As yet another wedding season is about to begin here on The Outer Banks, I am reminded of how blessed we are to be hosts to the thousands of couples that journey here each year to begin their special journey through life together. Indeed, The Outer Banks is said to be second only to Las Vegas for destination weddings in America. And many would ask, “Why?”
One of the myriad of reasons that so many choose us as their destination for one of the most important days of their lives is accessibility. We are an island destination within a couple or three hours of major airports. We are within a day’s drive of approximately two-thirds of the nation’s population, and while the majority of our wonderful couples hail from the seaboard or adjoining states, I increasingly see couples hailing from others such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Kansas, among other mid-western and western states.
Annnnnnd…it is after all the beach…and we have mile after endless mile of beaches here. And endless horizons. The atmosphere is charged with ions that tickle the senses, creating a sort of relaxed excitement, the sense that every moment is a new thing. Every wave that crashes onto the beach brings with it new life and new love for life. There are few things more romantic than the salt kissed fresh air, the sun dancing across the wave tops as the day bears on, the sunrises across awakening seas, and the sunset to the west as it takes with it another day, a day full of memories to last you a lifetime.
Beach weddings offer so much, unique and natural dynamic setting with unlimited seating. You can make it “your own”…you can be minimalist and go with a plain old barefoot wedding or be as opulent as you desire from trellises and chuppas to violins and ukuleles. Choose from chairs and benches to wild horses stampeding by in the middle of your nuptials. And the photos will be the envy of all your friends and family, no garden variety “posed shot” by the trellis somewhere back home, but rather shots of the two of you sashaying down the beach hand in hand with reckless abandon and an obvious love of life and zeal for all things beachy. There may even be some porpoises frolicking in the seas in the background.
