Significance. From hearts bursting with joy and the desire to share it, brides brought their excitement out of traditional wedding venues and into places that communicate to family and loved ones an even greater sense of the importance they are placing on the day when they state their vows. The significance of a wedding venue is, today, very much a part of the occasion. As an occasion that dwarfs most any other in its importance, brides choose the location, the environment, and the atmosphere with a profound degree of care.
Yet, competition is not the reason for selecting a unique and significant venue. Rather, it is the meaning that the setting brings with it, and the importance of that meaning to the couple.
Trends in Wedding Venues
Many brides seek a personal statement in their selection of where to hold their wedding, and the past several years have brought a greatly expanded field of possibilities. There is rarely a question of whether wedding venues will be memorable. The importance of that day speaks for itself to loved ones. Yet the particular flavor of the wedding experience is, more and more, seen as an extension of the bride’s interests and tastes and perspectives, and of the couple’s story.
For a fortunate few, in the vast selection of Hilton Head Island wedding venues, the Harbour Town Lighthouse has proven to be a perfect fit.
Natural Surroundings
The harmony found in nature leads brides to consider tying the knot outdoors. Beaches and barns and scenic overlooks are selected for this wrap-around reminder of what wedding venues can say about unity and wholeness. Nature certainly can become one of the most welcome wedding guests. A particularly popular choice for a natural setting is one that overlooks a bay, or a lake, or a river, or the ocean – which is what sets the lighthouse apart from most other Hilton Head Island wedding venues.
The virtue of water as a backdrop includes the mystical paradox that it is ever-changing, and yet enduring. The rhythm of tides, the passage of light across a lake or a bay, the relentless persistence of a river, all offer wedding venues that live on in a memory rich with meaning.
Historic Structures
The lasting significance of historic sites and buildings brings to a wedding a kind of endorsement, as if history itself were there to bless the union. Island homes have been transformed into popular Hilton Head Island wedding venues by adapting their amenities to better support the needs of guests and the desires of the bridal party.
Away from Hilton Head, public buildings offer a memorable backdrop that fits the story a couple wants to tell. The New York Public Library is just such a place, with its broad, grand, lion-flanked steps leading to Fifth Avenue, and with Bryant Park waiting behind it for the reception of a lifetime. For others, it is the architectural design itself of wedding venues that makes the impression they seek. The Victoria Belle Mansion in Georgia imparts the stillness that a neo-classical veranda can suggest. Los Angeles’s Union Station brings with it the energy that burst forth when the streamlined era of rail travel brought Spanish Colonial and Art Deco influences together in a statement of harmony that has rarely been equaled.
Other historic structures speak to the heritage of hospitality handed down from days gone by. The front lawn of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, is one of those places that seems to say, “People have been feeling welcome here for a long time.”
The Newest Version
Unexpected and unusual times have brought with them an even greater measure of resourcefulness and creativity in selecting wedding venues and planning the course of the day. The Harbour Town Lighthouse– one of Hilton Head Island’s favorite wedding venues – is a find that encompasses the trends of today.
Offering both virtual and in-person options for guests has become a real priority, and the Harbour Town Lighthouse has been practicing that for years. A live webcam at the top of the Lighthouse puts the unsurpassed view of the Intracoastal Waterway, the western horizon, and Calibogue Sound at the fingertips of the world on any day, a useful resource for guests to “sample” the view even before they attend.
Wedding parties at the lighthouse sometime elect to arrange their own video link for the day itself, to telecast the ceremony to guests who wish to remain outside. In several moving instances, guests from around the world have been empowered to attend a wedding at the lighthouse simply by opening their browser to a video feed of the blessed event.
Smaller weddings are part of today’s trend, and this puts the Harbour Town Lighthouse in the sweet spot for Hilton Head Island wedding venues. Here, the broad expanse is in the view, rather than in the seating arrangement. Perhaps the most inventive interpretation of this advantage came with the couple who placed guests on each of the nine landings of the lighthouse stairway. As the minister and groom and groomsmen awaited them at the top, the bridal party progressed up the stairway, gathering more and more guests behind them.
The bride said she was able to take in the presence of each of the nine groupings of guests with real focus, as her procession arose. The groom told us that when he saw the bride and her party, followed by their families and loved ones, top the stairs – well the emotion was hard to contain.
Other examples of up-to-the-minute trends that brides find in abundance from the Harbour Town Lighthouse include bold colors and textures, built-in décor, statement lighting, and a new kind of minimalist approach that includes only the things that bring joy.
The Sense of Place that Endures
In memories of their most important day, brides tell us that what stays with them is the experience of embracing the best-loved people of their lives, in a setting that enriches them all, and that stays with them.
The incomparable views from the Harbour Town Lighthouse, the rich heritage of hospitality that flows through the very breeze around it – in the yacht basin where the dream of a world-class resort began – makes this the pick of Hilton Head Island wedding venues. The irresistible joy that’s been felt by people who’ve traveled the world, and who make the lighthouse their Hilton Head Island version of the Eifel Tower, the Taj Mahal – these are among the treasures that the Harbour Town Lighthouse offers, unique among all the wedding venues of the world.