The Knot Florida Magazine needs your help!

Knot Justine

Hey, Florida brides!

The Knot Florida Magazine is looking for insider tips from local brides. As you are planning (or planned!) your wedding, what is some of the best advice you have garnered that you can pass on to other brides in your area?

Topics could include:

1. Amazing vendors that made your planning go much more smoothly.
2. Secret local spots that made for gorgeous photos.
3. Things you wish you had known about planning a wedding in your area.

Leave your tip below and you might see it show up in our fall/winter issue!

TIA!

klw0022

1. Amazing vendors that made your planning go much more smoothly.- Publix for cakes, especially Greenwise for organic options
2. Secret local spots that made for gorgeous photos.- Tampa Theatre, University of Tampa, Tampa Art Museum, St pete Pier
3. Things you wish you had known about planning a wedding in your area.- Rentals for reception party; how to. Secret finds for reception locations/restaurants or catering companies that were more 'non-commercial'

princessthecat22

A couple tips I have learned as I am planning my Pinellas county wedding:

1. Local state parks have some amazing hidden locations that can make for a great wedding. For example getting married on the indian mound at Phillippe park with the water view and natural surrounds is truley unique and will keep you budget safe!

2. Farms, Yes fruit farms can make for a great wedding location. Plus most fruit farms dont advertise renting there location so you can really get a great deal. Imagine getting married in an orange grove with all those little white flowers on the trees when the season begins. Simply amazing.

3. A great vendor that I truely love to work with is the St. pete Community center. Not only are the simply stunning and dont look like a community center, you are getting use of multiple areas plus tables and chairs!

4. Things I would have like to known more about is the process of hiring a student photographer and musician to play at my wedding. I hear they are super cheap and just as great!

rehbkm2wed

1. Amazing vendors that made your planning go much more smoothly.

    My WEDDING COORDINATOR Staci from Unique Event Design!!  She is amazing and has made planning my wedding so fun and easy!!!

2. Secret local spots that made for gorgeous photos.

   Straub Park in St. Pete. There are blue lights in the trees that light up at night and it's gorgeous!!

Gorecbrie2011

1. Amazing vendors that made your planning go much more smoothly:

Jennifer at the Hyatt Clearwater has been wonderful! She is so responsive and on top of everything. She has made the planning process very stress-free.Our photographers, Scott and April from Life's Highlights are wonderful! They did such a unique and wonderful engagement shoot for us that I can only imagine what our wedding photos are going to look like! 
2. Secret local spots that made for gorgeous photos:My fiance and I met when I was living in NYC and we used to meet at Penn Station when he would come to visit me. We wanted to incorporate that into our engagement shoot, so I wore an "I Heart NY" t-shirt and we took photos at the old Tampa Union train station. The pictures inside and out on the tracks turned out so awesome and very unique. We get tons of compliments on them! Also, the Tampa Theatre. It's so old and glamorous and they put our names and info on their marquee while we took our pics and we used the pic for our Save The Date magnets (the pic in my signature on here). You have to arrange for them to do that, so call ahead.
3. Things you wish you had known about planning a wedding in your area. Places and vendors fill up fast! We got lucky by getting the Hyatt, but we really had to look at locations right away to get the exact date we wanted. A few other tips I can give: - Creat a separate email account for wedding info! We set up an email account to share and we use it for anything wedding related - vendors, etc. It's been a much easier way of communicating so we both have access to it and everything goes to one account vs. having to forward things from our personal accounts to each other. Easier to keep track of it all. Plus, emails from third party vendors don't clog up your personal email accounts. - Scout out local resources for things like programs, escort cards, etc. We took our Save The Date pic and had them printed on sticker paper at a local print shop (Gutcher's Quick Print) and ordered the "Save The Date Magnet Set" from Target for $30. We stuck the pictures on the magnets ourselves but Gutcher's took them back and cut them to size for us for $5. The whole process was much cheaper and we were able to get exactly what we wanted. We are designing our own programs and escort cards (with the help of a graphic designer friend) and having them printed there as well. - Give yourself plenty of time! I used to wonder why friends of mine would get everything done and over with so soon and now I understand. It's better to give yourself plenty of time and try to get the big things over with so that you can leave the last month or two for smaller things like any DIY projects or last minute touches you didn't think of before. - Number your RSVP cards. A friend of mine did this and I thought it was a great idea. Create a spreadsheet of all the people you are sending invites to. When you are stuffing the invitations, look at the number that corresponds to that person's name on the spreadsheet and write it on the back corner of the RSVP card in tiny numbers (so it's not really noticeable - no one is going to turn it over anyway). If someone should send back an RSVP card and forget to write in their name, you can flip it over, see what number is on there and look on the spreadsheet to see who it is, instead of having to guess who sent it back or call around. It's probable that you WILL have that one person who will send back the RSVP card and forget to write their name! Hope this helps!

thinkingpink2010

One new local spot not many people know about yet is the Resort at Marina Village in Cape Coral which is stunning!!!!  Our wedding there was amazing!

teachermegs

1. Amazing vendors that made your planning go much more smoothly.
Patti at the Sandbar in Anna Maria Island is great. She knows her stuff and helps you every moment of questioning or dealing with a father that asks too many questions.
Chris Grumley is our dj. He is great. Every question I had was answered and feels like a friend, not our DJ.
2. Secret local spots that made for gorgeous photos. I don't think the beach is a secret spot to have pictures, but that is what I like about our wedding, all on the beach.
3. Things you wish you had known about planning a wedding in your area.
My own fault, I wish I would have known that the hotels where I am getting married doesn't usually do room blocks.

vsantos715

Secret Spot for Photos is Safety Harbor. There is a small dock with sail boats and we took our save the date photos there! The area also overlooks the bay and looks beautiful at sunet