Wedding Location Search (2)

Saturday, start to finish, was absolutely amazing! It started out with waking up early, coffee while looking out on the marina, and blueberry pancakes with sausage!

Blueberries!

We took off shortly after breakfast for the Ft. Fisher Ferry to Southport, NC, where we would catch another ferry to Bald Head.

I had contacted the Hospitality Event Manager for one agency on the island and she gladly sent me all the information plus she setup complimentary Ferry tickets for us (!) The new ferry station for BHI at Southport was recently moved and is still being finished but it is very impressive already! There it is as we departed for Bald Head…

We arrived to Bald Head..

We met up with the event manager for Bald Head Ltd. and she drove us all around the island via golf cart! She was so helpful, taking us to every possible ceremony site and reception site! She even hooked us up with a free pass to the Shoal’s Club (which is probably our favorite site for our wedding) so that we could come back and check it out on our own after she left!

Drumroll please……..Wedding Possibilities Here we come!
Harborside Pavillion overlooking the marina and Lighthouse, Old Baldy.

 
Underneath the tent:

Marina & Lighthouse View Ceremony Site

Lighthouse Grounds

View of the Lighthouse grounds from the Chapel Entrance
 
The Chapel ( It was surprisingly quite nice and nondenominational, however, Jeff and I are not indoor/church types)

The Shoal’s Club ( our favorite so far!)
 
That is the Presentation Deck for our ceremony, overlooking the ocean and beach.

.

This is the other view, it does have a covered area for those that would want to be out of the sun

The Shoal’s Club Dining Rooms and Outdoor Patio for the Reception
 

This space ( and the two inside dining rooms to the right) is only available one Saturday a month for weddings and October 2010 is already filled. However, we could have it there any other day of the week (… sunday )

On the left of the above photo is the Event Pavillion…here it is inside below
 

We would also have the outside space around this Event Pavillion…

Hard to imagine with umbrellas and ketchup bottles, but you can see the dunes, palm trees and pool…

 

After we said our goodbyes and thank you’s, we had lunch at this fantastic restaurant right on the Harbor. Eb and Flow
“Island Paradise” was on special
 
Blue Curacao, Coconut Rum and Pineapple Juice  was incredibly refreshing! My lunch was exactly what I wanted as well, grilled salmon with grilled asparagus and a side salad ( it had peppers, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and romaine!). My fiance (!!!) had a shrimp buffalo style burger and beer.

We hit the bikes afterward and biked all the way down to South Beach area to meet up with another Event planner at the Island’s country/golf Club.

If you ever see Bald Head on theknot.com, you will see a photo of this country club! Her name was Lindsey and she actually graduated from where I am attending graduate school! What a coincidence! We did the tour of all their possible reception and ceremony sites, got more information and took more photos.
The Grill Terrace overlooks the driving range

The Main Dining Area is another option, which comes with The Ocean Terrace

Above, they were setting up the dance floor for a wedding. They actually have a better area of hardwood floors already in place in The Green Room, which is an additional fee but might be fantastic for our dancing! Below is The Ocean Terrace, this was actually the idea I fell in love with when we decided to check out BHI. I still really like the venue and the price but I did not realize it was so far back from the ocean…

It is funny because the ocean really is just about 1/4 mile straight walk down the driveway entrance so it isn’t that far!
  

After meeting with her, we were really undecided! There is a large cost difference between The Shoals and The BH Club but we think both are fantastic in different ways! We decided we wanted to think more about everything so we happily biked through all the beach houses

…and back to The Shoal’s Club to take advantage of our free pass! We checked out the dining room and patio area again, inside. Unfortunately the photos I took did not upload for some reason.

We had a drink at the bar. I had a sweet tea vodka with water and Jeff had a IPA ( again totally refreshing and delicious)

and utilized the private access to the beach! On our way I snapped this shot of the club…

I think it was very coincidental that as we stepped onto the beach, we set our stuff down right near this:

Someone had just gotten married!

We had a great time swimming in the ocean! The water was cool but perfect after a hot, sunny day of “work” and the sand was really soft as opposed to filled with crushed shells.

As we were biking all the way back to the Harbor, we found the entrance to a possible ceremony site we had seen earlier with our first event person…

This gazebo is really pretty and is “free” as far as site fees go. It has a much bigger lawn area than in this photo and a smaller lighthouse type of building on the opposite end. I thought the entrance to the little forest area was nice..
 

We continued on and waited for the ferry back to Southport, checking out the harbor entrance beach.
 
We hopped on the Ferry watching the sunset and drove back to Jeff’s dad’s house. His dad had ordered us pizza for dinner and we were so thankful because we were HUNGRY!

I had one slice of Hawaiian style with pineapple, canadian ham, bacon, roasted red peppers and jalepenos!  I had another slice of “Greek Veggie” with peppers, onions, spinach, olives and feta! Jack missed us and clearly wanted to be near any possible drop-age of pizza!

Body:
Biking All over the 14 miles of beaches on the island! Swimming in the ocean!

Mind:
We asked so many questions and received lots of information to take in for everything Bald Head has to offer!

Soul:
Completely filled! We accomplished so much fun, relaxation and exercise, delicious food and drink , and wedding planning activity all in one day!