Our ceremony site
Part of the bonus of having a beach wedding is that you don’t need to do as much decorating as you would at a traditional ceremony site. Plumeria Dude and I will say our vows beneath those two palm trees in the center of the photo– minus the volleyball net, of course!
On our last site visit in November, we did a walk-through with our caterer/planner to figure out where everything will go. She helped us visualize the flow of the event and in turn, we were able to imagine how a few key details could improve an already awesome site.
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My last venue post left off in Islamorada, where we visited numerous hotels and resorts (more than I posted about earlier) as well as many private residences. Our caterer, Debbie at Caribbean Catering, was kind enough to show us to a number of vacation homes in the area that could serve as possible wedding locations. That way we wouldn’t have to worry about booking up a resort, overpaying for food/alcohol or freaking out about outrageous site fees. (I am not even going to mention the place that wanted to charge us $12,000 just to host the event.)
After touring at least half a dozen different places, I started to feel like I was Goldilocks. Every place we visited had some kind of deal breaker issue. They were too small for our guest list, or the house was sub par (we are planning to stay on site.) The grounds weren’t well kept. Or it was way out of our price range. One of them was even home to a bunch of wild iguanas. Not cute.
from http://flickr.com/photos/wozes/190637217/
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In my last venue entry, I listed the top three venues Plumeria Dude and I were eying in Atlanta. We liked the idea of getting married in the city we call home, but neither of our families were particularly jazzed. In one of our conversations on the topic, my mother said it was really important to her that we get married in Florida, where I grew up. My hometown of Vero Beach is a beautiful place but it definitely has its drawbacks. For one thing, it’ pricey. It’s also a rather sleepy retirement area. So that was out. But when I mentioned the Florida Keys, my mom perked up.
At one point we considered Key West, but we figured its relative inaccessibility (either via an expensive flight or a 3+ hour drive from Miami International Airport) would be too much of a burden on our guests. It is a great wedding location though!
Today we’ll look at three of our top choices in Islamorada, Fla., a town smack dab in the middle of the Florida Keys.
1. The Islander Resort
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