Dreaming of exchanging your vows along miles-long coastline, with the setting sun on the backdrop? Or want to gaze into your partner’s eyes under the canopy of ancient oaks, with sunlight gently filtering through branches and moss? Or wish to walk hand-in-hand with your beloved one along the Black Banks River, while the setting sun paints the Southern sky with gorgeous shades of orange and purple? You can experience all these magical moments if you plan a Southern wedding! Southern wedding venues like Albany Plantation, Cumberland Island, Virginia Beach and many others are delightful and breathtaking, and offer each bride a generous range of options to plan her own unique wedding. From rustic chapels, glittering ballrooms and Spanish lounges to oceanfront venues and alluringly wooded locations, wedding venues here present an amazing variety, enough to make you wonder whether to celebrate your special day indoors or outdoors.
Albany Plantation
Offering a wedding venue for the Hammond area, at an-hour distance from the New Orleans and 45 minutes from Baton Rouge, Albany Plantation is a lovely place spread on 33 acres with traditional Cajun country French atmosphere featuring a garsoniere and surrounded by 200-year old live oaks, making you enter a vintage era of picket fences and wooden bridges. Enjoy old time rock ‘n’ roll, country music, swamp pop, rhythm and blues, jazz and bluegrass. Relish scrumptious buffet while enjoying stunning views of the grounds and sugarcane kettle fountains through a beautiful floor-to-ceiling glass wall.
Cumberland Island, Georgia
Get flabbergasted with the sight of wild horses, gopher tortoises or alligators while looking out any time from the window of Greyfield Inn – the destination wedding venue of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette in 1996. The century-old dining room is the only restaurant and lodging on the island. Enjoy a half-day tour with naturalist Fred Whitehead and know about wildlife and history, and about the famous wild horses descended from the horses brought here by the Spanish in the 1700s.
Savannah, Georgia
The Ellis Square has chic new hotel overlooking the square which once housed the city market of Savannah. Owens-Thomas House – an 1819-built English Regency-style mansion is a beautiful wedding venue for up to 100 guests in its bloom-filled parterre with yummy dining of she-crab soup and shrimp ‘n’ grits, ribald drag cabaret show and thrilling ghost and ghoul tours.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
The 21-story Hilton Oceanfront Resort offers the stunning view of miles of beach boulevard and ocean from its rooftop. Or choose the Virginia Aquamarine & Marine Science Center to say “I do” in one of its party rooms overlooking Owls Creek or the IMAX theater. Feast your and your guests’ taste buds with Kobe Wagyu beef or tempura lobster tail in cozy outdoor booths and take an enchanting ride up to Williamsburg for a day full of history, shopping, golfing and roller coasters.
Charleston, South Carolina
Tie the knot on the backdrops of the stunning views of Charleston Harbor and the historic barrier islands lying just beyond, offered by the chic Harbour View Inn. Or exchange your vows in the 19th century gazebo of the Battery Park, bordered with Victorian homes or amidst Civil War monuments and oak groves – where once pirates camped. Treat yourself with crab-cake soufflé or antelope loin with Anson Mills grit sauce and take a tour around the scenic locale having a history of over 300 years, in a horse-drawn carriage.
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Offering views of sunrise, the beachfront rooms of Westin Hilton Head Island Resort is a unique wedding site. Undergo an unforgettable moment of tying the marine knot on the 49-passenger catamaran, featuring a pink-lemonade custom wedding cake, delicious dining of chilled Atlantic shrimp and champagne-poached oysters on the rooftop, an enchanting music at the Jazz Corner and adrenaline-raising outdoor activities of geocoaching and maritime scavenger hunts to entertain you and your guests.
