It’s been a while since I photographed a wedding in Brookgreen Gardens. Weddings at the Brookgreen Gardens Holliday Cottage are always beautiful, so it is nice to be back. It’s always great to work with DJ Wayne Cribb and Gigi Noelle Events. I arrived a little early at the location to get some detail shots around the cottage and ceremony area. The bride and groom had put special attention into decorating the Live Oak Allee gates that lead to the “Youth Taming the Wild” statue. The gates were covered in beautiful flowers, which made a fantastic background for the ceremony and for pictures later. I also like that they use brown chairs now for the ceremony. It really fits with the natural colors of the location.
The upstairs area of the Holliday cottage is filled with light from the windows and is a beautiful area for wedding preparation pictures. I especially like the one of the groom’s daughter helping the bride put on her makeup backlit by the window. This was a pretend picture, as the bride already had her makeup finished before she arrived at the cottage. Even if hair and makeup are done before I arrive, I can get a lot of beautiful pictures just by briefly recreating certain things. I also loved the shot of the bride’s mom checking out the veil in the window light and the bride standing backlit by the window.
The bride and her father arrived at the ceremony in a classic car. After the ceremony was over, the bride and groom drove away in the car as well. The car made a great prop for some pictures of the couple right after the ceremony as well. They both had custom-made cowboy boots they wore during the ceremony. We made sure to get some good shots of the boots while there we sitting on the hood of the car. Then we did the family and bridal party pictures by the garden gates.
The only problem, as I was about to finish up the bridal party pictures, we were told we had to be in for dinner in 5 min. I hadn’t yet done the pictures with the bride and groom! I’m not sure what happened with the timing, but thankfully a call was made, and we got an extra 15 min. We still had to work fast, but I’m very used to working quickly when needed. We got some fun pictures around the gates and flowers, then headed to the lake around the Youth Taming the Wild statue. I always like getting pictures sitting on the brick wall in front of this statue. I also like the little bridges over the water on this pond. We even saw a small alligator that quickly went into the water before the groom could get with it in a picture. Finally, we took some quick pictures on the Live Oak Allee garden path near the cottage. If I had more time, there were a few more things I would have loved to get, but overall I think we got a lot of great pictures.
For the reception at the Holliday Cottage in Brookgreen Gardens, they now set up a large tent area on the side of the cottage. This gives a lot more room for the dance floor and tables than they used to have on the back patio. I used my 3 flash lighting setup for the dance floor. I now have one main light on the camera to send light forward and also bounce off the ceiling if there is one. Then I have two additional kicker lights in the background to add some directional light to the dance floor. You wouldn’t know it from the pictures, but the tent was almost completely dark except for the DJ lights. My lighting setup really makes the dance floor come alive and also helps to get rid of most of the color cast from the DJ lights. I shoot all the flashes manually, which gives a very consistent look to the pictures. I hope you enjoy the pictures. If you are booking a wedding at the Brookgreen Gardens Holliday Cottage and need a photographer, please let me know!
