Tag Archives: brookgreen gardens

Beautiful wedding party pictures reflecting in the lake at the Holiday Cottage in Brookgreen Gardens

Wedding ceremony at the Holiday Cottage gates in Brookgreen Gardens with a large bridal party


June 14th, 2013

I was meeting with some clients today that are having an upcoming wedding at the Brookgreen Gardens Holiday Cottage area. I’ve done a number of weddings at this location, so I was showing them my most recent one as an example, even though it was from last summer 2012. I realized that I never posted about this wedding on my blog. I think it was just my busy time of the year and a lot of weddings miss out on a storyboard. However, with this one in particular, I realized I really needed to put a post about it.

If you notice at the top of my blog, you can select a drop down menu of weddings locations. One of the selections is the Brookgreen Gardens area. Checking out this category, I realized the last wedding listed was from over 2 years ago, so I really needed to update this category with a new post. So that is what I’m doing now. This couple’s wedding reception was at another location outside the gardens, so I’m just going to highlight some of their pictures from the Holiday Cottage itself, and then from the garden gates near the cottage where the ceremonies are held. I hope you enjoy them.

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Another beautiful wedding at Brookgreen Gardens


March 30th, 2011

I had another wedding at the Holiday Cottage area in Brookgreen Gardens.  I always love going there, you just can’t beat the background and lighting that you get with lots of trees and a garden.  The weather had been so nice that a number of flowers were in bloom, this is always great in the background of a picture.  This wedding was for the bride that I recently did the fun bridal portraits for, you can read about that a couple of blog posts down from here.  I actually noticed at this wedding I didn’t take quite as many total pictures as I usually do, I think because they didn’t have as much dancing as they do at some weddings.  But I think the quality of the pictures I did take was very good.  I would be glad to show almost all the shots as examples of my work.

I like to give a photo tip with my blog posts.  Something in particular I thought about with these pictures (I mentioned this briefly on Facebook) is the importance of really getting in close for a picture instead of trying to crop it later.  I used to think it’s better to shoot wider than what you want in the final image, because you can always crop later.  It is good to keep in mind when shooting that a 4×6 has a completely different aspect ratio from an 8×10, so you do have to try to leave enough room in the picture to allow for this. But if you want a close up of a face, you will get a much different look from shooting really close then shooting a wide shot and cropping into the face.  This is due to things like the way the closer you get, the more the background is going to be out of focus.  When you use a longer lens (more zoomed in like a 50mm or more) you also get a more flattering compression of features, a wide angle will make noses and ears look bigger etc.  It also can make a subject look like it’s closer to a background.  And there are probably other reasons as well, just know it looks a lot better to shoot close to what you want the final image to look like.  Next time you take pictures try to get in really close to your subject by physically moving closer or using a longer lens and see what you think.

I tried to pick some of my favorite pictures to post below, if you like these pictures please let me know in the comments below, or click the Facebook like button above.

Bride walking down the cottage stairs - Brookgreen Gardens

Bride walking down the cottage stairs - Brookgreen Gardens

Bride and father walking towards the ceremony area

Bride and father walking towards the ceremony area

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Fun bridal portraits at Brookgreen Gardens, Holiday Cottage


February 23rd, 2011

It was nice going to the Holiday Cottage in Brookgreen Gardens without actually being there for the wedding ceremony.  I always get some nice shots of the bride at the cottage area, but it’s nice to have a whole hour just to concentrate on the one thing without being rushed.  This gives me enough time to be able to switch lenses and set things up a bit more, for example using my 50mm f1.4 almost wide open.  The bride featured here is actually having her wedding in Brookgreen so we were allowed to do pictures in the area without any additional charge.  I talked to Sally Gomez, the manager of private events at this location, and as I had heard, she told me it’s a $200 charge to do pictures for an hour in the gardens. This may seem like a lot of money, but you are getting personal service at the cottage and it’s just a beautiful area for pictures. So I would highly recommend considering making the investment if these type of pictures are something you are interested in.

The bride pictured here had a lot of creative ideas and wanted to do shots with the idea of her trying to be the perfect wife, but messing up quite a bit.  She actually brought a tray of burnt cookies and some shirts with burn marks from the iron to use as props. I think everything turned out really nice, I pictured in my mind what we would do and I think it pretty much turned out just like I had wanted, hopefully the bride feels the same way.  I knew from past experience that a lot of nice window light comes into the cottage, and I think I was able to capture it.  After we did shots in the cottage we went out to the lake and then to the gate area where they usually have the wedding ceremonies.  The old gate and brick wall is one of my favorite spots in that area.  I had this bride do a similar shot of walking through the gate that really worked well for me in the past.  I also love some shots of the bride against the gate with the way she is framed by the foliage, hopefully for the actual wedding at the end of March there might be some flowers as well.  I had some more ideas for shots to try, but the hour we were allowed went pretty quickly.  I got about 20 or 30 really good ones, so it was plenty.  I will post some of my favorites below.  If you like some of these please let me know in the comments section below, and don’t forget to follow me on Facebook to keep up to date with my latest pictures.

Bride leaning on old brick wall - Brookgreen Gardens - Holiday Cottage

Bride leaning on old brick wall - Brookgreen Gardens - Holiday Cottage

Bridal portrait near gate - Brookgreen Gardens - Holiday Cottage

Bridal portrait near gate - Brookgreen Gardens - Holiday Cottage

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First look, walking to see groom for the first time in dress.

Wedding at Brookgreen Gardens – Murrells Inlet


September 10th, 2010

It’s been a long time since I did a wedding at Brookgreen Gardens. It’s a really pretty area and weddings there always seem to turn out beautiful. This ceremony was at the Holiday Cottage, which was the same location I had a wedding the last time. I guess they also have weddings in another part of the gardens as well, but the cottage area is very nice.  In the past the only way a photographer could work in the gardens was if they were working for a wedding. However, the wedding coordinator at the Holiday Cottage told me they have a new policy.  I need to check into it, because I would love to be able to do engagement pictures from time to time. I believe they charge a substantial amount for doing a shoot in the gardens, but it might very well be worth the price for a couple. Anyway, I had a lot of pictures I really liked. I tried to pick out some of them so I could have a reasonable length blog post. I hope you enjoy them below. If you like the pictures, don’t forget to make a comment, and click the Facebook like button above.  You can also subscribe to this blog at the bottom of the page.

Bride in doorway of Holiday Cottage - Brookgreen Gardens

First look - Walking to see groom for the first time in dress - Brookgreen Gardens

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First look, walking to see groom for the first time in dress.

First look – Brookgreen Gardens


September 8th, 2010

I just wanted to put up a quick post about a recent wedding in Brookgreen Gardens, I will likely be putting up a post with more general pictures from this wedding later on.  The bride wanted to do first look pictures, where instead of seeing the groom at the ceremony like normal, they did something special beforehand.  I hadn’t really done this before exactly, but I thought what would look good was the bride in focus as she walked towards the groom out of focus in the background.  Actually I should have done this with a different lens, and it would have been even better, but I really liked the results.  I will post some shots below, these are special because I’m not going to put them all up in my gallery, without context it would look like a bunch of pictures of the same thing.

First look at Brookgreen Gardens - Murrells Inlet

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Brookgreen Gardens Wedding

Wedding at Brookgreen Gardens


May 26th, 2009

I did my first wedding at Brookgreen Gardens, it’s such a great location for a wedding. We were kind of short on time for the couple portraits, but it didn’t take long to get some fantastic shots. I seemed to have made a good impression on the wedding coordinator for the gardens, she is putting me on her vendor list. I’m beginning to think my photography is starting to rival a lot of the other big guys in the area.
Brookgreen Gardens WeddingBrookgreen Gardens Wedding

Brookgreen Gardens Wedding

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