Kristien and I have been searching high and low (online) for places that fit our expectations for a wedding. A beach wedding seems fitting for Florida. Although we still haven’t ruled out an inland wedding, our first plan is to have the ceremony on the coast.

Scouting locations and arranging the details falls on my shoulders. So far the system has worked well. Back in January I checked out the Don Cesar’s hotel in St. Petersburg. I sent back photos to Kristien and detailed everything on the phone. I just recently contacted the Don’s wedding coordinator to find what dates are available; no response since it’s a holiday weekend. But this brings me to the important part. Back in January we were only beginning to organize for the visa petition. Now things are moving forward.

Our wedding is going to be held sometime between February 21—March 2, 2006. There are several possibilities at this point, none of which have been seriously pursued. I think we are both in the idea-generating phase. The most recent ideas are…

• Barefoot Weddings: This site offers many different photos and seems specific about pricing. I haven’t contacted them but it seems to be the best à la carte option. That could mean extra planning (for me) or getting exactly what we want. A reasonable restriction is that it’s only for Tampa-Clearwater-St. Petersburg beaches.
• Disney Weddings*: I nixed this idea before I even checked; bad decision on my part. Disney seems to offer a good package with their “Intimate Wedding”. Details are few and marketing hype is high, so I’ll have to drive there and take photos and talk to real people for the answers. They transition you too easily from the “Intimate Wedding” site to the “Custom Wedding” site; beware because the price difference is huge.
• The Don Cesar: They offer a convenient package for smaller weddings, which is great for us. We’d like to have a room reserved for after the wedding and enjoy the Don’s spa. Just how much they can customize the beach setting is still in question, not to mention if their services are available during the time we want.

* My first idea of a Disney wedding was something tasteless and crowded with Mickey, Minnie, and the rest of the characters. This site has photos to disprove my theory. I lumped Disney into the category of a Las Vegas wedding or something on a cruise ship, but on first glance it seems I was wrong.

This entry was posted by Matthew Crumley on Monday, July 4th, 2005 at 5:46 PM. Matthew is currently a software developer who works on simulation devices and their user interfaces. In his spare time he reads the news, dabbles with code, is active in his homeowner association, and enjoys life with his wife and pet terrier. You can leave Matthew a comment or trackback from your own site. Follow comments to this entry via RSS. Explore other posts marked with these tags: immigrate, pre-arrival, wedding preparation.