If you want to celebrate in one of the most beautiful mountain towns while turning your wedding into an entire weekend away with the people you love, then a Highlands, NC wedding could be the perfect choice.

Tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Highlands has a character unlike any other place in the area.

There are waterfalls and mountain trails just outside town, while downtown itself is walkable and filled with restaurants, boutiques, galleries, and charming places to stay.

Having photographed many weddings in Highlands, NC over the years, we’ve seen firsthand how much the location becomes part of the wedding experience.

We’ve also learned that weddings in the mountains come with their own planning considerations, especially when many of your guests are traveling from out of town.

If you’re considering or already planning a Highlands wedding, here are some of the things I recommend thinking about.

Decide What You Want Your Highlands Wedding Weekend to Look Like

Before you start comparing venues or filling your weekend itinerary, think about the experience you actually want to create.

Highlands lends itself beautifully to destination weddings because there’s enough here to make the trip worthwhile beyond the wedding itself.

You might picture everyone staying together at a mountain property, with a welcome dinner the first night and brunch before everyone heads home.

Or perhaps you’d prefer guests to stay around downtown Highlands so they can explore independently between celebrations.

Whether you fill the weekend with activities or leave plenty of free time, deciding what you want your Highlands wedding weekend to include will make many of the decisions that follow much easier.

Choose Your Highlands Wedding Venue Early

Highlands may be a small town, but it has some exceptional wedding venues, and the most sought-after dates can go quickly.

The Farm at Old Edwards is one I recommend time and time again for couples wanting a larger luxury celebration. 

Half-Mile Farm at Old Edwards offers something more intimate, with a lakefront setting and accommodations right on the property.

Nearby, High Hampton Resort offers a sprawling mountain resort experience, while Lonesome Valley is surrounded by some of the area’s most dramatic natural scenery.

We’ve had the opportunity to photograph weddings at several of these properties, and one of the things we appreciate about Highlands is that the venues genuinely don’t all feel alike.

If you’re still deciding where to celebrate, we’ve put together a separate guide to my favorite Highlands, NC wedding venues, where we go into much more detail about what makes each property different.

Once you’ve narrowed down your favorites, I recommend visiting them in person whenever possible. 

Photographs can show you how a venue looks, but walking through the property will give you a much better sense of whether you can picture your own wedding happening there.

Think Carefully About the Time of Year

The seasons you choose for your wedding will influence everything from your scenery and timeline to how your wedding weekend feels.

Summer is especially appealing for Highlands, NC weddings because temperatures tend to be cooler than many lower-elevation destinations throughout the Southeast. The longer days also give you plenty of daylight for outdoor celebrations.

Fall brings changing leaves and rich color, and is also an incredibly popular time to visit the Highlands, so securing your venue and accommodations early becomes even more important.

Spring brings fresh greenery and flowers back into the landscape, while winter weddings are often very cozy. 

Whatever season you choose for your Highlands North Carolina wedding, remember that you’re still in the mountains. 

Temperatures and weather can change quickly, so an outdoor ceremony should always come with a backup plan you would genuinely be happy to use.

Think About Where Your Guests Will Stay

Accommodation has a bigger influence on the wedding weekend than you might expect.

While choosing your venue, think about the people you’re inviting and what type of accommodation will work best for them.

You should also consider how everyone will get between their accommodations and your venue. 

If guests won’t have cars or you expect people to be drinking, arranging transportation ahead of time is one less thing anyone needs to think about on the wedding day.

Some Highlands properties allow guests to stay right where the celebration is happening. 

For other Highlands weddings, staying around downtown may make more sense.

That way guests can walk to restaurants, grab coffee in the morning, browse the shops, and enjoy Highlands independently rather than relying on you to organize every part of their trip.

Make Traveling to Highlands Easy for Your Guests

Part of the charm of a Highlands wedding is that you really do feel as though you’ve escaped to the mountains when you arrive.

The tradeoff is that getting here requires a little more planning than flying directly into a major city.

Many out-of-town guests fly into Atlanta and continue to Highlands by car. 

Depending on where everyone is traveling from, other regional airports may also make sense.

While planning your Highlands wedding, work out realistic driving times, airport options, and transportation details for your guests. 

Doing this makes the experience less stressful for them and also means fewer calls and questions for you as your wedding date gets closer.

Whatever you decide to recommend, send the information well in advance. 

If guests will be driving mountain roads for the first time, arriving during daylight hours can also make the trip more comfortable.

For a Highlands destination wedding, we’d encourage guests to arrive at least the day before the wedding whenever possible. 

That gives everyone time to check in, get settled, and actually enjoy the place they’ve traveled to celebrate with you.

Build a Vendor Team That Knows Highlands

A wonderful planner is valuable for any wedding, but local knowledge becomes especially helpful when you’re planning a Highlands wedding from another city or state.

Someone familiar with the area will already understand the venues, mountain roads, accommodations, transportation, local vendors, and all the little details that may not be obvious from afar.

This becomes even more valuable when your wedding spans several days. 

A welcome party, rehearsal dinner, wedding day, and farewell brunch each come with their own schedules, vendors, setup times, and transportation needs.

The same goes for the rest of your vendor team. 

They don’t necessarily need to live in Highlands, but experience working in the area or with destination mountain weddings can make a big difference. 

Changing weather, venue access, travel times, and other logistical details are much easier to manage when your vendors already know what to expect.

We also recommend choosing people who work well together. 

Your planner, venue team, photographer, florist, caterer, entertainment, and other vendors should be able to communicate and solve problems behind the scenes without constantly bringing you into the conversation.

There are a lot of moving pieces behind a beautiful Highlands, NC wedding. With an experienced team handling them, you get to spend far more of your weekend actually celebrating.

Build Your Wedding Timeline Around the Mountains

Timelines matter for every wedding, but when you’re planning a Highlands wedding, the mountains add a few things worth considering.

Start with travel time. 

Mountain roads can make even relatively short distances take longer than expected, especially if your guests are moving between hotels, your ceremony, and the reception. 

If you’re using more than one location, building a little extra time between events can prevent one small delay from affecting everything that follows.

Weather and daylight matter, too. 

The sun may officially set at a certain time, but surrounding peaks and trees can change when your venue actually loses light.

Temperatures can also drop as evening approaches, which is worth considering if you’re planning an outdoor ceremony, cocktail hour, or dinner.

Your timeline will affect the guest experience as well. Think about how long people will wait between the ceremony and reception, when they’ll have time to eat, and whether you’re asking them to travel several times throughout the day. 

Photography is another piece of the puzzle. 

We always look at where you’re getting ready, whether you’re planning a first look, your ceremony time, portrait locations, and when you want to join cocktail hour. 

Those details help us use the best available light without requiring you to build your entire wedding day around photographs.

Most importantly, leave yourself some flexibility. 

A thoughtful timeline gives you room for changing mountain weather, a shuttle running a few minutes late, an unexpectedly beautiful patch of light, or ten extra minutes spent talking with someone you haven’t seen in years.

Planning a Highlands, NC Wedding That Feels Like Yours

There are plenty of practical decisions involved in planning a destination wedding, but Highlands gives you an incredible place to begin.

The mountain scenery, beautiful venues, wonderful hospitality, and charming downtown make a Highlands North Carolina wedding an experience your guests can enjoy for an entire weekend.

After documenting weddings throughout Highlands and the surrounding mountains, we’ve learned that the same destination can look completely different from one celebration to the next. 

Your venue, season, traditions, and personalities are what make it yours.

If you’d like to see more North Carolina weddings we’ve photographed, you can explore my portfolio here.

And if our work resonates with you, we’d love to hear what you’re envisioning and document the complete story of your Highlands, NC wedding.