Budget wedding at OBX

agentqshock

Hey there, I'm looking to do a destination wedding somewhere in the Outer Banks because I've heard so many great things about it. Our budget is very small but so is our guest list: $1,500 and about a dozen people likely to attend sometime between late July and early September 2012. Does anyone have recommendations for best locales in the Outer Banks for lodging as well as having a simple beach wedding ceremony? Any ideas about how to keep the cost of the ceremony down? We'd also like to thank those who travel to the wedding with a special meal of some kind - perhaps a barbecue or a brunch or maybe dinner. Thoughts? Thanks!

OBX2011

Congrats on your engagement and welcome to the board!

I would definitely recommend doing something in the off-season, which is before Memorial Day and after Labor day, as the rental rates for vacation homes are much much cheaper.  You could rent a beach house and have the ceremony right outside if you are doing an oceanfront home but if not, you could always use one the public beach accesses.  Keep in mind that oceanfront is going to cost more as well.  We were married 9/16/11 and the weather was perfect all week long.  Granted it is Hurricane season, but the odds are slim to none that it will actually happen during your week, but get trip insurance just in case.

Are you planning on going for the entire week?  If so, definitely rent a beach house.  If you are only planning on going for a long weekend, there are some homes that offer short-stays as well.

You could also do a simple dinner reception at a local restaurant or have BBQ catered directly at your beach home....which also allows for an Ipod so you can include some dancing as well.

At the top of the board is a sticky that provides a link to the OBX Wedding Assoc. where you can find a lot of different wedding info

Let us know if there is anything else we can do to help!  I think the biggest thing to determine right now is going to be if you go for an entire week or a short-stay, so you can determine whether or not you are staying within your budget. 

agentqshock

Thanks this is GREAT!  I had not considered renting oceanfront houses and doing the ceremony and reception right in front of where we would stay. Love that idea. I'm in grad school and working, so that makes the off-season a little harder simply because I have class! But we might look into that since Im sure as you indicated it would save money. My thought right now is that we (the groom and I) would only stay a long weekend to save money and vacation time for our honeymoon later in the year... but leave the option open to family to stay longer if they want to have more time there. Thanks for pointing me to the wedding assocation too. Great stuff!

OBX2011

You are more than welcome!  We are all here to help in any way that we can and many of us have been vacationing in OBX since we were kids, so we know the area pretty well.

Do you have any sort of spring break for Grad school?  Maybe you could do it then and that way you and FI could enjoy the entire week with family

WedOBX2012

Agree with OBX2011.  I would suggest the beach house route as well but not necessarily oceanfront ($$).  I would also suggest doing it right before if not Labor Day weekend so that you get a 3-day weekend for guests and a break on beach house prices and it doesn't cut into school time.
You could get a home in Duck or Southern Shores with a pool and a nice big deck that will house 12 people for $1400-$1700 (including insurance & taxes) for the week and split the costs w/your guests ($150/pp for the week!).  You could walk up or drive up to the beach access (which is private), have your ceremony ($450 for an officiant)  and then return to the house for a little party.  Coastal Provisions Catering offers drop-off catering that starts at $9.99 per person.  You could have your celebration inside or outside on the deck by bringing folding tables/chairs or you can rent them ($15/table, $3.50/chair). IPOD music is free.  Buy disposable linens/cutlery, hit up the brew-thru/liquor store for drinks.  Totally do-able for $1500 if you keep it small and simple.  Biggest expenses will be the house, officiant and food.  Happy Planning!

babygirl4

So I agree with everything you said in your post. However, you did not mention a cake. Any suggestions on saving money this item? Also I would love to hear your thoughts on my idea to buy my real flowers wholesale from Norfolk Flower Market and put my three bouquets together myself with some help from my bridesmaids. Saving a small fortune going this route.

OBX2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_north-carolina-outer-banks_budget-wedding-at-obx?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:598Discussion:2be87e6a-0801-41c2-8ae8-418bd79244a5Post:2573b2fd-e3ab-4635-8593-aa86e8a3fdc1">Re: Budget wedding at OBX</a>:
[QUOTE]So I agree with everything you said in your post. However, you did not mention a cake. Any suggestions on saving money this item? Also I would love to hear your thoughts on my idea to buy my real flowers wholesale from Norfolk Flower Market and put my three bouquets together myself with some help from my bridesmaids. Saving a small fortune going this route.
Posted by babygirl4[/QUOTE]

Are you in need of a cake company?  I worked with Susan at Atlantic Cake Co. and her cakes are soooo good!  I know a lot of the other brides have used Great Cakes or Just Desserts.

I think making your bouquets is a great way to save some money!  We actually purchased ours from Maggi at the Harris Teeter in Kitty Hawk and my MIL put together the BM's flowers, but I had Maggi do mine.  Again, several of the girls are using Harris Teeter, either to make their own or have Maggi make them b/c either way, they are still much cheaper than the big flower companies throughout OBX.

Hope this helps :)

keb2482

Babygirl - Definitely agree with OBX. I was going to order my loose gerbera daisies from Sam's Club and have them delivered but I wasn't sure if they'd deliver to the OBX, or what the deal would be.  I contacted Maggi at Harris Teeter and she gave me an even better price than Sam's Club! 

For cakes, I'm going with Argyles.  Deborah is hard to get a hold of but the cake is delicious!  Very reasonable pricing, I think.  Another option I've seen girls do to save money is get a beautiful three tiered cake stand and put individual round cakes on it.   I've also seen one round cake to cut on a top tier, and cupcakes on the lower tiers, or just cupcakes alone.  Good luck!