A couple of resources for you - The South Carolina Native Plant Society: http://scnps.org, and the Carolina forum here on Garden Web.

You might want to spend a little time getting to know the sun/shade conditions of the yard (watch how the sun travels across the area over a day); you may have more sun than you realize. Morning sun is the kindest sun in the South and each hour of it counts just as much as what some people consider "full overhead" sun. Afternoon sun is very harsh and there are plants that need to be protected from it in the South.

Georgia is similar to South Carolina; The Georgia Native Plant Society has some good lists and resources on it's website as well: http://www.gnps.org/.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden web forum for Carolinas