New and a few questions :) (kinda long b/c i like to ramble - sorry)

soontobeamrs2012

Hi Ladies!

We haven't set anything in stone yet, but we are thinking about a wedding in Florida.  My fiance and I (my name is Donna) (and most of our family is from Baltimore), so this would be a DW for us.  We've been engaged for 3.5 years (long, I know) and hoping to get something planned in the near future - if I could just stick with one idea and go with it   I look forward to hopefully sticking with this Florida idea and getting to know each of you better and helping us all thru this process!

Anyway, to wedding questions - So far I've found the Sandbar Restaraunt in my research and that just seems ideal for what I'm looking for since this whole wedding planning thing has had me 100% stressed out and trust me when I say I've looked at every possible option locally and DW at least 100 times each....eeek, just thinking about it stresses me out again.

So my questions to you local or DW Florida brides.  What do you know about Anna Maria Island - more specifically Sandbar and any good recomendations for lodging (especially for the out of town guests we will have and a special place for the honeymoon night)?

My second (or third or fourth, sorry I've lost track), I've seen a few recs for Julie Perez from Chic in Fabulous Planning (I believe that was the name I've seen mentioned).  What do her packages consist of and cost on average.  It seems like a lot of you are using her and happy with her??

Thanks in advance.

coraleetbwed

I think she tailors her packages according to each individual bride and to exactly what the bride wants.  She doesn't do "cookie cutter" weddings.

Check out her site:

http://chicdesignsnfabulousevents.blogspot.com/

kkmcnear

We did a DW wedding on Anna Maria Island last summer and it was beautiful!

The lodging on the island is mostly privately owned hotels and condos, no chain hotels.  It was nice and quaint, but a little more expensive than the chains.  We wanted guests to have options so we blocked rooms at the Tortuga Inn (on the island) and also at the Holiday Inn Express (it is not on the island and about a 15 minute drive).  In the end most of our guests ended up making their own reservations at different places on the island.  It ended up fine.

We stayed at the Tortuga Inn for our wedding night and it was very nice.  I would definitely recommend it.

We got married at the Gulf Drive Cafe Tiki Hut.  It was great!  The Sandbar is really nice, too.

Congrats and Good Luck!