It’s a beautiful Spring day in May and we’re at Center Hill Lake, about 90 minutes east of Nashville, TN. All of the guests are arriving to our lakeside resort we’ve rented for the day. Because of the earlier afternoon rains we had to move the original wedding location from the large lake front amphitheater to the front side of the villa on the hill over-looking the lake.
We’ve got all the ornaments, flowers and decor set up at the villa, photographer is ready, music is ready and I just turn for a minute to look out at the shimmering water, the beautiful tree lines guarding the lake, the hills standing tall, (remnants of what the lake has carved out of the Tennessee foothills) all while standing at the top of this hill in front of this Italian style villa and I thought, “wow, we got all of this for $450!”
You heard me right, $450! My wife and I, at the time of planning our wedding, were running on a very tight budget. We were paying for half of all the wedding costs so had to tighten the belt when it came to certain aspects. We wanted to make sure that no matter what, we could look back on our images and video and not regret having a better location, better photos or a time with friends and family. So with that it mind we splurged on photography and were about to splurge on a location but with our budget, we needed to be conservative. Once we found Lakeside Resort we were disheartened to find out that they were all booked up for the wedding date we had chosen. We were about to start looking elsewhere until we found out they had a Sunday open on Memorial Weekend (Great! three day weekend, important for our out-0f-town guests) so instead of spending more money for another location, we changed the date and saved so much money. Lakeside had everything, beautiful scenery, lodging on-site for our traveling guests and a reception location on site. Granted, if you are expecting 300+ guests this location may not have worked but for us, having under 150, it worked perfectly!
So why am I touting Lakeside so much, because one needs to know it is possible to find a location that has everything and not break the bank. And coming from an imagery perspective, location is just as important as the dress, the flowers, the decor… showing the location is an important part of telling the story of the days events whether it’s photography or cinematography or both. Would any of the images above be just as impressive with a flat wall in the background or a plain church interior (not knocking church weddings but I’ve been in some churches that are pretty plain and un-attractive)? Most likely not. The point is if you’re going to spend thousands and thousands of dollars for photography and video you want to make sure your location is just as appealing as the rest of the wedding. And that doesn’t mean you have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars more. You just have to do a little leg work.
Break out of the box, don’t just look at churches or places that advertise wedding locations, look at botanical gardens, private or public farms, museums, historical hotels or B&B’s, or in our case, state owned locations and facilities. Lakeside resort is owned by the state of Tennessee so this is why prices were very affordable.
One of the most compliments we received about our wedding, even today, was how beautiful the location was. Our food was great but even I don’t really remember it. Same goes with the cake, the band, invitations and decor, they were all great but what we remember most, as well as our friends and family, was the location. And it’s even more sweet to know we didn’t spend a ton of cash for it!
