Beach wedding

mrstsoon2b · January 2011

Hi everybody. I am planning a beach wedding Sept. 17, 2011 @ Surf City Community Center. We are diy alot of things so if anyone has ideas I am open. Thanks

alliegator8 · January 2011

We did a lot of diy as well. Here are some of the things we did.

We did our own center pieces and decorating. We used different size glass jars and filled them with sand, water, some sea shells, flowers floating in the water and a few floating candles on top. The only candles you can have at the welcome center is floating. We put the jars on top of squares we made our of a rich pink satin. The light from the candles bounced nicely off the satin to add just a little more glow. Then we decorated the tables with loose orchids. Total, we spent about $150 decorating our tables.

We put together a photo slide show that played on the tv in the welcome center. It was a nice touch and added to the decorating for free!

We designed our invites on Vistaprints. They came out so nice and we got 150 for $60.

We put together our own self service bar. We stocked up on cans of soda, tea, and small bottles of water whenever we saw them on sale. We ordered 4 cases of wine (1 red, white, and 2 blush) and 2 kegs from swingbridge (2 blocks up from the center). We put the kegs on the deck and the wine and drinks in the beverage/ ice bar the center has and put that in teh corner next to the deck door so all teh drink were together. We did not serve liquor b/c it gets expensive. Plus you need to buy a 1 day special uses permit to serve it in the center since it is a public building. In total, I think we spent $350 to $400 on all of our drinks and we had a ton left over! I made a little sign for the bar that let everyone know the drink selections. We bought all the cups at BJ's Wholesale with coupons.

Our wedding favors were donations to 3 charities. We put out a bowl of pennies along with 3 jars. Each jar had a description we typed up and put into small frames in front of it. We asked all of our guest to read the descriptions and drop a penny in the jar of the organization they wished to donate their favor to. We put it next to the photo frame our guests signed. Everyone really enjoyed it and it was something we didn't have to worry about doing until after the wedding.

I used my parents cake sutting set from when they got married. It had sentimental value, and I also didn't have to buy a set on my own.

Ok, that is all I can think of right now. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. Good luck!

carolinagal78 · January 2011

I'm getting married there the week before you. I'm one of those 9-10-11 brides. I have a wedding planner who's pretty much handling most of my stuff. Sorry I'm not any help there. I don't really have a creative bone in my body. I just wanted to say hello! I love the Surf City Welcome Center. It was referred to me by Allie from the comment above and was the best one I've received. I knew I wanted to get married on the beach but was stressing about finding a venue within our budget. Barry & Allen are super nice and its perfect for what we were looking for. Plus you cant beat the view! If you need any vendor referrals let me know. I have my caterer, photog, and wedding planner. Congrats & happy planning!

laurenes · January 2011

I'm paying a florist to handle decorations for me, but I've seen:

small:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/26472200

bigger:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90156110

used at beach weddings for center pieces before. If you have someone who lives in charlotte or can day trip it out there, they have a lot of super cheap candles/candle holders you can buy in bulk. Generally doing candles and some flower petals looks simple and elegant.

My mom did my invitations. We bought a premade set from Target, but instead of printing onto the invitation itself, we printed on a sheet of velum (you can buy those in bulk at michaels for fairly cheap) and tied it onto the invite for a more personal touch. My sister also had a scrapbooking stencil-punch thing that added a detail to the edge of the velum, making it look all fancy and expensive when it really wasn't.

We're also donating to a charity - SPCA - for favors. You can get photo collage cards from walmart for around 50 cents (probably cheaper on other sites, we're researching that now) where we're going to put pictures of us and our (6) pets on the front with a note about how we're honoring our guests w/ a donation to the Wake County SPCA.

We got our Save the Dates on Shutterfly. Just for going to david's bridal to look at dresses (not buy) we got a $20 gift certificate to shutterfly, so we used it towards getting Save the Dates that were around 50 cents for the quantity we were ordering them. They also to photo thank you cards. If you sign up for their website, they send you a lot of sales/coupons.

Hope this helps!

ktyd8 · January 2011

I got married there as well. We did a lot of DIY stuff.

Flowers-I ordered from Sam's Club and assembled them myself.

Bar- Bought everything from Sam's Club and set it up as self-serve. Worked really well and saved money. We did all bottled beer and maybe a case of wine. We did not serve liquor and it was not missed. We did serve a variety of Mike's Hard Lemonade. I think that helped take the place of the liquor.

Save the Dates-Vistaprint

Invitations-Kit from Michaels that I printed and assembled myself. Was very easy and saved lots of money!

Favors- flower pot seed kits. The ones you see for $1. I wrapped them in tool with pretty ribbon.

We hired a caterer and day of coordinator. If you want their contact info or more infomation PM me!

mrstsoon2b · January 2011

Thanks ladies for alll your help. We are going today to look at beach houses to rent for the bridal party. We are still looking for a caterer so any info would be great. We have been thinking about going with Middle of the Island. Has anybody used them? Hope everyone has a great day. Ps Carolinagal you stole my date. LOL

carolinagal78 · January 2011

I e-mld Middle of the Island and had no response. That made me a lil nervous so I went w/someone else. We are using Special Events Catering out of Jacksonville. Linda is super sweet. The link to her site is below.

http://www.specialevents-catering.com/

Beach wedding

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