Beautiful spring wedding at Pawleys Plantation Country Club with a first look and great sunset

This wedding was a great way to begin my 2016 season. I always love going to the Pawleys Plantation Golf and Country Club area to photograph a wedding. I’ve been there so many times that I know the best photo spots and where to get good light during different times of the afternoon. This bride and groom decided to do a “first look” so that we could do all the bridal party and family pictures before the ceremony. Doing most of the pictures before the ceremony can be nice, but you need a location like Pawleys Plantation with lots of trees and shade, otherwise it’s difficult when the sun is overhead. We still had difficulty with the early afternoon sunlight in front of the clubhouse, but I was able to correct some of the harsh sun and shade using the shadow and highlight adjustments in Lightroom.

This bridal party was a lot of fun. The groomsmen did some crazy pictures together before the ceremony, I didn’t even post some of the wildest below. The bridesmaids had fun as well, I really liked the picture of the bride walking through the flower petals below. Pretty much everyone at the reception really got into the dancing as well. I had something fun to take a picture of the whole 8 hours I was there, which is why I ended up with over 1800 shots, a bit more than usual. I was also able to take the couple back out for some beautiful sunset shots around the clubhouse after dinner. The sunlight coming through the trees in front of the Pawleys Plantation clubhouse is really pretty, in fact one of my favorite bridal shots was from that location. There were a lot of cars parked in front of the club, but I was able to find a nice spot between some trees that gave us the out of focus sunlight I was looking for without cars in the background. I also loved the picture of the couple from a distance with the Pawleys Plantation Country Club in the background.  I hope you enjoy the pictures, please like or comment if you do!