Destin, Florida

My daughter is planning a beach wedding in Destin, Florida next spring. Any neat ideas? We live in Mississippi, the bride lives in New York City and the groom is in the military, so we will be planning this wedding long distance. Since this will be a relatively small wedding, I would like to make it nice.......but we are on a budget. Any suggestions would be nice.

Try going to a major search engine (like Google) and searching on "Destin and FL". This will lead you to local hotels, bed and breakfasts, boat rentals, and other local vendors. Lots of these are directly on the beach and may provide a great wedding/reception location with facilities and people on staff to help you plan the details. If you book far enough in advance, you may be able to take over an entire B&B, depending on the number of people traveling to the wedding and your budget.

You may also want to consider using a wedding coordinator in the Destin area who can be a great help finding and dealing with local resources before any of you arrive. A local coordinator will certainly give you piece of mind and take a lot of the stress out of planning long-distance yourselves.

If the wedding is directly on the beach, consider some of the following:

A beach cookout and swimming in the ocean - guests come prepared and dress casually. You might want to have a tent or large umbrellas available at the beach so those who need to get out of the sun have somewhere to go. Also have lots of water available (to drink). Bring sun screen for guests who may have forgotten theirs. Bring blankets to sit and eat on (also in case the guests don't come prepared). You may need permits to host a party on the beach. Consider port-a-potty rental if you are far away from rest room facilities. Outside weddings are always subject to weather, so you may want to have a plan B in case the weather is nasty.