Charleston is the best major city in the country to host an outdoor wedding, according to a new report by a lawn company.
Key to the top ranking is the number of venues for the size of the city as well as businesses that support the wedding industry, such as bridal shops, bakeries and hotels.
The report by Lawn Love named Charleston as the best city in the country to host an outdoor wedding, highlighting two local venues: “Conveniently located downtown, the historic Gadsden House features three private courtyards for a stunning outdoor ceremony. Cannon Green is another downtown venue with a lush outdoor courtyard and exquisite culinary options.
“Based on my own research regarding the attributes that influence wedding venue selection, I have learned that the top five venue types that specialize in hosting outdoor weddings for at least a portion of the activities are most likely to include: Country clubs, historic buildings, botanical gardens, resorts or plantations,” said Maggie Daniels, professor of tourism and event management in the College of Education and Human Development of George Mason University.
While winner of the overall top spot on the list, Charleston also scored among the top 10 in a number of other categories, including:
- Outdoor wedding venues per 100,000 residents (first)
- Bridal shops per 100,000 residents (first)
- Bakeries and cake shops per 100,000 residents (third)
- Officiants per 100,000 residents (fifth)
- Hotels per 100,000 residents (sixth).
Other rankings included:
- Average consumer rating for outdoor wedding venues (34th)
- Share of budget-friendly catering services (54th)
- Historical annual number of very cold days (59th).
According to Daniels, outdoor weddings have become increasingly popular since the pandemic.
“I believe there will continue to be an uptick of outdoor weddings, primarily because so many couples postponed or delayed their events due to the pandemic that popular venues were already booked when newly engaged couples started their search,” said Daniels.
“Additionally, travel has not completely rebounded and, combined with current trends in inflation, outdoor weddings will be held closer to home, meaning that public parks that issue special use permits for weddings will increase in popularity,” she continued.
To determine the rankings, Lawn Love compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on eight categories. The eight categories include: venue access, venue quality, affordability, professional services, reception needs, wedding look, accommodations and climate. The study looked at information from a number of sources for the list, including Eventbrite, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Numbeo, TripAdvisor, Yelp and Zola.
From there, experts used the eight categories to calculate scores out of 100 for each city. Charleston’s overall score is 51.71.
The remaining top five cities, following Charleston, to host an outdoor wedding, include:
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Orlando, Florida
- Savannah, Georgia
- Hollywood, Florida
The cities that fell to the bottom to the list include:
- Miramar, Florida
- Newark, New Jersey
- North Las Vegas, Nevada
- West Valley City, Utah
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