NC Beach Blog

Knots Landing OIB is honored to have donated the home to Operation Marry Me Military

"The North Carolina woman credited with helping stop the Fort Hood shooting nearly three years ago is getting a special honor.

The group Operation Marry Me Military selected former Police Sgt. and Carolina Beach native Kim Munley as one of several people across the state to receive a free wedding. Operation Marry Me Military is based out of Oak Island and provides free weddings to active military members. Couples from all across the United states applied, yet only seven winning couples were selected.

"The men and women are so deserving and I feel like they don't get everything that they deserve. If we can offer one day of their life to start a new life, it's the least that we can do," said Founder of OMMM Alecia Davis-Geddings.

Munley said the organization is a great way to give back to military families.

"The foundation itself is amazing. People are so stressed out anyway in the military, dealing with deployments and to have someone actually plan their wedding where basically all they do it show up is a dream come true," said Munley.

The winners discovered their lucky news by phone earlier on Thursday. All of the weddings will take place on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2012. However, there will be several vendors to help them organize the big event."

Congratulations on your engagement and decision to set a wedding date. If you’re considering a destination beach wedding in North Carolina, you might be asking the top two questions that are asked by brides-to-be.

Here are the top two questions:

Question #1: From all the wedding etiquette books I’ve referenced, the authors suggest sending out wedding invitations one month in advance. But is that true for a destination wedding where people are traveling by plane and car to get to the NC beaches?

When you’re hosting wedding events in your home town or the city where you both live, yes, one month is sufficient notice for sending out wedding invitations and receiving responses.

With a destination wedding, the rules are different. If you know a year in advance that your wedding ceremony will be held at a NC beach location or some other remote destination, notify everyone a year in advance. Then about two months before the wedding, send out your formal invitations with an insert that provides detailed information about accommodations.

Question #2: I’m having my wedding dress custom made. Should I carry it with me when traveling or should I plan to have it shipped to a UPS store or FedEx store in or near the NC beach town where our wedding will be held?

This answer gives you several choices, but the most important answer is not to let the dress out of your sight if you don’t want to stress about it getting lost, stolen, or damaged while en route.

After speaking to several airlines’ customer service agents about this, I learned that on many occasions a bride would reserve the seat next to her for her dress. Yes, it’s true. If you’re driving, make sure the dress is in a safe place in the car.

If you choose to ship your dress to your NC beach wedding location, and you trust the carrier, take out adequate insurance, and plan for the dress to arrive at least one week in advance. Then you’ll know if it arrived before you leave.

The final option is to pay for an extra large bag and send it with your regular baggage in the belly of the plane. Then all you have to do is hope that it arrives undamaged. Allow several days for the wrinkles in the wedding gown to relax.

Planning a wedding does not have to be a stressful series of events. Here are three things that you won't have to worry about when you have a NC beach wedding:

1. Valet service and parking concerns. Many beach homes that can accommodate large groups of people for wedding ceremonies or family vacations usually have enough space to park 20 to 30 cars. Since all of your wedding guests will be staying at the beach home or at nearby accommodations, there's no need for valet service.

2. Whom should you invite to your intimate NC beach wedding? If you want a small intimate beach wedding the size of the rental home will dictate how many guests can comfortably attend. A fairly large beach house will probably allow for 125 guests or so and perhaps 20-24 guests actually staying at the house. If you want a smaller number of wedding guests there is no need to defend your decision to coworkers and friends. It's an intimate NC beach wedding ceremony and only the immediate family and bridal party will attend.

3. Finding an amazing backdrop for your wedding pictures. If you choose to have a NC beach wedding you will have the Atlantic Ocean and/or the Intracoastal Waterways as the scenery for your wedding photo album. Imagine the photographs from your NC beach wedding ceremony with sandy beaches and beautiful waves as the backdrop. Walk over to the nearby Intracoastal Waterway and take your bridal party pictures with a spectacular sunset. Your wedding photo album will be loaded with cherished memories from a spectacular day.

You’re both looking forward to getting married and starting your new life together. However, you can’t decide if you want to get married in the city where you live and have the pastor of your church marry you. Alternatively, you could pop for the dream and get married away from it all…the destination beach wedding.

Here is a list of the pros and cons of getting married at a destination beach wedding location.

Positive reasons for choosing a destination beach wedding location:

• A beautiful beach and ocean waves serve as your wedding backdrop.
• Can wear flip-flops or even bare feet instead of buying expensive wedding shoes.
• Your guests will have a great time before and after your wedding playing on the beach.  Your kid cousins can spend time digging to China in the sand.
• The beach is a great place for an ecco-friendly wedding.
• No need to rent limousines and drive people around. Once you’ve arrived at the beach house rental property, you don’t need to go anywhere.
• The beach sunset will provide perfect ambiance for the couple’s first dance.
• The beach makes a perfect place for your honeymoon, too.

Negative things about choosing a destination beach wedding:

• Bad weather might be more of a concern if it occurs on your wedding day.  Make sure you have a solid plan B in place.
• Some of your friends and relatives might not be able to attend because of travel.  But maybe that isn’t a bad thing.
• The bride might accidentally fall into a hole in the sand previously dug by her kid cousins playing on the beach (See third point under Positives.).
• Can’t make a YouTube video of the wedding party dancing down the center aisle of the church at the start of the ceremony.

Chelsea & Stephen found me (Heba Salama Photography) through BAO Events (www.baoevents.com) for their May 5, 2012 wedding. After a lot of scheduling, we finally met up this winter for their engagement shoot- just in time for the wedding right around the corner. Their friends and family travelled from near and far to Knots Landing at Ocean Isle beach for the May festivities and everyone was ready for a good time! Chelsea was a super relaxed bride, taking care of her own make-up while she let Andre Patnode take care of her amazing and full-of-detail hair...gorgeous! We spent the morning photographing Chelsea & all of her bridesmaids & before we knew it, it was GO TIME- good thing her blackberry reminded her it was "time to get married" (see photo). Her dress from Mecklenburg Bridal was simply stunning- and it had pockets- I love, love, love a dress with pockets!  The groomsmen were in perfect beach wedding dress, the weather was a perfect temperature with a slight breeze, and the vows went off with laughter and a few tears.  The love between these two is extremely obvious, and very real.  To see them interact really made me smile. The guests danced the night away with tunes from Scott Shaw & they noshed on cupcakes from Kristy Neubauer of 2 Chics and a Cake before exiting with a sparkler send off. Many congratulations to them both!  http://www.weddings-magazine.com/_blog/Real_North_Carolina_Weddings/post/Chelsea_and_Stephen/  http://www.hebasalama.com/

We stayed and had our beach wedding at Knots Landing in April 2012 and had a great time with our family and friends. It was great to have everyone all staying in the same luxurious house. The house was clean and the setup is really great. We had 24 people stay there and it was comfortable for everyone. The pool deck was great and the yard was spacious enough to setup our wedding reception. I would recommend Knots Landing to any group, wedding or not, the house is very accommodating and has everything you need for a relaxing, dream vacation. Rob is very helpful and was always great about answering any questions we had about the house. I would give Knots Landing OIB 5 stars all around! Thanks for helping make our wedding so special and memorable! Thanks, Kerri D

Planning a NC beach wedding? Let's count the eco-friendly ways that you can protect the environment on your special day.

Saving the planet and protecting our environment is not limited to special days that our nation chooses to celebrate to protect the earth. You can do something natural and contribute to the environment even on your wedding day. 

Here are three things you can do to plan an eco-friendly NC beach wedding:

• Assemble small packets of organic bird seed that can be opened and gently tossed at the bride and groom after they become husband and wife.
• Instead of using chemically laden paper towels or napkins, you can choose to use cotton towels or natural fabric for your guests to clean their hands while in the restroom.
• Table decorations can be simple or elaborate. Just make sure that you're using potted plants and flowers rather than silk flowers or Styrofoam arrangements.

The goal is to make a list of items you will need on your wedding. Then look for organic alternatives rather than buying everything from a warehouse-type store just to save time. Saving our planet is much more important.

Your beachfront wedding guests will notice and appreciate your efforts to orchestrate an eco-friendly beach wedding.

When you’re thinking about traveling to a fun and romantic destination for your ideal beach wedding, here are the top three questions asked most often before booking the reservation.

1. What if the wedding planner in the remote city bails on us just before we arrive?

This is a logical question, but unless you have lots of expendable cash, or you’re a Hollywood movie star, you’ll want to have a paper trail (fax and e-mail) of everything that’s being planned for your wedding. As your plans progress, you would ask for photos of the facility, room sizes, accommodations, room layouts, proximity to stores, shopping or delivery services, etc. Definitely, you would not want to leave everything to the wedding planner. It’s your wedding. You need to be kept in the loop at every turn. If for some reason the wedding planner quits or doesn’t show up, you should plan to arrive a few days before your wedding so you can go to Plan B if necessary.

2. Can we trust the vendors to deliver exactly what we asked for so that our dream beach wedding is like a fairytale rather than a disaster?

Whoever you’re renting the beach house from should be reputable enough to have heard from previous renters if one or more of the vendors was not delivering what they promised. Most rental property owners are days and weeks ahead of any complaints that might occur. Regardless, be sure to check out the wedding vendors’ length of time in business and ask for references.

3. What if we go to all the trouble of planning our ideal beach wedding and the friends and family we wanted to be there the most decide that it’s too expensive for them to come?

That certainly might happen. Nevertheless, if you make your reservations a year in advance, most people would have ample time to plan for such a memorable occasion. If they still decline the invitation to your wedding, then be gracious and accept their reasons. Just remember that you are under no obligation to pay their airfare or travel expenses.

During the weekend of 11/11/11 (Veteran's Day) Manish and Jacob were given a free wedding by Operation Marry Me Military - a not-for-profit that gives an active Military bride and/or groom the chance to win a FREE wedding.

Their NC beach wedding took place at Knots Landing OIB.  The wedding included 3 nights / 4 days at Knots Landing OIB, Event Planning by Brittany Adams-O'Neil, Catering by Joe Caldropoli of Coastal Catering, Photography by John Urban of Blue Sky and Chris Campbell of Giving Weddings, DJ, etc. All of the goods and services were donated by the suppliers.

The intimate beach wedding took place at 4p on 11/11/11.  The entire event was planned by Brittany Adams-O'Neil of BAO Events.

Congratulations to Manish and Jacob and thank you for helping to keep the USA a safe and beautiful country.

A beach vacation at Knots Landing OIB located on Ocean Isle Beach, NC is great because it gets everyone away from the routines of life. There is no need to talk on cell phones, check emails, or be running here and there every evening to attend sporting events, activities or meetings.

A beach vacation is the perfect getaway for couples and families that need to relax and be undistracted in time together. They can spend days on end simply enjoying the beach, the water, and lazy time together. There is perhaps nothing as therapeutic for a family than extended time together.

Many families have vacationed at Knots Landing OIB and broken the daily / weekly / monthly routines of life...  Most return from their week or two at the beach and find themselves full of laughter, energy and a sense of reconnection.