This has been a very difficult year for brides and thier wedding plans with Covid-19 and the social distancing restrictions. Almost all of my May weddings had to reschedule for later in the year. Thankfully, for Heather and Ethan’s wedding on May 30th, many wedding venues around SC, including Hidden Acres, were beginning to open back up. In fact, by the time I’m making this blog post near the end of June, I’ve had one of the busiest summers I can remember.
Heather had chosen my all-day wedding package with no hour restrictions, so my wife Lizeth and I arrived around noon time to begin preparations. Lizeth was there to run the photo booth as well work as my second shooter. I was glad I had her help. This was a huge wedding party with nine bridesmaids and nine groomsmen as well as a junior bridesmaid and flowergirl. With large wedding parties things are always running a little behind and can get hectic.
The bride and bridesmaids got ready in a cottage near the main ballroom and the groomsmen had apartments near the front of the property. Hidden Acres has a beautiful cottage for the bride to get dressed in with hardwood floors and natural wood walls. Heather had a gorgeous dress and huge veil that looked great hanging in the doorway with all the natural wood. Everyone especially loves the picture of Heather standing in the doorway with the veil flowing out behind her. The Hidden Acres property also has a very pretty chapel, right on the property. Because I arrived so early, I was able to take a partial 360 tour of the property, you can check it out below.
Heather and Ethan choose to have their ceremony at a nearby church. One of my favorite pictures from the ceremony was the flowergirl excitedly running down the aisle once they let her go. She forgot to throw out any flowers, but thankfully I was ready, and got some great shots as she ran towards me.
We took some beautiful pictures of the wedding party and family at the church. The only thing I was a little disappointed about, I really wanted to do some bridal party pictures when we arrived back at Hidden Acres. However, we were just running out of time, and had to go immediately into the reception on arrival. Thankfully, I was able to pull the bride and groom back out from the reception for some sunset pictures around the lake. They were exhausted by this point. The Videographer and I tried to work quickly and not push them too much. I would have loved to make it to some other cool locations around the Hidden Acres property. I’ve just learned to do the very best I can in whatever time I have available.
Hidden Acres has a huge ballroom with a large dancefloor. This wedding reception there was about 250 guests and it didn’t seem too crowded at all. My wife was running the photo booth out in the entry area during the cocktail hour and reception. The photo booth was a huge hit at this party. It was pretty much full until we closed it down around 10pm. My wife also made sure to wipe down the props with disinfectant between each group as best she could. Around 11:30pm, we finally did a beautiful sparkler exit, to end the evening. I have to say, we were both worn out from the 12-hour day, but it was also a lot of fun.
I hope you enjoy the pictures below. It was great working with Sparkles Events who did the planning and decoration, as well as Fipps Filming who did the videography. If you are having a wedding at Hidden Acres in Marion please let me know, I would be happy to give you more information.
Wedding Pictures from Hidden Acres
Photo Booth Pictures
