When to start planning things & vendor help

Beachgirl624 · May 2014

Hello!

We are getting married on Hatteras in May 2015. We already have our date and place nailed down. I am curious as to when I should be looking into cake and florist in NC? I am from Ohio and planning it from here... but we are going to go down in the fall to meet with bakers and florists. I don't know if it should be earlier in the year like summer or late summer to meet with them.

Does anyone have any good florist or cake bakers that they used?

Thanks so much!

OBX2011 · May 2014

Hello and welcome! It's never really too early to start planning things. Have you booked your officiant, caterer, DJ and photographer yet? They tend to book up pretty fast, so I recommend booking those before your cake and florist. Meeting with your vendors in the fall is a good time frame. Between now and then, start looking into your DJ, officiant and photographer and you could possibly schedule a meet n greet when you go down in the fall. Get pricing together now for cake and florists to determine who fits your budget the best and then schedule your tastings for the fall. I would also schedule a tasting for your careering as well. Try to get as much done as you can during your visit. I definitely recommend scrolling through all of the pages as there are tons of posts that will help you out. Also, look into the Outer Banks Wedding Assoc for vendors, real weddings, accommodations for guests, etc. They have it all in one spot for you

. We used Atlantic Cake Co. and Susan was by far one of my easiest vendors to work with. Great communication and everything was as she promised. Her cakes are delicious, but that comes down to a matter of tastes. I thought Just Desserts was too sweet but others liked them, so that is only something you and your FI's taste buds can decide. We did our own flowers for the bridesmaids and the guys boutonieres (sp?) and purchased the flowersat Harris Teeter, which several of us have done. I did have them make my bouquet. Even though I really liked my bouquet, I didn't necessarily love it and looking back, wished I would've had that done by a wedding flower pro. You will also find some posts that relate to Hatteras as we have several HI brides on here as well. If there is absolutely anything you need, please don't hesitate to ask. It can be hard planning a wedding from afar, but this board will hopefully make things easier for you. Happy Planning

P.S. Apparently my IPad doesn't like paragraphs on here, sorry

OBX2011 · May 2014

And I totally give up Trying to edit this on my IPad. It doesn't like paragraphs and is spelling everything wrong.....grrrrr.

Beachgirl624 · July 2014

Thank you so much for the information. The only thing we have booked so far is the beach house that we are getting married at and our photographer who we are bringing down from Ohio. It looks like Ocean Atlantic sounds is pretty good for rentals. I wrote down the atlantic cake company to check out in September while we are there. It just seems like there is no one even close to Hatteras island and it is making everything so expensive with the delivery fees! I am wedding photographer in Ohio and I know the general amounts for all budgets and vendors here, so it is an eye opening experience as most of things almost double the amount that they are in Ohio - especially officiants!

OBX2011 · August 2014

We do have another Hatteras bride. I'll see if she can come by and help you out with the vendors she used

hibiscus118 · August 2014

Hi there! I would start booking ASAP! The good vendors always go quickly. I had a lot of time to plan and knew who I wanted so I put down deposits about a year in advance. For flowers I used Every Blooming Thing in Frisco. Ginny is the owner and she was amazing to work with. Oddly enough, she also did not the a deposit, but that was awhile ago and things may have changed. My flowers were perfect and lasted the entire week. They still looked like new the day we left to come home. The cake person we used is no longer in business it's to bad as it was the best wedding cake we've ever come across. For our officiant, we used Bonnie from Hatteras Wedding Ministries. We loved her and she was very professional. She lives in Avon (I'm guessing she still does), which was nice because she was local and did not charge fees! Those were killer and why I chose vendors near Hatteras. That, and if the bridge was shut down we weren't out of luck. We didn't rent anything, but would have used Ocean Atlantic. The prices seemed high so we actually just made our own benches and brought them down. My BIL is a carpenter so it was easier and cheaper. I used spa koru for nails. They were fine. In hindsight I would have rather had my nails done at home with acrylics instead of my short natural nails. But my MIL booked me there before I could really think about anything lol It's funny you mention prices being high for everything. I thought we got off relatively cheap because we live in MD and everything is expensive here. Just goes to show you the differences of price in different locations!

mandafite821 · September 2014

Hey! I also was married in Hatteras. We used Ginny from every blooming thing for flowers. She was so fantastic. My flowers were completely fantastic and she even sent extra bouts for the guys in case anything happened to them. I would highly recommend her. I used Cake Hatteras for cupcakes for the reception. I did not get to try them because my guests ate them ALL!!! They also all raved about them for days afterwards. My mom even placed two cupcakes aside for the next day because she knew my husband and I didn't get to eat them during the reception, and then she got up and ate them the next morning herself. So off the recommendation of my guests, use Cake Hatteras. Lol. We also used Bonnie Williams for our officiant. She was so wonderful. She helped us customize our wedding ceremony to our liking. She was so sweet, and did such a lovely job. My photographer I brought with me from home. For food we used high cotton BBQ. Seriously, so good!!!! We used Bruce