Wedding at The Cypress Inn in Conway, SC

I’ve photographed many weddings and engagement sessions around the Conway Riverwalk area, but this was the first time at The Cypress Inn in Conway. This bed-and-breakfast is located along the path of the Conway Riverwalk, so I’ve walked by it many times during photo sessions. I always love to make a blog post when visiting a new venue, but this wedding of Erin and Nathaniel was back in November 2023 when we were in the middle of moving and things were really busy. During this slow time of the year, I enjoy looking back at some of my past weddings and thought this would be a great one to post.

Pictures before the ceremony on the Conway Riverwalk

When my wife and I arrived at the venue, I headed upstairs to the room for the bride’s preparations, and she went to take pictures with the groomsmen on the Riverwalk. While she was taking pictures with the guys, I did the detail shots of the rings, flowers etc. and getting ready pictures with the bridesmaids. The Cypress Inn has a large upstairs room for the bridal party with a balcony overlooking the marina on the Riverwalk that is a nice spot for pictures.

The bride and groom did a “first look” so we could get a lot of the photos finished before the ceremony. Even though it’s early in the day, there is so much shade from all the trees on the Riverwalk we could get pictures without too much harsh sun. I knew I was going to bring the two of them out for sunset pictures, so I mostly concentrated on getting the portraits taken with the bridal party and family.

Ceremony in front of the Cypress Inn and Sunset Pictures under the Lights

The location for the ceremony is a little tight on the front lawn of The Cypress Inn. The poles of the tent fall right in front of the aisle, but I managed to shoot around them and my wife was there to get some additional angles as well. I always like to make sure I get the expression on the face of the groom as his bride walks down the aisle. I just had to shoot most of the ceremony pictures with my wider 35mm lens because of the limited space.

With it getting close to the holidays, the city had set up lots of hanging lights from the trees near the end of the Riverwalk. It gave a feeling of being in Brookgreen Gardens during the Night of a Thousand Candles. Back at this time I had recently switched over to shooting with Sony cameras and had a new 85mm f1.4 prime lens. The Sony eye autofocus is so much more accurate than my older Nikon cameras, so I opened up all the way to f1.4 and really blurred out the lights in the background, while keeping the subjects in focus. I loved some of the closeup pictures of the couple with the bokeh in the background from the out-of-focus lights.

We finished up the bride and groom portraits on the nearby walkway with benches under the hanging moss. This is my usual spot to finish up any photo session at the Riverwalk. It’s a lovely spot, with the soft light of the sunset hitting the moss on the trees. After this we went back for the first dance, cake cutting and some dancing on the patio in front of the Inn. It’s always a difficult taking outdoor pictures at night, but setting up multiple flashes around the dance floor helps with the lighting. I hope you enjoy the pictures. If you are planning a wedding at The Cypress Inn in Conway, let me know. I can give you my more detailed thoughts on the venue.