Captain Johnny/Captain Stewart (Sunset boat charter in Manteo)
On the Monday before our wedding, we treated all of our family and friends that were already in the OBX (already about 40 people!) to a sunset dinner cruise on Captain Johnny (the boat) with Captain Stewart (the little bit weird, down to business, and nice captain). The boat ride was great, we brought on Subway sandwich platters, chips, cookies, cokes, and beer. Even though we were warned that we might not, we saw several dolphins and I think that everyone had a great time! I would recommend doing this excursion with your family!
Holy Redeemer by the Sea/Fr. John Dorgan/Kim Kalman
We were set on a ceremony on the beach, but had a Catholic blessing at Holy Redeemer in the morning with just our parents and siblings invited. The church is beautiful. Fr. Dorgan is an eccentric, loveable old guy. Val who coordinates the weddings at Holy Redeemer was also very helpful and great to work with. Kim Kalman was also great to work with, gave us a deal on the music, and sings beautifully.
Metro Rentals
We had no problem with them! They were a little cheaper than OAR would have been for us and were super helpful. They even held my reservation for several months so that I could wait to officially book in January when they were running their expo sale and saved me 15%. At one point they called and said that the wedding that day at the Grand Ritz Palm was short a couple cocktail tables so could they borrow some of the ones they had already delivered to us because they didn’t have enough time to send the truck back for more (was that you?). Of course I said yes, and then they brought them back (or gave us new ones?) in plenty of time for our reception.
Gertrude’s Breakaway in Corolla
We LOVED this house! It was great for the week and even better for the wedding! It has a huge yard that easily fit a 30 X 70 (AND lawn games for our welcome dinner). The deck is beautiful and we had cocktail tables set up on each level so that people could enjoy the view. My whole family really loved the house. My 2 year old nephew has cried several times since returning back to NM about missing the “ocean and my big house.” We also rented Belle of the South, R-Idyll, and Beach Dream Inn on the same street. All of the houses were great. You can’t beat the ocean views from Belle of the South.
Sweet-e-pies Cake
The cake was delicious and beautiful and cheap. Kay lime with fresh raspberry filling and chocolate with fresh strawberry filling. I didn’t have a chance to try the chocolate and all of the left over key lime was gone by Saturday night. Robin was good to work with.
Eden Day Spa for Mani/Pedis
We had an enjoyable time here. The prices were better than some of our other options and we could bring in food/champagne. We had about 10 people getting some combination of mani/pedis. I was a little disappointed in how my gel manicure held up, though.
Harris Teeter/Maggi
I bought stems from Maggi, who worked with me on my order and made great suggestions, and arranged myself and with my friends. We picked them up in Corolla. The flowers were beautiful and held up great. Communication with Maggi was a little touch and go, but it was all fine. One part of the shipment didn’t arrive until 1p on Friday, even though we were told it would be there at 10a. That was a little stressful for my aunt who was running the set up and had to finish mostly by herself because all the help had left by the time we got the last of the flowers.
DJ Barryoke
As a DJ he was great! He played what we wanted and filled in well otherwise. Everyone spent the whole night on the dance floor! For the ceremony on the beach, we had contracted for him to provide amplification for the officiant, the piano player, and the clarinetist. I was a little disappointed in the amplification quality (a few people in the back told me it was hard to hear, others in the back said they had no problem) and he only had one mic. There was also some disaster that I haven’t really figured out what happened with an extension cord and the piano; whatever it was worked out fine, although I think the answer lies with the man in construction work clothes who was helping himself to dinner and beer for a few minutes at the reception after being handed an extension cord my brother-in-law retrieved from Barry…
Black Pelican Catering
We first booked BP for the reception after eating at the restaurant (they have a weird policy about not doing tastings before booking). We then decided to use them for the welcome dinner that we also had at the house under the tent and received a double booking discount. I worked with Emily who was great! She had a baby about a month before my wedding, so I started working with Chrystal who was also great (but, understandably, swamped—I was kind of annoyed that it took several phone calls to pay our final balance). Overall, we were very pleased.
Welcome Dinner Fajita Bar: We went with the fajita bar as a nod to my home being in NM and our shared love of Mexican food. I wasn’t completely thrilled with the fajitas, though. They were fine, but nothing to write home about.
Reception NC BBQ: FANTASTIC!!! People were raving about the coconut shrimp, crab dip, potatoes, mac n cheese, BBQ, etc etc etc. We even ate ALL of the left overs the next day. We also used their bartender who was good and had no problem letting me cut the line or topping off my champagne several times while I was just standing near the bar talking. At the end of the night BP cleaned up well, had washed almost all of the plates and water glasses (that were mine, not rentals), and left all the leftover food packaged nicely in the fridge.
Coastal Shots Photography and Photobooth
I haven’t seen my pictures yet, but I know Ryan and his assistant Heather took A LOT. Ryan was good at emails, gave me a great deal, was super nice, and took all the shots I wanted (plus some!). The photobooth was a HUGE SUCCESS. Everyone loved it and the pictures that came out are priceless. From the very beginning I wanted a photobooth and Ryan helped make it happen and it was better than I could have wanted (if only I had been able to spend more time in it myself!!!). I’ll let you know when I get my pictures back how I feel about them.
Seafreeze Frozen Drink Machines
We rented two machines for the reception. They were a lot of fun, although one of them leaked and the other stopped working halfway through the night. Bummer, but they gave me a little break in the price. We made one alcoholic and the other nonalcoholic for the kids. I think everyone thought they were cute and a nice touch.
FOR SALE
I will have a lot of things for sale, including water glasses, table cloths, napkins, starfish and sand dollars, wine bottles cut to be candle holders, Christmas lights, gossamer, drink dispensers, galvanized buckets, etc etc etc. I’ll put up another post when I have a little more time to go through it all. In the meantime, if you’re interested in something specific, feel free to post here and I’ll get in touch with you!