The Lake Club Bear Lake Reserve Smoky Mountain Wedding

What a beautiful wedding location in the Smoky Mountains! It feels like you are in the clouds, and some days you actually are in the clouds. The highest point is around 4000 feet and the Smoky Mountain ridges are everywhere.

This is the second Wedding that I have captured of Jamie. Through some very unfortunate circumstances, I was blessed to be asked to come back and capture her second Wedding. At this Wedding was four other couples whose Weddings I have captured, or will capture in the next year, for a total of 5 Wedding couples! I am really humbled by their trust.

Jamie and Jason work together at Amway in Grand Rapids. They wanted a destination Wedding somewhere in the Smoky Mountains. After seeing the Bear Lake Reserve beauty, they immediately booked their event. Their original venue was going to be Castle Ladyhawke. They felt that Bear Lake Reserve was more in line with their Wedding theme and lifestyle. I agree, it worked out perfect and everyone had a wonderful time.

Bear Lake Reserve has hundreds of properties on an expansive property that includes a Jack Nickolas golf course on the mountain top. There is a Lake Club that includes a large pool, 3 hot tubs, a beach, rentals, and more. There are a number of Wedding locations on the Bear Lake Reserve property. Jamie and Jason selected The Lake Club.

The drive from the front gate of Bear Lake Reserve to The Lake Club is about 20-30 minutes. It is hair pin turns and ups and downs all while traveling like 5 miles. Fun to drive, in my mind, but very slow. At night it was even a bit more challenging.

It was considered the off season although it was kind of busy with Thanksgiving weekend.

My family rented a house near the Bear Lake Reserve in the Sapphire Resort near Cashiers, North Carolina. We had our Thanksgiving with my sister in laws family from Atlanta, and my inlaws from Michigan. It was 5.5 miles from the Wedding location, as the crow flies, but about 1 hour drive since I had to go around mountains and follow the limited amount of roads.

Atlanta, Georgia is a short drive 2.5-3 hours from this vacation location. My drive was around 14 hours with the family.

We met the day prior to the Wedding at the mountain top to capture images of both families. You can see a selection of those images at http://paulretherford.net/bear-lake-reserve-north-carolina-smoky-mountain-family-photography-photographer

The Lake Club has an outdoor Wedding location right on Bear Creek Lake. It has a nice wood arch with a fireplace and Bear Creek Lake as the background.

The Wedding reception is located inside with the cocktail hour in the bar area and the dinner in the adjacent dining hall.

The wedding favor blankets came in handy for this 3pm Wedding since the sun had dipped below the ridge and the temperature fell into the high 40s.

Following the ceremony we captured some images around The Lake Club and then we headed up to the golf course to capture some sunset images on the mountain top. It was a beautiful evening!

Here are some of the images from the Bear Lake Reserve Wedding at The Lake Club. If you would like to see all of the images from the day check out http://www.printsbypaul.com/Wedding-Photography/Bear-Lake-Reserve-Wedding-Phot/Bear-Lake-Reserve-Wedding