Charleston Beach Weddings and Beach Portraits Get a Lift of Hope

Ahh we all love the beach, well most of us, and with it comes grand thoughts of beach weddings and planning the ten year family get together in Charleston with a wonderful family portrait session on the beach. For those of you local and those considering visiting Charleston that have thought about having a beach wedding here or doing some family portraits on the beach may have never thought that it is actually considered illegal on one of the beaches here to do professional photography. IOP, the beach closest to Mt. Pleasant and bordering Sullivan’s Island has actually had a blanket law in place for many years that keeps professional photography at a distance. The law, from our understanding, was designed to keep vendors from uglying up the beach by soliciting locals and tourist’s with chair rentals, umbrella rentals, hot dog stands etc but unfortunately pro photography falls under that law as well. In fact, for those that do have weddings on that beach, they were only able to have standing ceremonies because no chairs, flowers, alters etc(at least professional looking) were allowed or you could receive a hefty fine that scared many local professionals and also swayed brides into moving to plan b on their dream wedding. Well it seems there is a swift breeze of hope coming thanks to some diligent local photographers fighting to get us excluded from this blanket law. It seems there was a planning commission meeting where they have agreed to send a change in the law to council to vote on. This change would allow professional photography on the beach, but no solicitation on the beach. This news was presented to us just yesterday and is all we know of right now but we will keep you all posted as we hear more!