Sweet Home Alabama: Then and Now – 12 Years Later

In this scene we see all the guests arriving at the Carmichael Plantation for Melanie and Andrew’s wedding. The wedding scenes were shot at this location about a week or so after the anvil scenes were filmed at the residence. The stormy clouds above the Carmichael home in the movie capture below are actually computer generated images. In fact, it was a bright, sunny day when this scene was filmed so an overhead tarp was installed to block out the majority of the sunlight and shield the backyard from shadows. The tarp was suspended from cables and covered the entire backyard of the Oak Hill home.

In the last scene shot at this location we see Melanie punching Mayor Hennings square in the face for saying to her mother, “go back to your double-wide and fry something.” We all know what happened next… the mayor went down, hard rain followed, and then Melanie took off looking for her groom. All good stuff! What you probably didn’t know was that the rain that showered all the guests at the very end of the scene was captured in a single take. Although it was sunny that day, it was also freezing outside due to the cold temperatures in mid-November. Since the actors, extras, and film crew were soaked after the first take a second take wasn’t even considered. So what we see in the movie was a cameraman, with his camera of course, and a couple of film crew members trying to escape the area before the camera that owned the shot captured them. You’d never see this blooper just by watching the movie, hence, why I shared it with you.

I snapped this photo of Savannah and myself as we were leaving the Oak Hill mansion. We had a great time touring the estate.

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