Beach Wedding

jdunn2011

Hi, ladies.  I have just recently decided to change from having my wedding in Greensboro to have our wedding down at the beach. Carolina Beach, Oak Island area.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to plan this from a distance.

ktyd8

I planned my beach wedding from the Raleigh area. I hired a day-of coordinator who answered any questions I had about vendors, etc. I did lots of online research and spent a lot of time on here. I got married at Topsail Island. It turned out to be fairly easy and I think we only made two trips down while planning. I handled the rest by phone and email.

FutureMrsFraser

I got married at Kure Beach and had our reception in Wilmington, I planned everything from Raleigh. Cape Fear wedding is a good resource, just google it and it will come up.

Just a note, Carolina Beach doesn't allow chairs or decorations on the beach.

alliegator8

I also got married at Topsail Island at the Surf City Welcome Center, but planned from Durham.  It was perfect!  I found a lot of the beach vendors work with many out of town brides.  I also hired a day of coordinator, Meredith McSwain. She is incredible! She is out of Wilmington and worth so much more then we paid for her.  Highly recommend her.

Since you are looking more south and not around the outer banks, making day trips to the beach to meet with vendors is very doable.  We made several over the course of our planning.  We would tackle one thing per trip for example meet with all the cake bakers one day, set up appts. with all the caterers another.  That worked out well for us. 

Like Holly said, Cape Fear Wedding is a great source.  I also googled a lot.

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail: aboyer8 at gmail dot com. Good luck planning!

jdunn2011

Thanks for your help ladies. I live in Winston Salem Greensboro area so the day trips would be a litte harder for me. I have already found some good info. The biggest thing for me will be finding someone to do my make up and the flowers and cake. Small wedding only 20 people at most. Not really having a reception. Just a  nice family style dinner after the ceremony.  If you guys have any recommendations on vendors please let me know. Thanks again.

alliegator8

I highly highly recommend Kathy Canby.  She was our cake lady and it was delish! I think I drool every time I look at our cake top in the freezer.  Not only are her cakes good yummy and moist, but they are also wonderfully prices. She did a fantastic design on our cake.

lianetav

Whatever you do, DO NOT get married at Knots Landing in Ocean Isle Beach.  That guy is greedy and doesn't tell any brides about the houses being built in between his house and the views of the ocean.  We had a full on construction site during our reception, with an actual port-a-john where I wanted to put tables.  Rage. 

jdunn2011

I've seen bad reviews about Knots Landing.  Its out of my budget anyway.  I was looking at Oak Island Wedding Planners/Photography.  They have an all inclusive wedding pacakge for $2,500 that includes doves, fireworks, cake, decorations, minister.. etc.. just about everything you need except the flowers.  I've been trying to find some more info on them. All reviews I've read are really good. Does anybody know anything about this vendor?

alliegator8

Sorry.  I did everything seperately. So I never looked into them.

luinadavis

Oak Island Weddings do a great job! They actually have a bigger package now that includes flowers.  www.oakislandncweddings.com  They also have reception Luau packages now.