Calling ALL ladies - My dream outdoor wedding

Knottie85273919

Calling all ladies!
 I have been giving a lot of thought to what I want my big day to be all about, and one thing that keeps coming to mind is...COMFORT. I'm an August baby and having my wedding next to some body or form of water is almost a must. Keeping that in mind I'd prefer to have an early-mid June wedding and I'd really like your feedback (is this wedding something you'd be excited to attend? Do you think it's tacky? What are some things you could see going wrong with this idea?) on what I've come up with. 

 I want to rent a large beach house, preferably one that sleeps 12-15 people, I'd like to be able to have our rehearsal dinner and have our wedding party be able to spend the night in the beach house that way the morning of the wedding everyone is already there, and things won't (hopefully) be so hectic. I'd like to have the ceremony on the beach, and then have everyone walk back up for a laid back beach-day reception. We're not the type to have really formal events, so having a "back yard" reception on the beach is right up our ally. I was thinking it would be great if we rented the house for a week, and be able to use the house as our honeymoon after all is said and done. 

I've thought about location, and catering. My main concerns are finding a house to rent for us to have our special day at, and chair/table rentals for our ceremony and reception. 

What are your thoughts?  

jenijoyk

I have two thoughts. The first is that I went to a summer lakeside wedding once, and there were so many mosquitos. It was so miserable.

Second thought is that if it's hard for you to find a house to rent, it will probably be hard for your guests to find houses to rent. My friends attended a wedding in a pretty rural area, and a few groups of guests snatched up the few available houses to rent together, everyone else was stuck in a hotel about 45 minutes away. My friends felt like they spent hours in the car, driving back and forth.

Also, some of your wedding party will probably want to spend the night before your wedding with their SOs, if they have them, and especially if its a destination wedding and their SOs traveled far to come, so hopefully the house you rent will accomodate them too?

southernbelle0915

Beach weddings can be gorgeous! 

Some things to think about:

- What is your plan B in case of inclement weather (cold, wind, rain, etc.)?

- Do you have elderly/handicapped guests who cannot navigate the sand?

- Do you really want to coordinate a beach house for that many people? Sometimes that kind of thing is a total nightmare. For ease and simplicity, I would just get a 1 or 2 BR beach house and have it be just "bridal headquarters" for you and your FI. Then use it for your HM. Get a block of rooms at a nearby hotel and let people keep all their junk, weird sleeping habits, messiness, significant others, and everything else there.

- Will the beach be private? Unless it's private frontage, be prepared for crashers to be rude and get in the background of your photos.

- Can you have equipment on the beach (sound, chairs, etc.)?

KatWAG

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Knottie85273919 said:

Calling all ladies!
 I have been giving a lot of thought to what I want my big day to be all about, and one thing that keeps coming to mind is...COMFORT. I'm an August baby and having my wedding next to some body or form of water is almost a must. Keeping that in mind I'd prefer to have an early-mid June wedding and I'd really like your feedback (is this wedding something you'd be excited to attend? Do you think it's tacky? What are some things you could see going wrong with this idea?) on what I've come up with. 

 I want to rent a large beach house, preferably one that sleeps 12-15 people, I'd like to be able to have our rehearsal dinner and have our wedding party be able to spend the night in the beach house that way the morning of the wedding everyone is already there, and things won't (hopefully) be so hectic. I'd like to have the ceremony on the beach, and then have everyone walk back up for a laid back beach-day reception. We're not the type to have really formal events, so having a "back yard" reception on the beach is right up our ally. I was thinking it would be great if we rented the house for a week, and be able to use the house as our honeymoon after all is said and done. 

I've thought about location, and catering. My main concerns are finding a house to rent for us to have our special day at, and chair/table rentals for our ceremony and reception. 

What are your thoughts?  

I think this could be lovely. But I agree that that you are going to need a back up plan. Do you have any idea where you are planning to have this event? If you had a general area, we could provide better advice.

Have you thought about parking? If you rent a house for the wedding, where will all your guests park?

Also, you plan on paying for this house yourself right? As in not asking your wedding party to chip in? Because that would be like asking your wedding party to pay for your venue.

Would you be okay with your wedding party not wanting to stay at the beach house? Where will the wedding party stay after the reception? At the beach house? or would you and H want to start yoru HM right away?

If you have your rehearsal dinner at the beach house, who is going to clean up between the RD and the ceremony the next morning?

[Deleted User]

Would I attend a wedding along water? Yes, I have, it was a small lake and it was beautiful.  think it could be nice depending on how many people in total would be there. Things to consider

• You need to disclose at the time of rental that you plan on having a wedding & reception there. Not all owners will allow that type of an event at their homes because there is a larger liability issue to the owner due to number of guests & also the amount of trash & clean up involved would be more then a normal rental unless you only invite the number of people that the house will sleep
• You'll have to rent tables & chairs for everyone
• You may need to rent a tent in case of bad weather or even shade from the sun depending on the size of the house & the number of guests
• You need to take into consideration the number of people staying at the house trying to get ready for the wedding and the number of bathrooms. You don't want 12 people staying there and only 2-3 showers, else everyone will really have to coordinate shower times to make sure everyone is ready on time and that could be a nightmare (or even running out of hot water)
• Do you care if you see groom or not before the ceremony, if you don't want to see each other, someone will need to stay somewhere else
• Will you be footing the bill for everyone for their stay & who will pay for all the food for the time frame your guests are there? Or will it be fend for yourself?
• Also what is parking like? Will the property be able to accomodate for the number of cars for people that will stay overnight & for the other guests who come in just for the day?
• Who will be doing all of the set up for the reception? You can't assume bridal party & family will do it
• Who will do all the cooking, even with backyard style event, you need to have a caterer so that your family & friends can enjoy your wedding day instead of working the whole day.
• Depending on the number of guests you will have, will the bathrooms in the house be able to handle it or will you have to rent a port o pottie, something to ask when looking at houses to rent
• If you plan to have the event go into the evening, you need to plan for lighting, even if it's just torches
• Keep in mind that June is the start of prime vacation season, so prices will go up on the homes. Keep your options option to regular venues that are on water. Check out campgrounds, local parks, VFW venues or even some ethnic clubs (German, Italian, etc) may have private venues that have ponds and/or lakes on their properties so you can still have a water side ceremony and possibliy an outdoor reception but without all the above logistics.

I'm in no way saying don't do it, I'm just one to think of all the logistically things with planning and wanted to bring all the different things to your attention that you'll have to take into consideration when planning to rent a home for an event like this.

climbingsingle

I think this is a great idea. But definitely agree with PPs on all their points. Definitely have a back up plan. 

As far as mosquitoes go, I tend to think they're worse during the later summer months Where are you thinking of having this? 

msuprincess04

@erikan73 mentioned all the points I was thinking of.

We had the same idea at one point. However, our guest list was larger than any house would let us accomodate, and the rain possibility made it a logistical nightmare. Plus, it was pretty expensive per person to throw a party there on top of the house rental (we were told it was for extra clean-up fees). We did end up renting a large beach villa, and invited the wedding party to stay there. Some did and some didn't, it wasn't a big deal. Everyone came by the house in the morning to get ready and we did getting ready photos there.

Viczaesar

Knottie85273919 said:

Calling all ladies!
 I have been giving a lot of thought to what I want my big day to be all about, and one thing that keeps coming to mind is...COMFORT. I'm an August baby and having my wedding next to some body or form of water is almost a must. Keeping that in mind I'd prefer to have an early-mid June wedding and I'd really like your feedback (is this wedding something you'd be excited to attend? Do you think it's tacky? What are some things you could see going wrong with this idea?) on what I've come up with. 

 I want to rent a large beach house, preferably one that sleeps 12-15 people, I'd like to be able to have our rehearsal dinner and have our wedding party be able to spend the night in the beach house that way the morning of the wedding everyone is already there, and things won't (hopefully) be so hectic. I'd like to have the ceremony on the beach, and then have everyone walk back up for a laid back beach-day reception. We're not the type to have really formal events, so having a "back yard" reception on the beach is right up our ally. I was thinking it would be great if we rented the house for a week, and be able to use the house as our honeymoon after all is said and done. 

I've thought about location, and catering. My main concerns are finding a house to rent for us to have our special day at, and chair/table rentals for our ceremony and reception. 

What are your thoughts?  

What does that mean?