Wedding DJ at The Lake House at Bulow in Johns Island, SC

The Space

The Lake House at Bulow is a lakeside home on 322 acres managed by Charleston County Parks and Recreation, on Johns Island near Red Top at Bulow County Park. The house sleeps up to 12 guests, with three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, a full kitchen, two living room areas, and an entertainment room, so the wedding party can stay on site rather than just visiting for the day.

Inside, the house keeps a Rumsford fireplace and a billiards table as part of its living space, giving it the feel of a real lake house rather than a rented event hall. Two porches and a patio look out over the lake, and event rentals here require a two night minimum stay in addition to the event fee, which fits a couple planning to use the property for more than just the ceremony day.

Capacity & Layout

Events on the property can run up to 150 guests, which sets the scale here as an intimate to mid-sized wedding rather than a large ballroom crowd. The ceremony site is a small island on the lake, reached by a bridge and framed by pine trees, a setting that puts the water and trees directly behind the couple during the vows rather than off in the background.

If weather does not cooperate, the upstairs balcony serves as an indoor alternative for the ceremony, so the wedding is not entirely weather-dependent despite the outdoor island setting. The deck is built for dining and dancing with lake views, the natural spot for the reception once the ceremony on the island wraps up.

Amenities

Because the house sleeps 12, it functions as both a wedding party’s lodging and the event site, cutting down on the coordination of shuttling everyone to and from a separate hotel. Mosquito spraying is available as an add-on for $200, worth knowing for an outdoor lowcountry wedding near the water.

The property backs up to water where local alligators live, a detail the venue itself notes, simply part of the setting on a lowcountry lake property like this one rather than anything unusual for Johns Island. Between the fireplace, billiards table, porches, and patio, the house gives guests places to gather in small groups before and after the formal parts of the day, so the evening does not have to stay confined to the deck alone.

Location & Getting There

The property sits on Johns Island near Red Top at Bulow County Park, on 322 acres that the county purchased with an eye toward a future regional park, which means the land around the house is protected from nearby development for now, and the view across the lake from the deck and patio is unlikely to change from what a couple sees when they book the date.

We have worked a wedding at this property, and the split between the open-air island ceremony and the covered deck reception matters for sound: the island setting is fully outdoors and open, so a compact ceremony system works best there, while the deck gives a DJ a defined, partly enclosed space to run music for dinner and dancing once the group moves back to the house.