Key West Wedding Review (with pics)!!

[kwaits]

Key West Wedding Review (with pics)

Our wedding turned out better than I could have imagined. When we chose to do a destination wedding our main goal was to have a fun, stress-free wedding that everyone could enjoy, and that is exactly what we got. The thing I was most looking forward to was having all of our family and friends in one place for the vacation of a lifetime. Here is my Key West wedding review, I hope it helps other Key West brides J

 

Invitations: The Stylish Scribe created our boarding pass invitations and they turned out soooo cute! She was really easy to work with and sent me several drafts before we finally got everything perfect. It took approximately 2 weeks from the first time I contacted her until I received my invitations. Everyone raved about how good they looked and I have noticed that several people kept theirs and put it with their pictures from the wedding.

 

OOT Bags: I made these myself and everyone said that they loved getting them. I found cheap canvas bags online and used iron on printer paper to create a design I liked with our date on it. I filled them with snacks, handheld battery fans (huge hit!!), germ X wipes and the welcome book that I created.

 

Welcome Book: This was an idea that I stole from another bride on BDW forum. I bought the mini scrapbooks at Hobby Lobby (1/2 off). I printed all the pages on cream paper and glued them into the book. My FI decided to burn the edges of the maps to make them look “authenticâ€. Several of the guests used the blank pages for pictures and turned them into photo albums when done. These were the pages I included in the book

1. Welcome Letter
2. Wedding Itinerary
3. Photoshare – we create an account on Shutterfly for everyone to upload their pictures to so we can all see/print all the photos
4. Contact info for wedding party
5. Maps
6. Suggested restaurants
7. Suggested Sightseeing

 

 

Wedding Coordinator: I originally was going to use Peter and Sharon from EZWeddings in Paradise and they were great to work with at first. But once the wedding got larger than they usually work with, and I had an outside photographer come in, they handed me over to Cathy at the Hip Tourist. I could not have been happier with that change! Cathy was so easy to work with and SUPER helpful. Not only did she plan and perform the ceremony, but she contacted each guest to set up a sunset cruise the evening before the wedding and a snorkel trip for some of our friends. Anytime we had questions or needed a suggestion for restaurants, shopping, etc. she was right there with information and coupons or discounts.  When I told her that I had my heart set on a bamboo arbor on the beach for the ceremony,  she looked all over Key West for one to rent. When she couldn’t find one that was good enough, she had one made for us! She said that it was really an investment for her since she could rent it out again, but that was so amazing of her to do for us! I would HIGHLY recommend her to anyone going to Key West. Not to mention that her fees were very impressive.

 

Photographer: Nora Bohanon was our photographer. I won her contest for free photography on BDW forum so I was a little apprehensive about it. But she was great! It rained the whole day of the wedding except for the 2 hours around the ceremony (perfect). She didn’t let the rain bother her. She came to my hotel room an hour before the ceremony and took getting ready pictures. At the beach she took as many pictures as she could before it got too dark and started raining. She stayed for the reception and even went around Key West with us the next day (in the rain again) to take more couple’s pictures. They turned out great! Some of the pictures are on her blog www.norasweddingblog.com(Derek & Kendra). These are two of my favorites:

 

Hotel: My FI and I stayed at the Southernmost on the Beach resort along with some of our guests. I have nothing but great things to say about this hotel. We chose to stay in the oceanfront room and it was incredible. There isn’t a bad room in the whole hotel, but we had a private balcony that looked out at the Atlantic Ocean. There were 3 pools and a private beach. The price was average compared to some of the other hotels on the island. It was at the quiet end of Duval street which was nice, but still within walking (or scooter) distance of all the excitement.

 

Wedding day brunch: The morning of the wedding we invited everyone to join us for brunch at Blue Heaven Restaurant. This is a fun outdoor restaurant with chickens running around. It’s very eclectic and has that perfect Key West charm. The food was delicious and everyone enjoyed it a lot!

 

Reception Dinner: Following our wedding on Smather’s Beach, we headed to Louie’s Backyard for dinner. This is an old house that has been turned into an oceanfront upscale restaurant. The upstairs “wine bar†is where we had our private dinner. The room has a huge porch that over looks the deck and ocean below. We were able to watch the sunset while enjoying appetizers of bacon wrapped shrimp and conch fritters. The event coordinator for the restaurant also served as the bar tender making key lime and very berry martinis that were incredible. The food was some of the best food I have had in my life. Everyone raved about how good it was! The dessert was the best part: Key Lime Pie and Brownie Bottom Crème Brule (my personal favorite).  Anyone who is thinking about going to Key West needs to eat here!!!

 

Sunset Cruise/ Snorkel Trip: The first night in Key West we went on a snorkel trip with some of our friends. We went with the FURY catamaran and had a great time. They took us out to the reef and let us snorkel for about 45min. Then we cruised back while watching the sun set and drinking from the open bar. It was really nice to get out on the water and spend time with our friends before the wedding. The night before the wedding we scheduled a sunset cruise for all our guests. We went with the FURY catamaran again. This time it was cloudy so the sunset wasn’t great , but just being out on the water and enjoying the drinks and food (we brought our own food trays on the boat) and visiting was great.

 

Bachelorette Party: My best friend and MOH planned a girl’s night after the sunset cruise and it was WAY better than the party I had back home. We ended up at AQUA watching a drag show. It was SOOOO much fun. We laughed and drank champagne for hours! We then walked up Duval St, stopping in a couple of bars. But I would HIGHLY suggest AQUA for a FUN girls night outing J

 

Smather’s Beach: Before visiting Key West I had decided to use the beach at the state park because I had heard that it was nicer than Smather’s. I am so glad that I checked it out ahead of time! The state park is nice, but it’s crowded and there aren’t any palm trees (or just a few). I also didn’t like paying $500 plus entrance fees for everyone for a short ceremony. When I visited Smather’s Beach it was perfect. The beach was just as nice as the other one, but this one had Palm Trees and rock jetties. Plus it was FREE! I don’t know why anyone would pay for a beach when there is a perfectly good free one. There were a couple of people on the beach, but when they saw that there was a wedding they stayed out of the way. (There were a few onlookers who cheered at our first kiss which was kind of cool)

 

[roxyqt]

  Such a great review!!  I am so happy everything turned out wonderful for you!!!  Kudos to all your planning and ideas!!!!  All the Best and Happy Marriage!

[mmc1105]

Great job!  You looked beautiful

[*Linds*]

Congrats! You made a lovely bride!

[kwaits]

Haha...I just realized that in every picture we are kissing. We really do have pictures of us NOT kissing :-)

[hzak1203]

Great review!!! Congratulations and thanks so much for sharing:)

[soontomrs.coleman11]

What a great review. I am one of those brides that was looking into using the state park. Thanks for the heads up.

[buckain]

Thats a great review with lots of helpful info!!

I'm totally going to call Cathy!

[jrod07]

Congratulations on your wedding! Thanks for sharing how you created the OOT bags!

[TheFutureWagners]

Congrats!!! Thos pics are amazing!!!!!!!!