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location

KamkelKamkel member
First Comment
in North Carolina
Well I think I may have narrowed down my location to have our ceremony/reception.  We are looking seriously at Carolina Beach/Kure, Wrightsville Beach and Topsail.  II know doesn't seem like we've narrowed it down, but trust me it is!! lol Does anyone have any input on any of these pros or cons?  I'm looking for anything We live in Wisconsin and my FI is from NC.  We vacationed in Carolina Beach last year and loved it. 
Thanks in advance for any iput.
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Re: location

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    FutureMrsFraserFutureMrsFraser
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    edited December 2011
    Carolina Beach doesn't allow any chairs, decoration, anything... so keep in mind if you have the ceremony there, it will be plain.

    Kure Beach also doesn't allow any of those things unless you have the ceremony in the Fort Fisher State Rec area of the beach. The permit for this is $35 but you can have a tent, chairs, decorations, whatever you'd like. And the beach area is more private.

    I can't remember the permit fee for wrightsville, but I want to say it was atleast $100. As far as I know they also do not allow chairs, decoration etc.

    This website will be alot of help to you. http://www.capefearwedding.com/index.html

    Have you thought about your reception venue yet?
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    CJ4578CJ4578 member
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    edited December 2011
    Love Carolina Beach, we're heading down for vacation there soon!

    I just went to a wonderful wedding that held the ceremony at Ft. Fisher State Park (on the beach) and it was great. Tip though- you need to stake out your ceremony area the morning of and have people watch it/the chairs during the day so beach-goers don't take up your space. But hey, grab a couple wedding guests who want some beach time and you're golden. :)

    The reception was in Wilmington at the Cape Fear River Deck, which was great except for one thing- traffic! We left the ceremony as everyone was leaving the beach to go get dinner and traffic back to Wilmington took some people almost an hour. (We took a shortcut thanks to our lifesaving GPS but got to the reception and were like... where is everyone?) So if you do plan to have your ceremony in the evening and have a reception somewhere a couple miles away, make sure you have some time in-between for guests to get there, so you don't pay for a cocktail hour no one uses. :)

    Just my two cents, we're not getting married at the beach but I love the Carolina coast. Good luck and congrats on choosing a location!
    -- C
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    FutureMrsFraserFutureMrsFraser
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    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_north-carolina_location?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:115Discussion:043c30e6-0e77-4e4e-9bf0-314665ecd50ePost:af743969-ab77-4f9e-8ce7-452666b8cdce">Re: location</a>:
    [QUOTE]Love Carolina Beach, we're heading down for vacation there soon! I just went to a wonderful wedding that held the c<strong>eremony at Ft. Fisher State Park (on the beach) and it was great. Tip though- you need to stake out your ceremony area the morning of and have people watch it/the chairs during the day so beach-goers don't take up your space</strong>. But hey, grab a couple wedding guests who want some beach time and you're golden. :) The reception was in Wilmington at the Cape Fear River Deck, which was great except for one thing- traffic! We left the ceremony as everyone was leaving the beach to go get dinner and traffic back to Wilmington took some people almost an hour. (We took a shortcut thanks to our lifesaving GPS but got to the reception and were like... where is everyone?) So if you do plan to have your ceremony in the evening and have a reception somewhere a couple miles away, make sure you have some time in-between for guests to get there, so you don't pay for a cocktail hour no one uses. :) Just my two cents, we're not getting married at the beach but I love the Carolina coast. Good luck and congrats on choosing a location!
    Posted by CJ4578[/QUOTE]

    I'm having my wedding here, given it's at the end of September, so who knows how busy the beach will be, but we were told since we have a permit, and they have told us in our permit where the ceremony can be held, we won't have that problem. IDK if they block things off for permit holders or what. Did your friend have a permit for her wedding there, or did they just go set up?
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    pirategal03pirategal03 member
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    edited December 2011
    I had friends get married at Ft. Fisher and have their reception at the aquarium.  It was beautiful.

    The Surf City Center on Topsail has been used by a few girls on here and they really liked it.
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    CJ4578CJ4578 member
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    edited December 2011
    I don't know if they had a permit (I would assume so, the bride is very on-top-of-things), I just remember the revolving set of groomsmen the camped out during the day. Possibly to make sure chairs weren't stolen or something, but they told me they didn't want people to "take their spot." If the people told you that it won't be an issue though then it's probably fine. I would just talk with them about what exactly they don't they do to make sure you have that space so you don't have to worry. (As in, will they rope off your space, or are they just saying that you have the right to be there and can kick people out?)

    I'm sure it'll be fine, you'd know better than I do. :) HTH!
    -- C
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    CJ4578CJ4578 member
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    edited December 2011
    OH PS- this WAS July 4th weekend so THAT may have been why they camped out there- the beach was insanely packed. Just remembered that!
    -- C
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    FutureMrsFraserFutureMrsFraser
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    edited December 2011
    Yeah our permit reserves the space from 4-6, we can't technically set up anything until 4, our ceremony is at 5. I may call them to talk to them about it today.
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    alliegator8alliegator8 member
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    edited December 2011
    I am getting married at Surf City on Sept. 19th.  I really like it b/c it is not as busy as other beaches are.  They allow everything except tents and open flames (no tiki torches) on the public beach area and the only permit you would need to get is if you plan on having loud music.  We are just having a ukulele, so we didn't need to get one.  The town office did suggest giving the cops a call in advance to let them know we were having a ceremony on the beach just in case there were any issues.
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    careyblackmarcareyblackmar
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    edited December 2011
    North Topsail Island near Sneads Ferry has a Holiday Inn just on the other side of the bridge where guests can stay.  Family friends rented a house for a week and got married right on their beachfront.  I don't know the details of their wedding, but it's a beautiful area!
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    Mle2011Mle2011
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    edited December 2011
    Wooo my first post ever! yay!

    Looks like you've gotten some great advice. I lived on topsail island for a few years (surf city) and the only thing I suggest is check the tide times. make sure you're doing everything at low tide. During high tide there is almost no beach, sometimes it comes right up to the bottom of the steps at the public beach access we lived near. and Surf City and N Topsail (near Sneads Ferry) are less crowded than S Topsail, but all in all is still less crowded than the wilmington beaches. Oh and there is a chance of having helicopters or low flying planes, as the marines from camp lejeune fly by often-ish.
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