Wedding DJ at The Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards in Sunset, SC

The Space

The golf course at the center of this gated community was designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1999 on land in the South Carolina upstate, and it was later ranked 7th Best Private Course in the nation by Golf Digest. The community itself takes its name from vineyards of native muscadine grapes that wind through the property, a detail that shows up in the landscaping around the clubhouse and grounds rather than staying a footnote in the history.

The Keowee Vineyards Clubhouse is a 20,000-square-foot building overlooking the 18th green, with porches, terraces, and dining space built into the design. That combination, a large interior with multiple outdoor extensions, gives a couple more than one place to stage a wedding day: a formal dining room, an open terrace, and a covered porch, all inside one building.

Capacity & Layout

The Lakehouse offers three distinct seasonal spaces overlooking Lake Keowee: a dining room, a wraparound porch, and an open-air pavilion. That range means a couple can move a reception between an enclosed room and an open pavilion depending on the season, or split a single event across more than one of the three without leaving the building.

The clubhouse itself layers dining areas, lounges, and a pro shop across its 20,000 square feet, and the terraces overlooking the 18th green give an outdoor extension to whatever is happening indoors. Between the clubhouse and the Lakehouse, a couple has a formal indoor option and a lakeside, more open option on the same property.

Amenities

A full-service marina with boat slips and fuel services sits on Lake Keowee, an unusual amenity for a wedding property that opens the door to guests arriving by boat or a rehearsal dinner staged at the water’s edge. The equestrian center provides access to more than 200 miles of scenic riding trails through the Jocassee Gorges Wilderness Area, for a couple who wants that as part of the weekend.

A 10,000-square-foot Wellness Center offers fitness facilities, and six clay tennis courts round out the recreation available on site. For a wedding weekend rather than a single-day event, that matters, guests staying at the community have somewhere to spend Saturday morning beyond waiting around, whether that is the pool, the courts, or a ride out on the equestrian trails.

Location & Getting There

Lake Keowee itself runs more than 26 miles long, covers over 18,500 acres, and has more than 400 miles of shoreline, and eight holes on the golf course run directly along it. Five holes offer Blue Ridge Mountain views and five sit adjacent to Sumter National Forest, so the setting shifts between lake, mountain, and forest depending on where you are standing on the property.

The community sits about 40 minutes from Clemson, an hour from Greenville, and 90 minutes from Asheville, which puts it within reach for guests coming from any of those directions. Between the clubhouse’s enclosed dining room and the Lakehouse’s open-air pavilion, a DJ setup here has to account for both: a controlled indoor room for one part of the evening and open lake air for the other, with sound behaving very differently between the two.