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Myrtle Beach
and Grand Strand Weddings
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Here is the current situation...due to some wedding officiants dominating some of the best scenic beach areas to perform up to 7 or 8 weddings per day, local residents have complained (and rightly so)! For the time being, the city ordinance prohibiting "for profit" activities on public beaches is being enforced. This includes the beach in front of all Myrtle Beach beach-front resorts but not their own private property. Public parks are still available by permit, and the couple is required to obtain the permit, not the officiant. Please call City Hall at 843-918-1008 for information on obtaining a facility use permit. North Myrtle Beach and Cherry Grove are still available, along with Myrtle Beach State Park.
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Follow this link to see some of our favorite places in Myrtle Beach! |
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If you're thinking about a wedding on public property within the City of Myrtle Beach, here are some helpful details. The public beach... Commercially-produced weddings are not permitted on the public beach. Non-commercial weddings are allowed on the public beach. Private portions of the beach... Only a handful of oceanfront lots extend to the high tide line, and the city has no jurisdiction for either commercially-produced or non-commercial weddings on those few lot extensions. Public parks in commercial areas, by reservation... Commercially-produced and non-commercial weddings are permitted in public parks in the commercial areas of the city, with an approved Facility Use Permit. Contact City Hall at 843-918-1008. Shelter rental is required if a shelter exists at the park ($25 for city residents; $42.75 for non-residents). For commercially-produced weddings, if the Facility Use Permit is in the name of a company, insurance certification is required. Insurance certification is not required if the Facility Use Permit is in the name of the bride or groom. Public parks in commercial areas, without reservation... Commercially-produced and non-commercial weddings are permitted without a Facility Use Permit. Other park users cannot be required to leave the park. Parks in residential areas, by reservation... Commercially-produced weddings are prohibited. Non-commercial weddings are permitted with an approved Facility Use Permit. No insurance certificate is required. The city may deny a Facility Use Permit based on any factor, including traffic and neighborhood impact. Shelter rental is required if a shelter exists at the park ($25 for city residents; $42.75 for non-residents). Parks in residential areas, without reservation... Commercially-produced weddings are prohibited. Non-commercial weddings are permitted with an approved Facility Use Permit. No insurance certificate is required. Other park users cannot be required to leave the park. Here is a list of city parks in commercial areas:
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Huntington Beach offers its visitors
the best pre
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Links and places of Interest
Pawley's Island. Anchoring the southern end of the Grand Strand, there was a time when even a local would face certain ostracization if they installed an air-conditioner in a Pawley's Island home. Everyone left their doors and windows open, and what the ocean breezes didn't cool, the ceiling fans would. It was and is a place where families return year after year to the same beach house in the same month, and the only plans made for the day would be laid-back beach combing, a big midday Carolina dinner, and some down-time spent on the front porch in your now famous Pawley's Island rope hammock. The mayor even had bumper stickers made, saying "Arrogantly Shabby". Hurricane Hugo, and the subsequent rebuilding, (complete with air conditioners) changed all that. New bumper stickers still say "Arrogantly Shabby" , but with the first word X-ed out. Still, this is a wonderful place for a wedding ceremony. Murrell's Inlet. Halfway between Pawley's Island and Myrtle beach, this community is a holdout of some feisty individualists, including two-fisted, blonde-bombshell loving, commie-hating, private-eying, Mike Hammer creating Mickey Spillane. When Mickey married Jane at the old and legendary Oliver's Lodge, his words were, "I do; let's eat." There are more good seafood places than you can shake a shell-cracker at, especially if you prefer that food freshly made with some savory secret recipe. Ocean Drive Beach. Both the Holy Land and ground zero for the Shag Dance explosion. Pop into one of the many clubs to catch an eyeful, and to join in the slow motion jitterbug. Broadway at the Beach. Okay okay. This place is massive. There is a water park, miniature golf, a NASCAR Speedway, Ripley's Aquarium, an Imax Theater, nightly fireworks, over 100 specialty shops, five restaurants, a brew pub, nine nightclubs, and a 16 screen Cineplex. Whew. The Pavilion. The brass-pumping, cat calling heart of Myrtle Beach...if you're 16, you'll be in heaven. If you're not , this may be the place for a quick visit, just to remember how it felt. And if you're a T-shirt vendor, you're already there. Chicago House of Blues. Is it a rusty old storehouse? No, it's The Place to go to pose for pictures in front of an authentic Blues mobile!. And to have some great food. Carolina Opry. If you only see one show, this is the one! The Carolina Opry has won every major South Carolina tourism award including Most Outstanding Attraction and the prestigious Governor’s Cup. Year after year The Carolina Opry is voted the Best Show by readers of the Myrtle Beach Sun News, a Knight-Ridder newspaper. And it's the only show that has been featured on NBC Nightly News, CNN, TNN, and USA Today, which called it "A Big Hit". The New York Post called it "A Hot Ticket". |
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I recommend The Parson's Table in Little River, just north on Rt. 17 from Myrtle Beach for a small and intimate wedding. The following is a history of this fine establishment, reprinted from their website. The large antique doors as you enter the restaurant are made of local cypress and are over one hundred fifty years old. The flooring in this section is actually siding from a South Carolina farm house built in the 1850's. It was removed and re-milled into flooring. The beautiful beveled glass over the doorway into the dining room came from the White Mansion in Lumberton, NC. The main dining room was the original Little River Methodist Church built in 1885. It served as a church until1952 when a new Little River Methodist Church was built. At that time the building and several side structures added over the years were converted into a community meeting place. The structure was bought by longtime Little River resident, Mr. Toby Frye in 1978 and moved approximately two blocks south to the present location where the building was converted into a restaurant using stained and beveled glass Mr. Frye had collected over the years to add to the decor. The large chandelier in this section originally hung in the Baptist Church in Mullins, Sc. The original church was built by H.J. Vereen, Sr., Robert Livingston and Dr. R.G. Sloan. Mr. H.W. Stone sawed the logs for the church and did such a good job that most of the original wood is still in the building. The main room shows the original hand hewn heart of pine floors. Local cypress covers the original pine board interior walls but the original clap board pine siding still covers the walls in the outside rooms. The first marriage in the church in1886 joined together the McCorsley and McGinn families. The stained glass windows in the main room were originally in the Baptist Church of Mullins, S.C. The remaining stained and beveled glass were removed from various old churches through out the South, by the previous owners Ed and Nancy Murray. The stunning original Tiffany lamp in the main room came from an old farm house in Atlanta. Please feel free to walk
around the various rooms to view all the antique stained glass. As a
challenge, see if you can pick which window is probably the most valuable
and why.
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Hotels and Resorts If I had a hundred years, I couldn't come close to listing all the possible places to stay or all the great package deals available along the strand. I'm not sure you could go wrong if you stay with a reputable name. Most places feature most or all of their rooms facing the ocean, and we always enjoy sleeping with the glass slider open at night, snoozing to the sound of the surf! Most places encourage weddings on the beach for obvious reasons, and it's worth checking out. Go to the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, or Myrtle Beach Online to research just about anything you can think of! Or try this site,
Hotel Reservations, for an online secure listing and booking resource
for hotels and resorts in Myrtle beach. |
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Brookgreen is unique! Not only will you be blessed with a panorama of thousands of bloomers, shrubs and trees in an exquisite, landscaped setting on the site of an old rice/indigo plantation, you will be presented with what is probably the world's finest display of American figurative sculpture. Created by multi-millionaire Archer Huntington and his wife, Anna Hyatt Huntington, a renown sculptor, the works of several prominent American artists are included in this huge collection. Anna Hyatt Huntington's are most prominent. You'll see sculpts of animals which brings up another feature: real-life animals.  The
Gardens also include a wildlife park. There are a lot of walkways - and a
lot of walking so come prepared. (There are plenty of benches.)
843-237-4218
www.brookgreen.org .
As if the gardens, the sculptures and the wildlife park aren't enough, Brookgreen also has a large pontoon boat to take you on a slow cruise of the marshlands and rice fields (no longer productive but a vital habitat for wildlife).
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You might try the Cherry Grove Beach area, just to the north of Myrtle Beach as being a much less crowded place to stay and to have a wedding on the beach! With free public beach access all along the Ocean Rd, miles of sandy sun-worshipping or wave riding, many nice places to stay or rent, why fight the traffic and crowds of Myrtle Beach? The following links and contact information might be of help!
http://www.cherrygrovebeachhouses.com/ http://www.cherrygrovepier.com/ Hotels and places to stay in Cherry Grove Beach Boyte Motel, 200 28th Ave N, Cherry
Grove Beach, SC 29582, (843-249-4977) |
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Fishing Piers...And a novel place for a small wedding!
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MYRTLE BEACH STATE PARK
Located in the
heart of the Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach State Park is one of the most
popular public beaches along the South Carolina coast.
HOURS
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served
beach on the Grand Strand. 
Brookgreen
Gardens
nearly a mile of
beach, picnic areas, a fishing pier and nature center.