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Ocean City Wedding Spots – Getting married in Ocean City and you are not sure where you’d like to have the wedding location or reception? Allow me to inform you of the places that make for some great Ocean City Wedding Photography spots and give you my thoughts about them. Please keep in mind that these Ocean City venues are looked at from a photographer’s point of view and what I’ve experienced there working.
Seacrets – A great place to check out, you can’t go wrong with Jamaica USA in Ocean City. Often times couples book their dance club area which can fit a lot of people. What I liked most was the staff was off the hook friendly, and being there as a wedding photographer, they let me go everywhere I wanted to go to get the good shot. This place offers some great sunset shots, out by the palm trees and on their pier, plenty of little hidden areas that will make for some interesting photos. They have their own catering and chatting with one couple they said it was at a really good price. Keep in mind in the summer this place is a mad house but in the off season its cozy and relaxing.
Fager’s Island – Pretty close to Seacrets which offers a nice reception area, hotel close by, great food and the staff was really nice. There are so many cool places in Fagers to get great photos; you often getting lost and you can take a couple to like 10 – 15 different spots and make 50 -75 images unique. Plenty of palm trees, a gazebo on the water, the upper deck reception area is a little tighter but for smaller weddings this is a really good place.
Lighthouse Sound – This little gem is hidden away right outside of Ocean City, a little ways over the first Hwy 90 bridge in into Bishopville. It’s located right on a golf course which is a good thing because you have beautiful landscapes to get great photos on and one thing to consider is adding some time with the photographer as you might like to take a golf cart to some of these very pretty photo spots. You’ll end up having Ocean City on the bay as you backdrop which makes for an awesome photo. The staff is great, food it good too, I like the huge fireplace they have indoors, and the overall area is able to accommodate a lot of guests. If you get a chance to get you and your guests together for a group photo, you have a couple of hills to get height on the crowd.
Golden Sands – this hotel and condominium is located around the north end of Ocean City right on the beach. You can get married right on their little patch of sand or you can get closer to the water and have your ceremony there. Depending on the time of day and weather conditions I might lean towards closer to the beach, were you’ll have more sun, the building itself is cuts out a lot of sun for sunset ceremonies. They have a really lovely reception area up on their top floor; hope you aren’t afraid of heights. Nice dance floor, easy to accommodate a lot of guests, and even though you are up so high take advantage of the rear of the building on the 22nd floor for some quick photos of the sun setting.
The Clarion – another hotel not too far away from the Golden Sands, and every bit just a good. What I found unique about this place, if you foresee bad weather, this place has several giant rooms for having the ceremony and reception. The whole inside offers a lot of great spots to take some fun and unique photos and chances are you will have sun for your wedding, you have the beach right there. keep in mind the building will shadow you and your guests quite a bit, so by getting closer to the water, you’ll enjoy some better photo opportunities. They have an onsite coordinator here, Lisa I believe who is super nice and will bend over backwards to help you.
Ocean Pines Beach Club – Located on the Ocean side of Coastal Hwy and not be confused with the Ocean Pines Yacht Club and Ocean Pines Country Club. If you aren’t careful you’ll find family and friends heading to the yacht club or country club and might miss out. Here is another place that has their own patch of sand close to the main building structure and if you are planning a sunset wedding you might find a very distinct shadow going on here which depending on your timing you might deal with as they have a nice huge deck to place chairs on for your guests to sit on. They have a nice little second floor section where all the brides end up getting ready at. The poor guys end up hanging out in the basement area, down under the deck. Part of the deck wraps around and makes for some lovely sitting and eating outside. Plenty of spots for a DJ or Band to set up and while the guests are relaxing you can roll out on the beach for those beautiful sunset photos.
The Beaches – Ocean City beaches are some great beaches to get married on. Unlike the Delaware beaches right up the road they don’t require permits to be on the beach or get married on the beach. Getting married in Delaware isn’t as easy as in Maryland where you can walk right out there on the beach with the wedding minister and say your vows and walk right back off. All the beach ceremony’s I’ve photographed, it happens 100 percent of the time, were you have very friendly and accommodating people that step aside for you to get married and often times they cheer, clap, and whistle when you get to “you may now kiss the bride”. To get the better photographs I’d recommend scheduling your ceremony around Sunset whenever possible and the next best time would be around sunrise. Those high noon weddings always end up with dark shadows under the eyes and lots of other unpleasant features.
And if you can decorate the beach a little with an archway, flowers, tiki torches, or something. A naked beach is ok, but it really reflects well and looks like wedding photos when you have things to enhance the photo. For brides I’d stay away from heels in the sand, it’s a no brainer but every year someone does it and it’s difficult on the bride to walk in. Also a runner would be pointless, as it will get ripped to shreds. There are many other wonderful places that I have not mentioned here that I could turn this article into a full blown book, but I wanted to name a few of my favorites.
Some other ideas for wedding locations in and around Ocean City, Maryland that I’ve photographed and liked: Assateague Island State Park Coconut Malorie Catched 54 (used to be known as Sharks Cove) Ocean Pines Yacht Club – Ocean Pines Ocean Pines Country Club – Ocean Pines Ocean City Inlet on the Beach Harrisons Harbour Watch – Inlet area The Hilton – Ocean Side Fresco’s – Bayside Macky’s – Bayside Princess Bayside – Bayside Princess Royale – Ocean side Carousel Hotel – Ocean side. Have a Happy Wedding Day!
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Source by Will Vickers
