Our Wedding Story

Hatteras Island Wedding Photographer + Beachfront wedding

 

I am thrilled to be sharing with you all the information we learned while planning our destination wedding in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. There is so much information on how we selected the spot in the North Carolina, our cake and flowers, and how we planned the entire day around the sunset and our intimate guest list of 35. We loved our wedding, and it holds a special place in our hearts for so many reasons. We were married on May 5th, 2015. I have been wanting to write these blog posts for about two years now, but honestly, I didn’t know where to start! We learned so much! We learned how to plan a destination wedding, good things to do and not do, and the best way to select vendors. I am excited to share all this information with you over the next couple of months!

 

Onto the first part of our wedding

 

Why did we pick the Outer Banks and how did we narrow it down?

 

Scott proposed in Roanoke, Virginia during a weekend trip we took in 2014. Our wedding story started off with us getting engaged at a destination so we knew we wanted to have a destination wedding. We love destination weddings and traveling for destination weddings, we also both love Ohio weddings, and being wedding photographers. We have great connections with some amazing venues in Ohio, but our hearts were in the Outer Banks in North Carolina and having an oceanfront wedding. I had actually been to the Outer Banks more than Scott, so we really relied on my knowledge of the landscape to figure out where the ceremony would be. One of my favorite spots is the National Seashore that runs along the coast of the Outer Banks.

 

My love for the National Seashore started when I first visited the coast in 2008. My absolute favorite area is Pea Island – I was always amazed at the huge sand dunes and the sand blowing across the road whenever we visited. I love the northern part of the Outer Banks (Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head), but for me, the real fun begins when you go over Bonner Bridge which lands you right at Pea Island. The Bodie Island lighthouse, my favorite lighthouse, is on Pea Island and I knew we had to get pictures there the day after the ceremony. Even though I love how picturesque Pea Island is, we had to think logistics on the wedding day.

 

We work with around 20 couples every year, and after photographing weddings for 10 years, we have photographed over 150 weddings and experienced a lot! One of our concerns was the logistics of having the wedding ceremony on Pea Island and then going somewhere else for the reception. Since the wedding itself was already a destination, we wanted to make it easy for our guests. Plus, parking is an issue on Pea Island since there are only tiny parking lots here and there scattered around different beach access points. We didn’t want people to end up going to the wrong beach access point! So, even though Pea Island was my favorite place for a wedding, we kept looking for something else that would work for us.

 

That was when we decided having our wedding at a Beach House would be the best option. We searched and searched and searched… seriously, a lot of searching for the perfect house. It had to have room for us, both of our immediate families (Scott’s sister and husband, his parents, my parents and my sister and her husband and three boys, plus it had to be dog friendly since Bentley was the flower dog!) We started looking in Rodanthe, and the search ended with us finding the perfect house on Hatteras Island… not only on Hatteras Island, but in the town of Hatteras, and right across from the ferry that goes to Ocracoke. So, our wedding destination ended up being at a spot in the Outer Banks that was the farthest point away from Ohio that you could possibly get. It wasn’t our intention that people would have to travel so far, but it was the best option for us so we hoped our families didn’t mind. We were so excited to book our beach house, especially with its adorable name of Pinch Me!

 

Pinch Me was the perfect house for us. It had plenty of bedrooms, multiple levels and so many open decks! The decks of the house ended up being the main reason we selected the house. The multiple decks became an integral part of our wedding day and our wedding experience. Stay tuned for the next blog on how we planned our wedding to find out why the decks played such a role in our wedding.

 

Our Beach House – Pinch Me Hatteras Realty 

 

The decks were amazing and played a huge role in our wedding

 

The view from the top deck

 

Hatteras Island Lighthouse

 

View from the top of Hatteras Lighthouse

 

 

National Seashore on Hatteras Island

 

Wetlands at Bodie Island Lighthouse

 

 

What could be better than a cotton candy sunrise in The Outer Banks?