Myrtle Beach is a Great Wedding Destination

The Grand Strand area around Myrtle Beach, S.C., has what many brides and grooms want, which is why this piece of the coast is becoming one of the hottest spots for a new trend: destination weddings.

According to wedding planner Cheryl L. Cox, owner of Weddings & Events by Cheryl L. Cox, today's mobile society has couples looking for neutral venues where extended family and friends can gather for good times. It's like a family reunion with the bride and groom as the honored guests, with activities planned for a weekend or a whole week.

"With the bride and the groom often each from different cities, they like their wedding to be in a place where everyone is on equal footing," Cox said. "Someplace with a lot of family activities. Myrtle Beach has become a very popular destination-wedding venue because it also offers the beach and family fun, like shopping, theaters, amusement parks and golf. Golf is a big thing. I have done lots of weddings planned around golf, and even fishing."

The Grand Strand has incredible choices for unique wedding ceremony settings. The beach is extremely popular, along with other outdoors sites such as La Belle Amie Vineyard, Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club and Atalaya (a Moorish-style "castle") at Huntington Beach State Park.

But a ceremony alone does not make a wedding. There are rehearsal dinners, showers, bachelor and bachelorette bashes, cocktail parties, brunches and receptions. Of course, food is involved in all these affairs, and area restaurateurs are happy to help make wedding fantasies come true, no matter what that dream might happen to be: an ultra-casual gathering, a classic and elegant fairytale event or anything between.

All the bells and whistles

Diamonds are forever at the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel, where an AAA four diamond ranking ensures that whatever the bride wants, she gets. Bridesmaids can be treated to a day of luxurious preparations in a private suite with a sweeping view of Myrtle Beach and the ocean. A masseuse can work out all their travel kinks, and a manicurist and hair stylist will perfect their appearances.