We received a nights stay at Elizabeth Pointe Lodge for Christmas. We decided to use it for a "minimoon", sense our actual honeymoon wasn't for a month after the wedding. When I called to book our room, the room we got the gift certificate for was booked. Upon hearing it was for our wedding night, they upgraded us (for free), to the best room they have!

When we got to our room, we had a hand written note welcoming us and homemade cookies! We slept with the french doors opened and listened to the waves all night. How romantic!! The breakfast they serve was great! We had french toast, bacon, etc. We ate it on our balcony that overlooked the beach.

Elizabeth Point is definitely pricey, but if you can't afford to go out of the country, or want to stay in Florida, check it out!!

I used starfish as my place cards and favors. I purchased them on ebay and got a great deal! The shipping was fast, and the starfish were in great condition.

Shane gave me a great rate for having a non-Saturday wedding, and because he canceled our initial consultation at the last minute. Since I was getting a lower than normal rate, I feel like he didn't treat me as well as he normally would have. He didn't seem to be very organized.

I was supposed to have a face-to-face meeting with our DJ one week before the wedding. I gave Shane our available dates and we agreed on a Wednesday. Well, on Monday, Shane called to see if I could do a phone meeting with our DJ since he lives in Orlando. One of the reasons we chose DJ Shane was because he was local. If we wanted an Orlando DJ, we would have booked one of the hundreds they have over there. With some hesitation, I agreed to meet with our DJ (DJ Dave) over the phone.

The phone meeting went great. Dave showed up on time and the crowd loved him! We played a game with our shoes to see how well we knew each other. It was so much fun! Our guests had nothing but great things to say about him. I would definitely recommend him to a friend. =)

Now for the bad: My father was supposed to say the blessing before dinner, and Dave skipped it. I didn't notice until after dinner, because we were getting pulled in every direction. My dad was pretty bummed out about it. For our first dance, we wanted it shortened in half, so we weren't up there for 5 minutes. He said this wouldn't be a problem, he would just fade it out. Well, we start our first dance, and it's all chopped up. It's like it was some sort of remix of the song, it was BAD. I think if we had our face-to-face meeting, like we were supposed to, we could have gone over exactly where to fade it out.

Andrey did the steel drums for our ceremony and cocktail hour. He really set the tone of our beach wedding with his smiling face! His price was great and he is awesome at e-mailing back. We did EVERYTHING over e-mail, and anytime I had a question, he would write back within an hour!

Misty and her husband, Nelio are the bomb! I wanted a modern, yet classic, photographer. I love Misty's style. I was looking for a photography package that included only the edited CD. I didn't want to commit to this many 8x10's, this many 5x7's, etc. Misty has a package called "No Frills" which is exactly that. They worked their butts off the ENTIRE wedding. My family now calls her the "picture nazi". Misty kept my lip gloss with her during the wedding to make sure I was looking my best at all times.

If you or your FI are military, book The Tides! The location is great, right on the beach! We got married on the deck that overlooks the beach, and had our reception in the ballroom. Our food came to $21.80/person, and everyone was raving about it! We got the "Tourist Luau" theme. The Kahluah pork is delish!! The downside: The Tides doesn't do food tastings, and our bartender was so slow!

Kalyn (Kuehl) is awesome! My hair was stunning. She worked on schedule the whole day to do mine and my bridesmaids hair.

My man's not a flashy guy, so we checked into the Tungsten bands. We purchased his ring from designbands.com for $93!! He absolutely loves it and we even get free engraving.

The men were dressed in long-sleeve Polo interlock shirts, and Polo khakis. We purchased everything at Belk. Even though the store we went to didn't have every size, they provided us with a list of stores that had the clothing in stock. It took some time to call each of the stores, but the shipping was super fast.

I designed my invitations on Microsoft Publisher and had them printed at Office Depot. I saved a ton of money by DIYing. Start early and you'll save a ton of stress!