Magnolia Plantation- Wedding Venue Charleston SC

Venue Overview-Magnolia Plantation is an oasis of peace and beauty, always brimming with life. The landscape, the water views, the free roaming animals leave an impact on every visitor from the young to the wise. You really can’t get an accurate feeling for the place until you see it in person.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens is a large venue that hosts hundreds of weddings a year. The property offers three different options for your wedding based on your budget and number of guests. The two most common options are The Veranda and The Carriage House.

Most Beautiful Spots for Bride and Groom Portraits:

Here are some of our favorite places to take the bride and groom for photos after the ceremony: the white bridge, the red bridge, the live oak tree area, the blooming azalea garden (seasonal), the blooming camellia garden (seasonal). TIP: If you ask ahead of time Magnolia Plantation will make a gold cart available for you and your photographers to drive around to these gorgeous spots. Offering the driver a small cash tip would probably be a very nice touch.

Bride and Groom Wedding Portrait at Magnolia Gardens- By The Fence

     

(click here to see more bridal portrait photos at Magnolia Plantation)

If you are considering or have already selected the carriage house as your location within Magnolia Plantation to get married, here are a few of photographer observations and suggestions.

Getting Ready:

The Carriage house conveniently offers a Bridal Suite for brides wishing to be getting ready on location. It’s a small structure and if you’re getting married at this location I recommend that you keep a relatively small number of bridesmaids. The groom and groomsmen can get ready inside the carriage house or arrive already dressed. The green lawn in from of the Carriage house provides a beautiful background for before the ceremony photos.

Indoor/Outdoor Setting:

The outside area at Carriage House is composed of a large lawn area and several shaded areas with lush green vegetation.  There’s also a wooden deck with sitting benches looking over the water. There are several large live oak trees generously decorated with moss.

The interior is dark wood. Photographically speaking the interior is challenging because of the rustic, dark elements but some weddings we’ve photographed before have added ambient light as well as light drapery. This made a difference and gave an opportunity to take better photos with less installed equipment.

The Ceremony:

When you’re signing up for a wedding at The Carriage House at Magnolia Plantation you’re pretty much signing up for an outdoor ceremony (unless you rent a tent as a back up). We strongly recommend that you visit the plantation at the time that you’re getting married to notice the position and the strength of the sun at the time you plan to have the ceremony. I have seen way too many grooms and guests sweating profusely and squinting during the ceremony because the sun was too strong. If it so happens that you want an earlier ceremony but still want to offer everyone the luxury of shade I recommend placing the ceremony site parallel to the water as opposed to perpendicular to the water as there are some shaded areas on the lawn.

The Reception:

The reception can be half outdoor on the patio and half indoor. If you’re interested in people mingling I would recommend propping the doors open so that people can go in and out easily. There a fire pit on the patio that seems to always be enjoyed by guests when it is used. Some have even provided sticks and marshmallows for their guests which took advantage and started making s’mores.

If you’re interested in people dancing I would recommend making room for the dance floor right under the large chandeliers. The DJ is usually shoved in the corner by the restroom access hallway which makes it challenging for photographers to take good dancing photos that don’t have that wall showing. My suggestion would be to place the DJ or band on the opposite side of the room, with their back to the glass door. You can enter from the side in this situation but have prettier dancing photos.

Also, the cake is most often placed against the white wall to the left of the restroom hallway. Again, as a general rule it’s prettier if you don’t place anything important against the wall. I would recommend placing the cake either in the middle of the room or to the right side of the restroom hallway, with some room for a photographer to sneak behind the cake table and take photos that include your guests watching you cut it.

Send Off:

Magnolia Plantation allows a sparkler send off and for this reason we love them! Any kind of sendoff can look nice but we particularly love these ones:

 

As a wedding photographer in Charleston SC it is my job to be familiar with each wedding venue and to know how to best take advantage of it’s highlights and strengths. If you’re getting married at the Magnolia Plantation I hope you will consider hiring Diana Deaver Weddings and rely on our expertise and experience with this venue for your wedding photos. The following wedding venue review is an independent photographic review based on our personal experience as hired photographers. Please visit Magnolia Plantation’s website and contact their staff directly to get more information.