6 Best Beaches for a Wedding in Florida
Planning the Perfect Florida Beach Wedding
I’ve been photographing beach weddings in the Clearwater and St. Petersburg area for a long time. I know which beaches are the easiest, which are the hardest and which ones produce the most beautiful pictures. Let’s take a look at 6 different beaches in the area..
Clearwater Beach Wedding
Clearwater Beach is the most popular beach in the area. It has the most hotels, the newest resorts and is by far the most “touristy.” It also has some of the best sand in the country which is wonderful for vacationing but can be a struggle for older people and people with disabilities. Still, it’s a wonderful beach to be married on as long as you head north a bit to do it. There are some spots north of the main section where there’s parking and easy access to the sand. It might be a little more crowded than some of the other beaches, especially in season and holiday weekends.
Sunset Beach Wedding
Sunset Beach is a “locals” beach. Tucked away at the very end of Treasure Island, it’s one of my favorite beaches to photograph mainly because there are options there that don’t exist anywhere else. There’s a boardwalk, a rock jetty and even a covered pavilion that can be rented for a small reception. There’s usually plenty of parking although at the time of this writing they are doing some road work and have fenced off half the lot. It’s the most shallow beach in the area. At high tide you can throw a rock from the parking lot to the water.
I shoot a lot of engagement session there because of the variety of locations..
Treasure Island Wedding
Treasure Island has a public lot and I’ve shot weddings at that beach in the past but it’s rare. Generally speaking, the big public lots and access aren’t the best choice for a beach wedding unless you are doing it in the morning. In season, the lots are full all day and the beach is crowded.
I do, however, photograph a lot of weddings on Treasure Island because of the hotels and resorts. The Sunset Vistas is a condo/resort that also has a beautiful courtyard and space for a small reception. The beach isn’t too crowded and you have the convenience of being to walk from your room to your wedding. Perfect Florida Beach Wedding does a lot of weddings there and at a venue down the street which actually allows for a tented reception or indoor party right on the sand.
Sand Key Wedding
Just south of Clearwater Beach is Sand Key Park. Sand Key has a huge parking lot and there is always plenty of room. One of the advantages of Sand Key is that the beach is mostly packed shell so it’s easy to walk on for older folks or people with disabilities or even a beach wheelchair. The downside is that it’s the deepest beach in the county. I mean, it’s deep. You’ll walk 100 yards to get to the open sand and another 100 yards to get to the water BUT all that room means plenty of space to set up your wedding and 100 yard walk on Sand Key Beach is easier than a 30 yard walk on Clearwater Beach. Unlike many beaches, if you have chairs or an arch at Sand Key Park you have to get a permit but your beach wedding planner can help you with that.
St. Pete Beach Wedding
Parking is usually not a problem here but can be tough during the season. The beach has good sand and it’s shallow but not too shallow. They recently started requiring a permit. It’s a popular beach with the beach wedding companies and it’s not unusual to see 2-3 weddings happening at the same time
The Grand Plaza Hotel is on St. Pete Beach and they probably do more beach weddings than anyone in the county. I work there several times a year. They have two permanent beach wedding spots and several small rooms for intimate receptions and dinners.
Of course, if you want a truly unique location for your wedding, you can’t beat the historic Don Cesar Hotel.
Madeira Beach Wedding
Usually when I’m working at Madeira Beach it’s at a condo or hotel. There are a couple of places with public parking, the most popular probably being directly across from John’s Pass Village. It’s a fine beach for a wedding, decent sand, some parking, etc and you don’t see as many weddings there because it’s not as touristy as Clearwater Beach.
I hope this guide helps you plan your Florida beach wedding!
Indoor Wedding Photography Challenges
Something funny happened this week when I was contacted about shooting a wedding indoors. The client asked me to send her some examples of indoor weddings I have photographed.
It’s funny because I have said for years, “Beware the photographer who only has outdoor weddings on their website (if you are getting married indoors). It’s a totally different skillset to shoot in a church or hall and you need to make sure your photographer can deliver.” Then, because of my work with Perfect Florida Beach Wedding and the way the internet works, I started getting more and more outdoor wedding calls, which led to more and more outdoor weddings on my website and the next thing you know, I look like a photographer who doesn’t shoot indoor weddings!
The bride who contacted me is on the ball. She was right to ask me for some samples and I’m confident that she will get a photographer that she is happy with, even if it’s not me. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. A wedding is a once in a lifetime event and you need to be reassured that your photographer can handle whatever is thrown at him that day.
So, if you are getting married indoors, let me assure you that I am an expert at shooting indoor weddings too and I’ve worked at some of the toughest venues in the area for photography. Here’s a couple of album pages from past weddings to prove it!
Treasure Island Beach Wedding
My plan when I started this blog post was to highlight one picture from each Treasure Island beach wedding that I photographed in July. I have one more wedding this month before I fly to Atlanta to host the International Photographic Competition’s live webcast and I thought it would be nice to write a quick post with one picture from each wedding. But it didn’t work out the way I planned.
I never got past the first wedding.
Spencer and Karlee were married in Treasure Island, a small beach community that attaches to St. Petersburg. I do a lot of weddings there because it has a couple of my favorite beaches for wedding photography. Perfect Florida Beach Wedding did the decor and planning complete with a reception. This particular location, which happens to be The Lion’s Club, is one of the few spots in the county where you can have a beach wedding and reception without having to pay the high food and beverage minimums that the hotels charge. There’s even room for a tent if you want to have the reception outside. Perfect Florida Beach Wedding provides everything, food, decor, ceremony, DJ, lighting… everything.
So, here are a few favorites from the day with a little commentary:
It was a perfect day for a beach wedding. From a photography stand-point I could have used a few more clouds to tame that sun but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. More on that later…
It wasn’t long ago when I rarely saw a sign being carried down the aisle. Now I see them all the time…
Without a doubt one of my favorite pictures to shoot at a wedding. After the Bride passes me, I shoot over her shoulder or in this case, between her and her Dad to capture the groom looking at his bride. In this case, I couldn’t have hoped for a better moment.
One of the interesting things about wedding photography is that we photographers don’t tend to show a lot of group pictures on our website. When a couple are looking to book a wedding photographer, they are mostly thinking about the romantic, stylized pictures so that’s what we tend to show. No one ever calls and says, “I’m looking for someone who can take a really nice picture of me and Aunt Judy.”
What’s funny about this is that taking good group pictures is hard under the best conditions and can be extremely difficult on the beach. The sun is too bright to have people face into it so it requires the right equipment and the experience necessary to figure out how to tackle the problem. In this case, it took 2 flashes for me to be able to light them. It’s funny that we beach photographers rarely showcase these images but a good beach wedding photographer will judge another by whether or not they can do it well. Also, while many young couples will cherish the romantic pictures today, as time passes it’s the pictures of friends and family that are re-visited again and again.
This image is a perfect example of what I was talking about above. While it’s a wonderful, romantic picture… it’s about a hundred times easier to do than the group shot. When you hire a beach wedding photographer, make sure they can show you images shot with flash.
She makes it look easy..
One last little education snippet and then I’ll stop, I promise. The picture above was taken after the one above it. I was done with romantic pictures when the couple decided they wanted a jumping picture. Another way you can tell if your photographer is any good is by their ability to manipulate the light with their camera settings. You would never guess that the jumping picture was shot after the others.
Okay, enough teaching… I hope you enjoyed the images!
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