantation located along the Waccamaw River. The best feature here is the entrance roadway. It’s surrounded by centuries old live oak trees with their moss covered branches overhanging the roadway. I’ve noticed for engagement pictures in Myrtle Beach. Couples are usually looking for either beach pictures or for an area with a lot of large trees where the sunlight can filter through the moss. Caledonia Golf & Fish Club certainly fulfills that …

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Couple having fun with their dogs Vereen Memorial Gardens

Fun engagement portraits with the dogs at Vereen Memorial Gardens

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This was my first time taking engagement portraits at the Vereen Memorial Historical Gardens in Little River, SC. This area has a lot of hiking trails and boardwalks over the salt marshes. It is located right next to the Intracoastal Waterway. This couple wanted to bring their two dogs to the engagement pictures so it’s great that the Vereen Memorial Gardens is very dog friendly, we saw a lot of people walking around with their pets. I wasn’t very familiar with this location, so we started out the session walking around a bit with the dogs and finding some great …

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Splashing in the ocean - Huntington Beach State Park

Engagement portraits at the Garden City Pier and Atalaya Castle

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These engagement portraits were for a fun couple getting married very soon in August.  I always prefer doing engagement portraits for a couple before I photograph their wedding, that is why I offer a discounted engagement session for wedding clients.  It’s a nice way to get to know each other and make sure that they like my style and I know what they like as well. The Garden City Pier is special to this couple so they wanted to do some of their engagement portraits at the pier. I told them it was going to be crowded and difficult to do …

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I love that bokeh from the sunset through the trees - Mansfield Plantation, Georgetown

Sunset engagement pictures at Mansfield Plantation, Georgetown SC

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My recent couple was looking for a plantation type setting for their engagement pictures with a lot of moss and old oak trees. They got a nice quick response from calling Mansfield Plantation in Georgetown. There was a reasonable $160 charge to do engagement pictures on the plantation grounds so they decided to do the session there. I’ve done many engagement sessions in downtown Georgetown, but I’ve never shot portraits at Mansfield Plantation. I’m always excited to try a new location so I was happy to go, even with the long drive from Myrtle Beach. The location is a bit difficult …

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Kiss by the flowers in the Palmetto Garden - Brookgreen Gardens

Surprise marriage proposal in Brookgreen Gardens

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I had a lot of fun photographing a recent surprise marriage proposal in Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet. April is a great time of the year for taking pictures in Brookgreen. The springtime flowers are blooming and they also have extended hours until 8pm. Normally the gardens close at 5pm so it would be impossible to get the beautiful light from the sunset filtering through the trees. This man did a great job with keeping the proposal to his girlfriend a surprise. He met his uncle in the bathroom at the entrance to the gardens to get the ring from …

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She said yes - Myrtle Beach State Park

Surprise engagement proposal on a beautiful winter evening in Myrtle Beach

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I always love the Myrtle Beach State Park at sunset in the winter. This time of the year the sky just seems clearer and the water is more blue. I don’t know if it’s perhaps the lower humidity or just the difference in the angle of the sunset. We had one of those perfect winter evenings for a surprise engagement proposal with this young couple. His girlfriend thought we were just doing pictures of the two of them for Valentine’s Day. From what she said later in the evening, she thought it would be a long while until he could …

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Man lifting fiance into the air under Live Oaks - Litchfield Plantation

Engagement portraits at Litchfield Plantation in Pawleys Island

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It’s been a several years since I did a photography session at Litchfield Plantation in Pawleys Island. My last wedding back in 2011 at Litchfield Plantation was really beautiful with the bride arriving on a horse-drawn carriage. I was told they were no longer booking events and that they were turning the area into a housing development, but I guess that decision was changed. The recently engaged couple featured in this post had family that owned a home inside Litchfield Plantation, so we were able to do the engagement pictures wherever we liked. I notice on their website that anyone can pay …

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Couple holding hands walking down the train track rails - Conway River Walk

Conway River Walk engagement pictures with the flooded Waccamaw River

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Going into these engagement pictures, we knew that the Conway River Walk was completely flooded and inaccessible because of Hurricane Matthew. It was even a foot and a half higher than last year’s record flooding. This couple wanted to do pictures in Conway, so we had to find other locations besides the River Walk to do the portraits. They suggested doing pictures on Oak Street, I wasn’t really familiar with that area, but I always like trying somewhere new. Oak Street in downtown Conway is actually very pretty. They built the street to go right around some of the old …

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Fun with sparklers and steel wool - Springmaid Beach

Having fun with long exposure, flash, steel wool and getting started with the Myrtle Beach season

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With the beautiful spring weather in Myrtle Beach, it’s the time of the year my photography business starts really picking up. Of course that also means lots of pollen and traffic at the beach, but you have to take the good with the bad. I thought I would do a quick blog post highlighting my first spring engagement session and some long exposure light painting fun I had this winter. My photography friend Hannah Ruth and I wanted to experiment with some long exposure light painting shots using wedding sparklers. Painting with the light from sparklers can be as simple as putting your camera …

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Couple about to kiss leaning against the pier at state park

Engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park after the flooding

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I’m sure everyone has heard about the severe flooding we had in SC about a month ago. Myrtle Beach wasn’t hit as hard as some areas, but we still had flooding in many locations. You might have heard me complain that in Myrtle Beach state park, they are incredibly particular about photographers getting anywhere near the dunes. They don’t have to worry about it anymore because many of the dunes’ front slopes are completely gone. The dunes are now just cliffs with the roots of sea oats sticking out of the sides. The water must have been so high that …

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