Wedding Just starting to plan my beach wedding......HELP!!

[msjewell]

Hi -

I just got engaged last week & am excited to start planning the wedding!! We recently moved to Florida from Iowa & have always wanted a beach wedding. My ideal wedding would be renting a large beach house, having the ceremony on the beach & the reception outside/around the pool of the house & do a "backyard bbq", i''m thinking steak & lobster..... We will have around 100 people attending & I was hoping that some of you may have some experience with having a beach wedding at a rented beach house & could give me some advice....I don''t even know where to start! Thanks!!

 

[luckystar112]

I wish I could help you but I can''t.

It sounds amazing!

 

[CJ2008]

Hi msjewell. Welcome!

An easy place to start would be to start searching for beach house rentals, if you know the area where you want to get married. But if the area is open for debate, then I would start by narrowing down the where.

Once you narrow down the area and where is a good place to look for rentals (maybe others can give you specifics, I would start by putting into Google "beach house rentals kissimmee florida" for example), you can get more detailed.

 

[Daydreamer7130]

Hello,

Someone not too long ago was just talking about their venue that sounds exactly like what you want. I wish I could remember more. Maybe you need to search the threads- I''m sure the thread will come up.

Good Luck!

 

[AceP]

I got married last month in the florida keys. it was similar to what you're describing, tho not identical. we rented a large house on the water that's surrounded by 10 other, smaller rental houses, filled by our family and friends (www.thecaribbeanresort.com). we had the ceremony on the pier, cocktails around the pool, and reception on the porch area - this was oceanside, but not beach. the property has a beach, tho you have to walk a bit to get to it, but i know people have had beach ceremonies and dinners there before. i could definitely give you more information, if you're interested. (we definitely did not love our caterer, so i would warn you about that, for one.) but the location was beautiful and we had a great great time, so let me know if you'd like to know more. i also posted a handful of non-pro pics a few weeks ago.

ETA - the pics: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/acep-and-mr-acep-call-it-a-day-wedding-day.81651/

Date: 4/24/2008 9:22:16 PM
Author:msjewell

Hi -

I just got engaged last week & am excited to start planning the wedding!! We recently moved to Florida from Iowa & have always wanted a beach wedding. My ideal wedding would be renting a large beach house, having the ceremony on the beach & the reception outside/around the pool of the house & do a 'backyard bbq', i'm thinking steak & lobster..... We will have around 100 people attending & I was hoping that some of you may have some experience with having a beach wedding at a rented beach house & could give me some advice....I don't even know where to start! Thanks!!

 

[Selkie]

NewEnglandLady did that for her wedding, her thread is here: NEL''s wedding. Her wedding was in Massachusetts.

 

[noelwr]

I had also originally wanted a beach wedding (in South Africa) but my fiance quickly got that out of my head with "What if it rains?" but you have much more predictable weather, so I will live vicariously through you. yay, for beach weddings!

 

[Gypsy]

Violet's Wedding coordinator hooked her up with a lovely private estate rental for her wedding. If it's in budget for you, call around to coordinators and see if they can score you a lovely private estate. With the number of people you want to have, you need a nice amount of room, and rentals... and coordinating the whole event will be a lot easier with help, IMO. Sounds like a blast though!


Theknot's local message boards are also very helpful for vendors (coordinators, venues...caterers). I suggest posting for some reccomendations on there as well. Stay away from the planning boards though, the ladies are all vicious.

Congrats on the engagement!!!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

It sounds like AceP did exactly what you're looking for.

We rented an estate for a week in Massachusetts and had my immediate family--who all live in the midwest--stay in the main house, aunts uncles and cousins stay in a converted boat house and my MOH and her sister stayed in a small 1 bedroom cabin on the property. But there were only 23 or so of us on the property (+3 dogs!) in total.I think it's a great idea for a small wedding, but here are some things to think about:

1. Parking. It wasn't an issue for us since our wedding was only 35 people, but if you have 100 guests and are renting a beach house in a neighborhood, you need to make sure that parking won't be an issue.
2. You have to be willing to do more work. Unlike traditional wedding venues, nothing is set up for you, nor is anybody there to take care of things like linens, dishes, tables, chairs, etc. so you have to do it all on your own. We had to set everything up on our own and you'd better believe that on my wedding night I was laughing the night away with a glass of wine in one hand and putting dirty plate in the other--we had to crate up all plates, glasses, silverware etc. that night so it could go back to the rental place in the morning. My family and I had a blast (we always clean up together at holiday events--but this time I was in a wedding dress), but it's not a good idea for the bride who doesn't want to lift a finger on her wedding day
3. Vendors need more detailed directions--most of them are only familiar with reception venues, so you need to make sure they know exactly how to get to the house. You don't want to have to worry about your caterer not showing up the day of!
4. You need to make sure it's legal. Some towns have strict rules about where you can be married and where you can't. You need to make sure the address is legal on your marriage certificate.

For me, the pros really outweighed the cons--I loved having my family there all week, I loved having them all together so we could have dinner every night, I loved that the wedding was so relaxed, I loved that I could choose any vendor I wanted and saved a lot of money that way, I loved it all, but it was definitely hard work!

ETA: I forgot to add that DH found the house on www.vrbo.com. We saw it, thought it would be perfect, called the owner to ask if it was legal/okay to have a wedding there, he said it was fine so long as it was fewer than 75 guests and we put down our deposit, it was really easy.

 

[msjewell]

Thank you for all of your help & suggestions!! I can see that I have A LOT of work & planning ahead of me!! My first step will be trying to find a home to accomadate the number of people that i anticipate coming, and I''ll have to go from there. Thanks again!!