Weddingbee Blog

Now that we’re past the gushy stuff (*blush*) let’s jump head first into the planning process, shall we?! Since, Mr. Coconut and I have been engaged for more than a year now I have had plenty of time and thus much to share with ya’ll!

Once reality set in after the engagement, everyone kept asking me major questions, “When is the wedding, where is it?” Whoa, whoa slow down people! I took a few months and basked in my engagementdom (it’s a new word I’m trying out) and then began some big picture thinking. Being the Florida girl I am, I originally saw us renting a huge beach house for our immediate family and hosting the reception there. However, that grew tedious and expensive in a hurry, so we quickly scrapped that idea and started looking for venues.

We have many married friends who gave us valuable advice and being the analytical law student I am, I researched and researched. When I thought I was done, I researched some more. After all that, I came up with three requirements. First, that there be a place to have both the ceremony and reception for ease and convenience. Second, that there be no burgundy carpet with gold scroll or any satin drapes killing all of the natural light. Lastly, that we could BYOB. The first two are more a measure of opinion, but the last requirement was necessary in saving our wallets. (Remember, Mr. Coconut aka “Debt Killer.”)

I’ll admit it was tough to find an affordable, yet beautiful venue. Did you ever watch Before & After on HGTV? You need a lot of vision to walk into a blank room and see it differently. After much searching, we found a municipally owned mansion on the water in Sarasota, Florida. It was nice and met all of our requirements, but the city did not allow reservations until a year before the event. It was a little nerve wracking to say the least, but we went with it. In late October, we were planning a trip down to book the venue and found out an art exhibit had been booked for three weeks. Ugh is right! Back to the drawing board!

I stuck to searching for municipally owned buildings because they seemed to offer the most value and allowed us to BYOB. Never having been to Lakeland, Mr. Coconut and I didn’t know what to expect, but our photographer told us to check it out so we followed his advice. We walked into the building, took two steps into the room and all it took was looking at each other to know this was the place. It was perfect. Tons of natural light, hardwood floors. We were in love. Want to know the price? It was $500 plus $26/hour. We rented both the building and the outdoor promenade for a grand total of approx. $1,500.

I’ll give more details about the space a little later, but for now I’ll post a few pictures!

(Do you see all the natural light and hardwood floors? Me love!)

(An amazing stone fireplace that I will have a blast dressing up!)

(The gardens next door that our guests will walk through during the cocktail hour!)

(The perfect Florida ceremony spot, right?!)

(The back of our building, see the great deck?)