Why Does Drayton Hall Not Host Weddings?

There are cultural and conservation-minded reasons why Drayton Hall Preservation Trust does not permit wedding ceremonies, receptions, proposals, or bridal portraits.

All events held at Drayton Hall must include time to engage with the site’s past and time to learn about our modern-day conservation efforts and all the responsibilities and opportunities they bring.

Drayton Hall is a historic plantation site where enslaved people were held and forced to labor from 1738 until 1865. Because this is a place for reverence and memory, it’s important for us not to allow events that romanticize or trivialize the site’s history as a site of enslavement.

This is a place for education, conversation, and events that commemorate and honor people who were held in bondage here in the past. We believe honoring them requires both recognizing their achievements and acknowledging their suffering, and painting a false picture of a peaceful, romantic plantation setting does not respect them, nor does it in any way reflect the realities of life at the plantation in the past.

If you would like to read documents kept at Drayton Hall historically, including Charles Drayton I’s diaries, which alone included the first names of more than 190 enslaved people living across several plantations, you can visit the digital library here.   We also keep printed, transcribed copies of the diaries inside Drayton Hall.

Conservation of the site’s natural and built resources is also paramount in our decision-making. We are the stewards of three historic buildings and over 250 acres of a landscape that include one of the nation’s oldest continually-used African American cemeteries, a number of historic features, archaeological sites, forests, ponds, and countless species of animals.

To protect all of them, event-related materials are limited to things which will not harm any of our cultural or natural resources. Candles, streamers, balloons, and confetti are not allowed onsite

As part of the nationally significant Ashley River Historic District Corridor, Drayton Hall Preservation Trust conserves irreplaceable resources and interprets profoundly consequential history that requires our careful consideration of all planned events and programs.