a very geeky wedding

Scott's dream is for a beach wedding. We live in Central Texas, 3+ hours drive from the nearest coast. This is doable, but is sort of on the verge of being a destination wedding. I guess by some standards it is. Meh.

We first wanted to do Galveston, since we wanted to do a cruise for our honeymoon and Galveston is the only cruise ship port in Texas. Problem: Hurricane Ike. Galveston is still recovering and repairing from that. But we figured it couldn't hurt to see what was back up already. So, we took a weekend trip down there to check things out.

We quickly discovered that any beachfront hotel would be happy to host our wedding-- at astronomical prices. Since every penny of this wedding is coming out of our pockets, not our parents', that's a problem. We also tasted bile in the back of our mouths when we were handed enormous, frilly pamphlets and brochures with all the rules and menus and stuff. Strike two: none of these places were interested in letting us have outside catering. Again, astronomical prices.

Finally I found a pavilion on Stewart Beach, whose website advertised it as being available for event rental, outside catering permitted. Yay! Except... it was still under repairs from Ike. Yes, they thought it would be finished by the summer of 2010. No, they weren't taking reservations for it yet. No, they couldn't even tell me when they would start taking reservations.

Ugh.

We came home and debated it, and I took to calling back weekly to get a status update. Finally I just about broke down under the stress! I wanted to get something booked already.

My mom, who is awesome and supportive despite being a little disappointed that we're not doing a Catholic ceremony, suggested that we take a look at Rockport, which is a coastal town not far from Corpus Christi, a couple hours' drive on down the coast from Galveston. She said that she had spoken to someone who had gotten married there this past summer and that it came highly recommended. Couldn't hurt to look, anyway.

Neither Scott or I have ever been to Rockport, but I turned to the interwebs for info and found exactly what we wanted: the pavilions at Rockport Beach Park. They have a lovely brochure up on their website, with pictures of beach weddings with reception at the pavilion. Yes, outside catering. And CHEAP. Joy!

After a number of phone calls and some scurrying to figure out the best date for my enormous extended family, we put our names down for May 30, 2010. That's the Sunday right before Memorial Day. We couldn't get a Saturday-- apparently they're booked already for all Saturdays next year in May, June, July, and August. (yikes!)

We're planning a weekend trip down there next weekend to scope the place out!