Wahoo! Grill Wedding Photographer

Behind the restaurant in Decatur there’s a walled courtyard full of ivy and trees, and it’s one of the loveliest places in Atlanta to get married if you’re keeping the numbers down. Brick underfoot, a shade sail stretched overhead, and greenery closing in on every side.

We’ve shot everything here from a small autumn ceremony to a bright, bold spring day, and the courtyard takes both without blinking.

The courtyard

The ceremony space is a brick-paved courtyard surrounded by ivy and trees, with a shade sail stretched overhead and wicker chairs set along the aisle. It feels enclosed and green, more like a garden someone has been tending for years than an events space.

The sail is a genuine help to us. It softens the light overhead, so a midday or early-afternoon ceremony doesn’t give you harsh shadows across everybody’s faces — and it means a shower doesn’t send your guests running.

Couples dress the front of the courtyard very differently. One used a birch arch covered in greenery and white flowers; another stood a ring of pampas grass in the garden and got married in front of it. Both looked completely at home.

Your ceremony

These are small weddings, and that’s the point of the place. Guests sit close enough that you can hear everything, and there’s no back row — which means the photographs are full of faces rather than the backs of heads.

The brick aisle runs straight back through the courtyard, so a processional and a recessional both have somewhere to go, and the greenery closes in behind you.

Portraits around Decatur

Step out of the courtyard and you’re in Decatur. Brick walls, a yellow-washed wall we keep coming back to, stone steps and a couple of quiet alleys — all within a minute or two of the door, so you’re not losing half an hour of your day travelling to a portrait spot.

One couple brought smoke bombs and we used them in the lane beside the building. If you’ve got an idea like that, tell us early and we’ll work out where it can happen.

Dinner, and the food

Wahoo! Grill caters its own weddings, which takes an entire vendor off your list. The tables go out in the courtyard or inside depending on the season and the numbers, and dinner is properly served rather than lined up at a buffet table.

Florals from Lupins & Lava and Moss & Clay have gone down these tables in long low troughs, and the cakes we’ve photographed here — a chocolate buttercream, a part-naked one dressed with dark blooms — were cut out in the courtyard.

Dancing on the patio

Once dinner is cleared the patio takes over, with string lights strung overhead and a canopy above the floor. It’s a small dance floor and it fills fast, which we’d take over a big empty one every time.

The send-off

Send-offs go out through the front, and because everything is close together your guests can line the path without much organizing. One couple left through bubbles with the lights still on behind them.

Wahoo! Grill weddings on the blog

Wahoo! Grill Wedding — a bright, colorful spring wedding with a raspberry suit, a jewel-toned bouquet built around a protea, a pampas grass ring at the ceremony, and a bubble send-off. Florals by Lupins & Lava, cake by Rhodes Bakery.

Wahoo! Grill Intimate Wedding — a small autumn ceremony in the courtyard with just close friends and family, a birch arch, dahlias and roses, and a chocolate buttercream cake. Florals by Moss & Clay, cake by Southern Sweets.

Planning an intimate wedding at Wahoo! Grill

If you’re planning something small, this is a venue built for it. We included Wahoo! Grill in our guide to seven places for an intimate wedding or elopement for exactly that reason — good food, a dedicated space, and staff who do this often.

Because the venue caters, your vendor list is shorter than usual. Our Atlanta wedding vendor guide covers the florists, bakers, bands and officiants we work alongside for the rest of it, and Moss & Clay wrote us a guest post on staying inside a flower budget that is worth a read while you’re planning.

A smaller wedding also means a shorter timeline, and you’ll have more time than you expect. Our wedding photo timeline examples include a version for a day like this one.

Photographing your wedding at Wahoo! Grill

We’re Love & Story Photography, and we photograph weddings across Atlanta and north Georgia. Decatur is an easy one for us, and we know the courtyard and the walls around it well.

If you’re comparing venues, our Roswell Mill, Venue at Sharp Mountain, Callaway Gardens and Summerour Studio galleries cover a mill and waterfall, a mountain venue, a lakeside chapel and a city studio.

And if you’re booked at Wahoo! Grill, or you’re still deciding, get in touch and tell us about your day. We’d love to hear what you’re planning.