We photograph weddings all over Middle Tennessee, and couples ask us constantly which venues we love. The honest answer is that “best” isn’t a real category — the right venue depends on what you want your photographs to feel like. Here are three we’ve documented start to finish, and who each one suits.
Southall Meadows — for space and sky
An open meadow in Franklin with a ceremony site under a huge oak. What it gives you is room: clean horizons behind your vows, no walls crowding your guests, and a golden hour that comes across the field uninterrupted. Book it if you want big, cinematic, outdoor photographs and you’re comfortable with weather being part of the story. Plan around wind — both of our Southall brides wore long veils and both spent the portrait hour airborne, which produced some of our favorite frames ever.
Riverwood Mansion — for light and architecture
A 1790s house on Nashville’s east side with dark plaster, hand-painted murals, and a stained-glass window over the staircase landing. It’s the opposite of a meadow: the best photographs happen indoors, and the house does most of the work. Book it if you like images that feel like paintings, if you want a getting-ready room that’s actually beautiful, and — this is underrated — if you don’t want the forecast to matter. Rain costs you almost nothing here.
Full Riverwood Mansion guide →
Hermitage Golf Course — for greenery and a covered plan B
Twenty minutes from downtown in Old Hickory, with a private garden ceremony site, mature trees, and a wooden bridge that produces the best frames on the property. The covered pavilion with its stone fireplace and market lights means your reception is weatherproof and photographs beautifully after dark. Book it if you want green, want room for up to 300 people, and want an outdoor wedding that has a real indoor answer if the sky opens.
Full Hermitage Golf Course guide →
What actually matters when you tour a venue
- Where does the ceremony face at your ceremony time? Sun directly behind the couple at 4pm is a very different photograph than at 6pm. Ask.
- What’s the covered backup, and is it somewhere you’d be happy? Every venue has one. Not every venue has a good one.
- Is the getting-ready space worth photographing? An hour of your coverage happens there. A windowless conference room is an hour you don’t get back.
- Where does the sun set from the reception? If you can walk out for fifteen minutes at golden hour without a car ride, you’ll get the best portraits of the day.
Booked somewhere that isn’t on this list? Even better — tell us where. We shoot all over Middle Tennessee and we’ll tell you straight what your venue does well.
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