It's no doubt that we live in a beautiful area. With the shores of Sandusky and Port Clinton giving beautiful views over the bay, to the nice open fields heading into Norwalk and Monroeville, or the wooded hills surrounding Milan. Surely, we all would love to get beautiful photos on our wedding day in these areas. However, with the hectic schedule of a wedding day, it can be hard to find the time to squeeze in some of the wonderful locations we've written about. However, that doesn't mean that you can't achieve beautiful wedding photos right on your wedding venue! This list is just a few examples of some of the best wedding venues in Sandusky, Huron, Norwalk, and more that have excellent environments for photography right on-premise.
Sawmill Creek has been a staple in the area for many years. The best thing about Sawmill, besides being recently renovated, is that they have enough amenities for just about everything right on the property! With a golf course, a private beach area, gazebo, bridge, and of course the massive resort, which includes small garden areas, there are so many options for places to take photos right around your venue!
Sandusky Yacht Club is, of course, right up on the shores of Lake Erie. This makes it ideal for a couple that wants photography with a beachy waterfront setting. There's a beautiful garden out back along with plenty of gorgeous windows for portraits indoors, making this a great option for a few snaps right at the venue.
Plum Brook is up there to be the prettiest golf course in the area. With plenty of trees, grass, hills, bridges, and other amenities, it provides plenty of opportunities for fantastic photos.
Located in Castalia, just outside of Sandusky, this venue is one of the most gorgeous places we've had the pleasure of shooting at. With a beautiful driveway that's flanked by trees, a creek in the back, and the sprawling, open property, there are endless possibilities when using this location for your wedding photography.
As per the name, this is a sister location to Millsite Lodge, located just down the road. Equally as beautiful, it is a fantastic, more rustic place for your wedding photographs.
In our opinion, Kilkerrin is one of the most underrated venues in the area. With a large barn, fields, and a large pond on the premises, it has everything you need for a great venue for both a ceremony and wedding photographs. See our blog post about it here.
The BGSU Firelands Campus has two locations that they do weddings, the Cedar Point Center as well as the Firelands Arboretum. Both of these locations are within a few minutes walk of each other and there are incredible opportunities at each for wedding photography. With ponds, flowers, trees and bridges, you can knock out all of your wedding photos right inside the arboretum. It's by far our most used spot for photos.
If you love rustic, Palm Tree Barn really is the perfect setting. Located on a spacious property with a large barn and plenty of trees, wood, a neat siloh and even some props, like a truck, it has a little bit of everything for the couple that wants something simple and rustic. You can check out some of our work on it here.
Right down near Cedar Point, Lyman Harbor is one of the premiere venues in Sandusky, known for it's spacious halls. It also has one of the best views in town, and the harbor makes a fun and relaxing place for some couples shots, and the large glass windows provide some great window light for indoor group shots.
Only available to Milan Residents or family members of Milan Residents, this massively underrated venue is one of the classiest looking places in town. To boot, it's directly across the street from the Milan Town Square, giving you a great place to go and take some classy photos. See the video we shot here.
There is a chance that you may not want to do your wedding photography session at your venue. Perhaps you'd like to go somewhere else! In that case, check out our list of some of the top places to take photos!
If I could describe my impressions of Kelley when we first spoke, I think I would say “This girl is a Kelley’s Island kind of girl”. She spent a lot of time there as a kid, and she even works at Papa T’s Deckside every summer. I mean, she has a tattoo of Kelley’s Island on her shoulder! So, when Kelley and Christian met while on Kelley’s Island, it only seemed fitting that they had their wedding there too!
Their ceremony took place at Rocky Beach Seaway Marina, which is just a short walk from the ferry dock. The location overlooks the lake and was the perfect backdrop for an incredible wedding. Kelley wanted to emphasize a simple fall theme, so she added an archway with turning leaves and pumpkins as her primary decoration at the altar.
After the reception, we headed across the island to Kelley’s Island State Park, where we took photos before heading to the reception.
Their reception was at West Bay Inn, which is a short drive across Kelley’s Island. This bar provides a really unique location for a reception due to its proximity to the water and it’s very unique amenities. What do we mean? Well, aside from the volleyball net on the premises (that’s right, imagine people in their Sunday best playing volleyball!), they also are a full bar. So, instead of serving drinks behind a bar within the venue itself, as most venues have their own version of a bar, the way that West Bay does drinks is by handing wristbands to guests that allows them to order any drink available at their bar. The best part is that they let their couples fire the cannon over the water as the sun sets, which makes for an awesome photo opportunity.
Kelley said she wanted her wedding to be cute and unique. And on those two fronts, and many more, it definitely delivered.
Of course, it takes a team to deliver a wedding like that! Here’s some of the people that made her day possible:
Sarah met Ralph during her time at school in New York City at a bar, just days after arriving. She was the only person in the bar that wasn't rooting for New York, and so she stuck out like a sore thumb when she collided with Ralph. Years later, she returned home to Milan, Ohio to marry the love of her life. This incredible couple had an insanely gorgeous wedding at the Milan Township Hall, an old building that they decorated to look absolutely gorgeous.
The Sandusky Yacht Club is a beautiful venue no matter what time of year. That's extremely evident based off of how awesome Cody & Laura's wedding turned out! They set their wedding date in early January for a knockout wedding day all centered around the Sandusky Yacht Club! They took photos at Patina Creek, which is only a few miles away, and then returned to the Yacht Club shortly after for their indoor ceremony. After the ceremony, they rearranged the seating for their big party!
One thing I loved about this wedding was the subtle theming of star wars. Cody absolutely loves Star Wars, and so Laura thought it would be really fun to get some little Star Wars touches for her husband, such as adding Lego figures to the boutonnieres, or an additional R2-D2 side-cake. At the end of the night, we had to step outside for a KILLER shot using lightsabers overlooking the Sandusky Bay. Talk about a great way to end the night!
This wedding was actually one of the most difficult weddings for me to get to! We were in Cincinnati the night before and had to drive to Sandusky in a snow storm. What is normally a 3.5 hour drive took us over 7 hours to complete due to the intense snow and total lack of visibility. But, we didn't let it stop us! We wanted to make sure we were there for our couples, and I'm so glad we didn't miss this one.
The Yacht club is one of our all time favorite venues! It can easily accommodate up to 300 guests along its window-covered walls overlooking the Sandusky Bay, making it one of the most gorgeous venues in the area. We even wrote about it in our Ultimate Guide for having a wedding in the Sandusky Area. Interested in having your wedding there? Click here.
