Let the Planning Begin

The last two weekends have been a whirlwind of wedding research. I have to give Matt credit, he was a really good sport. We covered some serious ground and visited possible wedding spots all over the south. We hit the Outer Banks, Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Hilton Head.

We had a really nice weekend staying in the Outer Banks with my former Hoodbridge neighbors Joe and Tish, who recently retired to their beach house in Kill Devil Hills. There also happened to be a wedding expo happening in the area. We thought it would be a good way to dive into this whole planning thing. We spent Saturday touring around and checking out the different reception sites. The most entertaining part was the expo in the local highschool on Sunday. The place was packed with wedding vendors, and it was an over stimulation of the senses. Long haired djs in booths next to ministers next to caterers cooking up finger food. We grabbed the freebies and high tailed it out of there.

We popped in on Uncle Jimmy and Sue in Myrtle Beach the following weekend. They cooked such tasty meals and it was tough to leave. We didn't find a lot of wedding possibilities in Myrtle, but I did introduce Matt to my Dad's favorite hot dog shop. These dogs were amazing! Please refer to a previous blog entry on my love for hot dogs.

I was most excited to check out Charleston. I've heard so many great things about the city, and unfortunately, it down poured during most of our visit. We were really impressed with the Wild Dunes resort about 20 minutes outside Charleston and ended up staying there overnight. The wedding planner was great and sent a bottle of Champagne to our room for good measure. We had a fun night downtown checking out a few local spots. Everyone was so nice (and slow), that I kept thinking they wanted something from me (I know, cynical city girl).

We rounded out the weekend in Hilton Head and came up with a few more good options.

These trips were made a lot easier with Nelly, the Garmin Nuvi GPS I got Matt for Christmas. I like to say that Nelly has revolutionized the way we travel. The most fun part is that it estimates the arrival time at your location. So on our long trips, it became a race to see if we could make up minutes lost at bathroom breaks and we got pretty choosy about our pit stops. But, I am a bit worried that Matt's getting a little too dependant on it, as he now uses it navigating around Clarendon.

I am happy to report that after all of this road tripping, we still are planning to get married.