Dream come true: Little white chapel in Murrells Inlet offers historic, picturesque wedding venue

Dream come true: Little white chapel in Murrells Inlet offers historic, picturesque wedding venue

As Sara Smith of Murrells Inlet stood at the altar dressed in white with her soon-to-be husband, Jerad Cook, she paused to take in the moment.

She was actually getting married in the little white chapel she’d dreamed of since she was a little girl every time she visited her grandparent’s Murrell Inlet home.

“This,” Sara recalled later when asked about her wedding at the chapel, “is my happy place.”

Officially called the Little Memorial Chapel and located on the campus of Murrells Inlet Presbyterian Church, Sara’s dream venue was built a century ago and is the oldest remaining church sanctuary in Murrells Inlet. This beautiful and historic building is now available to couples as the newest wedding venue on South Carolina’s Hammock Coast®. The project to open the chapel for weddings and special events has been years in the making.

The Murrells Inlet facility is now an affordable and special place for those searching for a place to hold a wedding in South Carolina and near the beach.

Destination weddings have become very popular in recent years, and many people are looking for a place to exchange vows on or near the beach. On the Hammock Coast, those areas include Murrells Inlet, southern Garden City, Litchfield Beach, and Pawleys Island. Locations such as Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, the Kaminski House and Hopsewee Plantation in Georgetown, the Pawleys Island Chapel on the historic barrier island and routinely host multiple weddings every year.

Now the Little Memorial Chapel – sometimes referred to as the “Little White Chapel” – can also serve the needs of couples looking for a unique and romantic place to say, “I do!”

Growing up, Sara’s family would vacation at a house that her grandparents purchased in 1980. Nearby was the chapel, and Sara fondly recalls often walking by and wondering what a wedding would be like there.

Jerad is studying to be an elementary school teacher, and Sara works as a nurse at the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital. When they looked around for a place to settle, the couple decided to make the family’s vacation house in Murrells Inlet their home.

“We decided to move here, put some roots down and have children of our own here,” Sara said.

Sara and Jerad recited their vows in the chapel on Nov. 1, 2023, with a small number of family, including her mother, Toni Smith, and her grandmother, Gloria Jean Brown. The Rev. John H. Hopkins performed the ceremony. Renovations were still under way at the chapel when the couple married there, and it’s now fully remodeled.

“To get married in this chapel has always been my dream since I was a little girl,” Sara said. “To have all three generations there to enjoy it together, it was pretty special. We hope one day that our children will want to get married in the chapel, too.”

Jerad says he’s so glad the chapel was available.

“One of the coolest things about it is that Sara spent so much time here growing up; it’s always been part of her life,” he said. “So that’s really great, to incorporate that into such a momentous step in our lives, getting married.”

Sara’s grandmother, Gloria Jean Brown, said she and her husband, Don, bought the house in Murrells Inlet to go on vacation with neighbors of theirs in North Carolina.

“It was our special place to relax and enjoy being with our friends,” she said. “When Sara was born in 1988, she was there with us every time we went.”

Gloria Jean said that Sara called it the “Land of OK” when she was little and always wanted to go see the chapel.

“It was our wish that she would always enjoy it like we did,” she said. “It’s like a fairy tale come true that she got married there.”

History of the chapel

The Little Memorial Chapel is the oldest remaining church sanctuary in Murrells Inlet, built by J.W. Little and a group of parishioners in 1925. It was dedicated on June 21 of that year and had 20 charter members. In 1946, the name of the building was changed to Little Memorial Chapel in memory of Mr. Little.

In 1965, planning for a new church building, eventually named Murrells Inlet Presbyterian Church, was under way. It was dedicated in 1970, after the original chapel had served the congregation for 45 years. After 1970, the chapel was used for special programs but eventually fell into disrepair.

Over the past three years, Al and Lynn Smith, members of Murrells Inlet Presbyterian Church, have led efforts to refurbish the chapel and offer it as a wedding venue. As an elder in charge of buildings and grounds at Murrells Inlet Presbyterian Church, Smith said budget restraints made it impossible to complete the project without help from the community.

“It reminded me of my small church and chapel that I attended in rural New York as a child,” Al Smith said, “so it is very special to me.”

Repairs and restoration, made possible by contributions by local businesses and the community, included replacing rotted siding, six sanctuary windows, and doors; changing the wiring; adding insulation on the water line; painting; repairing pews; installing new heart pine flooring in the sanctuary; bathroom and kitchen upgrades; landscaping; and rebuilding a handicap access ramp. An organ was also donated by church members.

A wedding venue

“Now it looks pretty much the same as it did 100 years ago,” Al Smith said. “I am so excited that we can now offer it as a wedding venue.”

He said it is available for intimate Christian weddings starting at a minimum of $350 to a maximum of less than $1,000. Couples can choose to have a pastor, organ music, piano music, a custodian, a wedding planner, etc. For more information, click here.

“We will work with couples to create their perfect wedding day, and we understand the costs of a wedding can be tough,” Smith said. “This is our opportunity to give back to the community that generously helped restore this little white chapel.”

Murrells Inlet Presbyterian Church invites the community to celebrate the chapel’s 100^th year anniversary on June 21 with all-day music, food trucks, tours of the chapel, and games. The Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce will also hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the church that day.

“Come out and help us celebrate the Little Memorial Chapel,” Smith said. “With its history and beautiful grounds, it’s the perfect place for those seeking a small wedding venue.”

By Clayton Stairs / tourism manager for the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce and South Carolina’s Hammock Coast®