Thinking Outside the Box for Outdoor Event Locations
Creating Content for Stellar Venues | Lisa Staff Photography
As someone whose passion is helping clients explore their personal visions for memorable events and capturing them on film or video, I am always on the lookout for new and unusual venues. This exploration is important to me, because what makes a setting special tends to extend beyond its looks. There are tons of acceptable locations that meet the baseline requirement for “nice pictures.” However, attributes which make a location special transcends “nice”; what makes a venue distinct are striking features, unique options and curated elements which (along with the amazing people) creates a unique and unforgettable experience. To be clear, an exceptional venue not only offers options for remarkable activities, but through those activities an opportunity to enrich the quality of your feelings and your experiences. And in the midst of these emotions, I tend to see my clients reveal the most truthful and beautiful characteristics of themselves – which I can then capture for them!
Let’s Add an Outdoorsy Venue
Enter Flyway Point – a venue I was fortunate enough to visit last month. The owners, Dan and Kristen, hired me to create content for this newly opened property to use across all of their social media platforms, website and advertising. This exceptional space initially struck me given the juxtaposition it presented between low country unpretentiousness and high end, luxury finishes. Flyway point offers over 100 acres of meadows, forests and trails, as well as ponds and a rustic/modern barn. Guests can catch catfish on the lake, ramble along hidden trails, bike through shadowed forests and hunt, all on the property. There is a renovated event space where visitors can gather inside, but temporary structures are also available on site to accommodate customer needs.
What Can be Added to this Blank Canvas?
These include large outdoor tents and canopies which can be erected across multiple areas on the venue grounds. Flyway Point also partners with food trucks, restaurants and musicians to bring hosted events the flair and style its clients want. Dan and Kristen, Flyway Point’s owners, offer their own unique perspectives and skill sets when curating boutique experiences on the property. Both enjoy the outdoors, but approach using the space at Flyway Point in completely different ways. Dan is a hunter, fisher and nature lover. He helps guests plan hunting trips and hikes across the site. Kristen works closely with customers to ensure the features and finishes of events match their vision for Lowcountry luxury.
The Sky’s The Limit
With this complete to guide an event or excursion and the raw magnificence available at the location, the sky’s the limit in terms of the unmatchable experiences which could be enjoyed at Flyway Point. Being there also made me consider the progressive options for special occasions, since there are limitless opportunities on the property to taste, touch, eat, drink, hear and see quality in succession. For example, I considered how Flyway Point could:
1. Get Rustic With Your Venue
Serve as the rustic-fab setting for an opulent dinner or cocktail hour. Flyway Point can pitch you a tent under the stars for an intimate and warmly-lit reception or business mixer. It offers hardwood flooring options for outdoor celebrations and caters either through a local bistro based in downtown Bluffton or a food truck. Mix up the event at the end by offering a “midnight hike” through the canopied trees to your desert hour, hosted in a hidden alcove of flora a short walk away. Enhance the event’s environment by adding Low Country MudGraz music and dancing the night away in style. I love when clients opt to layer these experiences together, as it enables me to show them in different situations, from chic and professional to anticipatory over a new discovery (chocolate backlit truffles through the cypresses!) to animated and wild as music plays. I try to highlight the distinct sides of my clients no matter where I shoot them, but it’s more natural when they genuinely experience the range of emotions and encounters that brighten the senses.
2. This is a Perfect Corporate Retreat
Serve as a corporate retreat site at which to deepen relationships across your company, industry or family. Need to inspire your staff to work together more cohesively and create the moments of connection and triumph so critical to team building? Work with Dan and Kristen turn Flyway Point into an adventure waiting to happen, with deep-sea fishing excursions, scavenger hunts with special prizes and unstructured times in the barn or nature to build trust and rapport. Interconnect your team and let them showcase their skills! I will be there to capture it all and celebrate the moments of accomplishment and connection. Need time away with your family to celebrate a special occasion or just relax and reconnect? Let Flyway Point bring your relatives together for a graduation, birthday or anniversary. Enjoy private use of the grounds and its organically beautiful backdrops host oyster roasts, BBQs, and cookouts. If you want to elevate the event and offset the rustic surroundings, work with Dan and Kristen to include high-end décor or transition from outside to the modern, rustic barn for presentation of gifts or well wishes. I’ll be there the whole time, capturing the warmth, fun, and connection of a family coming together.
3. Use a Blank Canvas for Your Wedding
3. Partner with Flyway Point for your wedding, as it’s a blank canvas on which to paint one the most intimate and important days of your life. Whether you envision a more traditional setting with open air elegance and delicate finishes, or more of a glam-fest party with music, firepits, food trucks and lawn games Flyway Point is the place to go. Its open pastures and smaller, more romantic settings can accommodate a broad range of elements, all of which can be curated to give clients exactly what they want. What I love most about Flyway Point is its versatility – it boasts features which would serve as a charming backdrop for more traditional weddings, but it also can offer guests a more bucolic and “glamping”-esque quality with its 360-degree views and off beaten path feel. Need help pulling it all together? Get a fabulous event planner on your team. Need to add some “pop” with florals and don’t know where to begin? Queue a floral arrangement specialist!
As a person who loves making clients’ unique features come to life during their most important, romantic, or memorable moments, I am always seeking out the right setting to backlight your brilliance. Flyway Point is outstanding in this regard, and adaptable to a range of desired visual and experiential outcomes in a way which is unmatched at other venues. Most importantly, Flyway Point also is versatile enough to adapt not only to what you want to achieve visually, but also what you want experientially.
Thanks go out to the vendors that made this content creation so great.
Event planning – Kelli Corn Events
Incredible Tents – Sperry Tents
Lighting – JLK Events
Rentals – Event Works
Florals- Flowers by Sue
Catering and Cool Airstream on location vehicle – Farm Bluffton
Entertainment – Owen Plant
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