OBX Pricing

soontobeamrs2012

Hi ladies.

Contemplating a wedding in the beloved OBX.  I've been vacationing here since I was a baby and while planning a wedding, my thoughts just keep coming back here as the place to get married.

I'm trying to get an idea of what the cost range you have spent or are coming close to spending on your wedding (.  From what I can gather it seems pricier to have a wedidng at a private event home, rather than a venue - due to the cost of renting chairs, tables, linens, etc. If this is not true, please let me know!! 

For those of you using a venue, which venue are you using?  I'm thinking we won't have 50 people, so it will definitely be small.  Any advice/feedback you can give me would be greatly appreciated.  I'm trying to stay under 10K, and the further away from the amount, would make me even happier.  Do you think that's do-able??

Thanks so much!!!

OBX2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_north-carolina-outer-banks_obx-pricing?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:598Discussion:457bd2e9-5362-4672-9319-d173f8fa2daePost:0ac95f5a-5bad-4669-a6f3-d7344b854ebb">OBX Pricing</a>:
[QUOTE]Hi ladies. Contemplating a wedding in the beloved OBX.  I've been vacationing here since I was a baby and while planning a wedding, my thoughts just keep coming back here as the place to get married. I'm trying to get an idea of what the cost range you have spent or are coming close to spending on your wedding (.  From what I can gather it seems pricier to have a wedidng at a private event home, rather than a venue - due to the cost of renting chairs, tables, linens, etc. If this is not true, please let me know!!  For those of you using a venue, which venue are you using?  I'm thinking we won't have 50 people, so it will definitely be small.  Any advice/feedback you can give me would be greatly appreciated.  I'm trying to stay under 10K, and the further away from the amount, would make me even happier.  Do you think that's do-able?? Thanks so much!!!
Posted by soontobeamrs2012[/QUOTE]

You can definitely do a wedding for 50 people under $10k :)    Other than the reasons you mentioned above for an event home, the event fee they add on can really take up a large chunk of the budget. It really all comes down to what is going to work best for you and your family in the long run.  Personally, I had dreamed of a big white tented reception at an oceanfront event home, but once all of the pricing came together, we realized a venue was best for us.  The main reason being that the homeowners raised the weekly price by $2000 and that was just insane to us! That has happened to a few brides actually as the new prices aren't listed until mid to late October.  One of the biggest money saving things you can do is to have your wedding in the off-season if you can. The summer rates are pretty high, so choosing something before Mem Day and after Labor Day dramatically cuts the costs. For venues, you will find that a weekday can be cheaper than a weekend date.

We did rent an oceanfront home in S. Nags Head and had a beachfront ceremony with our reception at 108 Budleigh in Manteo, and I couldn't have been happier about it! Other than a freakishly chilly Sept day and gray skies, it was perfect! 

We saved money along the way by doing our own invites, which were just gorgeous! We also purchased our flowers down there and made our bouquets--except mine.  I had the florist do that one.  We also made the guys 'bouts too. I didn't want a lot of flowers at the wedding anyways, so we had sand centerpieces with shells and candles. I love white 5 finger starfish and those kind of became a theme throughout--in my bouquet & hair pins, the guys bouts as well as having tie backs on the chair in a windsor knot with a large white starfish affixed to it. The starfish really made the room pop and was a finishing touch to everything. I ended up selling the glass cylinders, shells and starfish to one of the other Knotties, who then passed them along to another and so-forth.  You can really save money by buying and selling to others, be it in your local area through Craigslist or here on the boards since it's all beach related.

One big resource and the best place to start is the Outer Banks Wedding Assoc. as they have "Real Weddings" to get ideas & inspiration from; their FB page also features some of our very own Knotties in their wedding blog!  It will also provide a complete listing of vendors.    <a href="http://www.outerbanksweddingassoc.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.outerbanksweddingassoc.org/</a>

To get you started on deciding between an event home vs. venue is to determine who you would want to stay in the house:  immediate family only?  wedding party and family? or maybe family has one home and you and FI have another place for yourselves?  My immediate family and 2 out of 4 BM's stayed in the "wedding house" and H and I stayed in our own place----I am soooo glad that I listened to him!  It was nice to have a quiet place to get away from all of the wedding week craziness and have some alone time.  If everyone is staying in the house together, most people look at it like a vacation and split the costs like normal--except the event fee of course, which whomever is paying for the wedding should cover.

Look at a few venues and get some ideas on pricing and then look at different event homes to see their pricing and especially the event fees and see where you stand.  Would you be able to take a trip down anytime soon to look at some places? 

I hope this helps!