NC Aquarium – The aquarium was such a great venue! We are low key, fun people so the aquarium fit perfectly in the tone we wanted to set for the wedding. We signed up under the assistant, and she no longer works there, but Cheryl was awesome to work with. This venue is pretty all inclusive in the sense Cheryl kept me on game with planning. It was almost like having a wedding coordinator! As long as you do the ceremony inside (we did it in the lobby in front of their newly built tank) they have chairs and tables that you can use. Cheryl shared many ideas with us like setting up cocktail hour and the theater for like a club with different size/height tables. The aquarium sets up the areas for you and you get to use the conference room to get ready. If there isn’t a wedding the night before, they even let you bring stuff to store there when you come the day before for rehearsal. They also have an attendant on hand so your guests have access to the touch tank. They also offer a military discount so be sure to ask about it if it applies. Awesome area outside for pictures or to have the ceremony. It was cost effective, because we did not have to pay for a ceremony and reception venue separate! The shark tank was an awesome background for the head table at dinner. They also have a wireless mic in there for toasts and a projection screen that we were able to display a powerpoint of our pictures. Perfect wedding venue! Made my low budget wedding look like we spent so much more on it.
Kellys – The food was delicious! I love those sweet potatoe rolls. We loved this caterer from the beginning when my husband and I made up a fun menu, and then sent it out for quotes. Kellys was the cheapest quote and included EVERYTHING from our desired menu! (nachos bar, potato bar, deviled eggs!) so weird wedding food I know but they did it and we were happy to have comfort food at the wedding. Black pelican was also an option but they wanted to charge much more and take off items from our purposed menu. Our budget was extremely low (we skipped out on photography and real flowers) and I never thought we could afford a cocktail hour/alcohol, but Kelly’s was awesome and gave us exactly what we wanted for really good price. Their staff were professional on wedding day. My MOH was in charge (my contact person day of) and she said the worker in charge that night was such a pleasure to work with. There was plenty of food, they sent us home with a lot of food! Brought out fresh beef tenderloin to us and then guests to the tables even though it was a buffet. Carried our plates for us and made sure our wine was constantly filled. We provided wine and beer and they provided the bar tender. We also had a wine ceremony during our ceremony and they made sure two bottles were opened for us and placed at the podium. They kept up with the wedding flow even though we were running late with our wedding itinerary and was winging when we would do the cake and such. I didn’t tell them when we were doing cake just told the dj and went for it, and as we finished they were rushing in with the plates to serve cake. The best thing about kellys is that they provided linens for all the tables. This includes all tables in all three areas of the aquarium that we used (gift table,cake table, favor table, cocktail tables, head table, everything…. ). The only thing I had to buy for tables were table skirts. All in all they were just awesome, easy to work with, and affordable.
DJ Bruce – Bruce was also easy to work with! He had all of my favorite songs dancing and was able to direct the wedding, do announcements even though we didn’t plan them, and provide the ceremony music. We told him some must plays, and what music we liked and he took it from there. We were running late so I think one or two songs were missed, but it wasn’t his fault. He could read the crowd and gage if it was time to take a break with a slow song. He set up his computer to play older music during dinner. All in all, awesome and knows how to work a young crowd. You bet we did all the group dance songs and I showed the older generation how to wobble.
Harris Teeter Kill Devil Hills – We went in there to order cake and the woman taking our order suggested we stack a half sheet on a whole sheet cake. When she went to get her manager to ok the order, he said they would not be able to stack it, but that they could give it to us so we could stack it and they would give us extra icing to polish the stacking. My brother has his degree and culinary arts so no big deal. I put him in charge. I called a few hours before the wedding to confirm the order and make sure my brother would be all set, but the woman was confused when I was making sure they would give us extra icing… turns out they decorated the center of the cake so we would not be able to stack it. It would have been fine, but it was a total misconception that they told us we could do it when we placed the order. My brother tried to get us a discount and they wouldn’t saying the cake is still usable. They had billed us for the cake though using two bar codes (each half of the cost) for the front register to scan and either my brother is lieing and he paid for half of the cake, or they only scanned one and we really did get a discount from their mistake. If you do cake from there I would just buy the premade cakes and do a cake bar of different flavors… the cake wasn’t even that good
Its Royalty – She did a good job. Was willing to pick some of her roses to put in my hair. The hair trial went great. I just felt rushed on the day of the wedding. I think I was like the 5th bride that day, and she had scheduled me at 5 and I was planning on being at the aquarium at 6 to get dressed for my 630 wedding. It was right down the road so I wasn’t too stressed. But then she called me in early cuz she was finished earlier, but I still didn’t get to the venue until like 605. She does great hair, but like I’ve seen in another review, make sure she puts you in for enough time.
Garden Deli and Pizzaria – We used them for our reception dinner. The pizza is more gourmet, not like the northern pizza I’m used to, but it was good. The wings are delicious! The sauce is delish and has chopped garlic in it. Very yummy! Owned by the mayor of Manteo
Elite Nails – Did not have an apt. Walked in and got a pedicure and manicure with nail art. Typical nail salon but I was really impressed with the nail art. I showed them the flowers in my hair (like cherry blossoms) and this girl took her time and painted them by hand. Best set of nails I’ve ever had, and I used to get my nails done often with crazy nail art designs.