Lighthouses make a beautiful backdrop for weddings, as well as a wonderful tourist stop for your guests. North Carolina is known nationwide for its beautiful lighthouses, making it the perfect place for a domestic destination wedding. With so many lighthouses to choose from, it’s a tourist’s dream come true.

Starting at the state’s northern portion is Currituck Beach Lighthouse. Currituck differs from other famous lighthouses, as it’s been left its natural brick color. Not only is it one of the few lighthouses open to the public, it also hosts weddings on location. Currituck still flashes nightly, allowing its visitors to reminisce on the times when it provided navigation to ships.

Head south to Nags Head and you’ll find Bodie Island Lighthouse, known for its black and white horizontal stripes. While visitors can’t climb Bodie, they can go inside its base, and its grassy grounds provide an ideal setting for a large wedding ceremony.

The most famous NC lighthouse is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, standing as the country’s tallest at 198.5 feet. It’s a beautiful setting for a wedding, either near its base or at the beach nearby; however brides should be reminded that because it’s so popular, there will likely be a lot of uninvited onlookers during the nuptials.

White in color, Ocracoke Lighthouse is NC’s second oldest operating lighthouse. While Ocracoke Lighthouse is a serene location, it is reachable only by ferry, has limited parking and is surrounded by wetlands. Therefore, it best serves small weddings of under 15 people.

Cape Lookout Lighthouse is easily recognizable, with its popular black and white diamond design. These diamonds serve the purpose of giving direction, the white diamonds point east and west, while the black diamonds point north and south. Also accessible only by ferry, this lighthouse still operates daily, flashing every 18 seconds.

Keep heading south and you’ll hit a final cluster of lighthouses on the southern portion of North Carolina’s coast. Two of these include Oak Island Lighthouse and Bald Head Island Lighthouse. Oak Island Lighthouse is colored three shades of grey and one of the lesser aesthetically pleasing of the NC lighthouses. Bald Head Island Lighthouse, also called ‘Old Baldy,’ can be visited by ferry; once you’re there, you can take a tour and then rent bikes or golf carts to see the sites.

So, whether you’re hoping to have a lighthouse as the main attraction of your Carolina wedding or just as a site for your guests to see while in town, they certainly have a one-of-a-kind appeal. For the former, be sure to contact nps.gov for wedding permit information.  Obtain all visitor information, such as tour times, ferry fees and much more at the town’s local Web sites. Also, visit MyCarolinaWedding.com for other wonderful Carolina wedding locations and ideas.