White Christmas Wedding? Maybe not the white snowy Christmas wedding that might come to mind, but you’ll definitely have a white Christmas on the beautiful sandy beaches of Anna Maria.

You will find that a Christmas beach wedding on Anna Maria is a very romantic experience and at this time of year you won’t need to worry about overcrowded beaches. The temperature may be a little cooler, but the backdrop is just as breathtaking and with over 360 days of sunshine a year, you have a pretty good chance of getting a clear day for the big event making it a perfect day for capturing the most beautiful photographs.

The holidays are such a busy time for everyone and you may think that your decision to have your wedding during that time of year will be even more stressful for you and your guests. Put those thoughts to rest. You have chosen Anna Maria as the destination and who wouldn’t want to get away from the hussle and bustle and the cold. I can’t think of a better gift to give than the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful vacation with friends and family while they’re sharing in your special day.

We all know that planning a wedding is a lot of work even when you’re doing it from home, but it can be even more challenging doing it long distance. Do not worry, there are some great wedding planners and caterers on Anna Maria that will help turn your white Christmas wedding into something spectacular.

For a different twist, have your Anna Maria Island caterer prepare a festive Christmas dinner with a turkey, stuffing and all the fixings and let your guests enjoy the homey, loving feeling that only Christmas can bring. Let your Anna Maria Island wedding planner turn the beach into a winter wonderland. If the weather is a little chilly, you might want to consider renting a tent which is perfect for decorating. Your Anna Maria Island wedding planner can string hundreds of white crystal lights everywhere and have silver, white and crystal decorations throughout the space making the entire tent sparkle and glow.

Whatever ideas you have, make sure to let your wedding planner know and they will do their best to incorporate all of your ideas. It truly is a good decision to hire a wedding planner, not just to relieve the stress of trying to get everything done in time and making sure that all the details are attended to, but they have years of experience that they can draw from to make your day the dream that you’ve had forever.

Once you’ve selected the venues for your Anna Maria Island wedding ceremony and for your reception, now is the time to figure out your Anna Maria Island wedding transportation. Choosing the right Anna Maria Island wedding transportation depends on many things as the wedding car or cars that you choose to get you from one place to the next really helps to set the tone for the celebration – so don’t leave this important aspect of your wedding off to the last minute. It is recommended that you book your wedding transportation eight months to a year before your big day. Since most weddings take place on Saturdays, many limousine services are booked well in advance. There are a few things to think about before you make your decision. Are you having the ceremony and reception at the same venue? Is there a theme for the wedding? Are you wanting to make a grande entrance in a spectacular vintage car or ride in on a horse or are you just wanting to get to where you need to be? Whatever wedding transportation you choose for your Anna Maria Island wedding, you are sure to find what you are looking for.

Anna Maria is the wedding capital of Florida and many couples choose this destination for its casual elegance. They want to get married in a small intimate ceremony on the beach with a select few of their closest family and friends and then head out to one of the wonderful restaurants on the beach for dinner where together, they can watch the sunset with the sand between their toes. In this case, you may want to consider using the Free Trolley as your wedding transportation. You and all your guests can leave your cars at the vacation homes, hop on the trolley, experience the special evening with loved ones, enjoy a few toasts with the bride and groom and arrive safely back to the vacation homes once you are done. This definitely isn’t for all weddings, but it is a thought and not a bad idea.

If you’ve chosen to have a more elaborate ceremony on the beach with all of your friends and family and your reception at a separate location, you and your wedding party can hire a limousine to take you where you need to be. A new twist on the traditional limousine is the SUV limo which will carry and even larger party. Why not ride in style to all the amazing back drops for your wedding photos. The typical wedding has cars for the bride and bridesmaids, and a second set for the groom and groomsmen. Usually, family members and guests make their own arrangements.

Another fun option for an Anna Maria Island beach wedding is the Golf Cart or Electric Cars. You can hire one or a fleet of them and some companies even rent larger 14 passenger electric cars that are perfect for you and your wedding party.

Whatever it is that you decide, the most important thing is that you have fun on your wedding day. Weddings are a time of celebration and laughter and most importantly….LOVE.

Anna Maria is a place with rich and unique beauty. It is casual elegance to a tee. A great background for wedding photography with its sandy white beaches, tropical scenery and Old Florida charm. If you’re planning your wedding on Anna Maria, you have chosen a great place to lay back for a short while and forget about the stresses of your big day.

Now back to the planning. Are you confused by all the wedding photography jargon? There are many Wedding Packages designed to meet the varied needs of each couple. Whether you’re wanting someone to simply photograph the ceremony and a few shots of the wedding party after the “I do’s” or a full day where the photographer and team follow you around to capture every last detail, you will find an Anna Maria wedding photographer that will document one of the most important days of your life. From set up to take down and everything in between – you don’t want to miss a thing. Every moment is special and when you’re busy getting yourself ready, you won’t have time to enjoy every small detail. Let the photographer tell the entire story from the flowers being set up to the cake being delivered to the bride putting on make up to the grandmother giving the final “something old” before she leaves the dressing room to join her father at the head of the aisle. The photophrapher will capture the joy, sadness and pride in daddy’s eye as he puts his daughter’s hand into her future. Without a professional wedding photographer, some of these life moments would be lost forever.

Not only as photographers, but as wedding storytellers, it is a privilege for a photographer to record such an important day in a couple’s life. As your wedding photographer and or videographer photographs every moment and emotion with beautiful photography and videos, your photos and videos should be fun and relaxed and accomplished in an unobtrusive, friendly way.

Thanks to the global reach of wedding videographers, YouTube and skype, you can include your family and friends from around the world to share in your special moments either live or captured in a beautifully edited video with all the details leading up to the big moment as well as the celebration afterwards.

When it comes to your wedding day, you can never guarantee the weather so when choosing your venue, be sure to have a plan if it rains. Not only is this smart for the wedding itself, but for the photography as well. Most venues have places where you and your photographer can capture some artistic portraits of the bride and groom but there might not be enough space to hold the entire wedding party. An experienced Anna Maria Island wedding photographer will also have some creative alternatives so relax and enjoy the day even in the rain.

As stressful as weddings are to plan, you also have to take into consideration the family and friends gathered together so it is great if you can find a professional, organized and creative wedding photographer who has a calming presence, focus and the abilitly to get candid photographs during times of caos. If you had engagement or pre-wedding photographs taken by the same photographer who will be shooting your wedding, you will have already developed a relationship that will also help to keep the stress levels at bay.

Wedding photographs provide a beautiful and lasting portrait of your day that will entertain and move you for years to come. Whether you are looking for traditional, candid or reportage styles you can capture every element of your day in a discreet way to ensure your final wedding album is stunning, natural, spontaneous and picture perfect.

If you are planning a wedding on Anna Maria, there are plenty of things to do and consider before you arrive for the big day.

Will you be having a small service for you, your partner and a few loved ones and an intimate reception at one of the many restaurants on Anna Maria or are you hoping to pull off an elaborate event with live music, catering for 100 or more guests, the traditional gown and all the extras. If you haven’t been to Anna Maria before, where do you start and how do you know where to find the Anna Maria Island wedding vendors?

Although you may think that having a destination wedding would be less stressful and less work than a traditional wedding, this can be a misconception. A lot of planning, organizing and coordinating goes into even the most intimate of destination weddings.

Some couples hire a professional Anna Maria Island Wedding Planner and tell them “this is what I want — make it happen!” and other couples spend hours putting together every detail so that each little part reflects not only their taste and style, but also features their heart and soul. Whatever it is that you decide to do, it is limited only by your creative spirit, your budget and if you’re doing the planning on your own, the free time that you have to spare.

There are definite advantages to having a destination wedding versus a traditional wedding, but don’t forget that ultimately, it is a very personal decision.

Some key reasons to have a destination wedding on Anna Maria are:

1) Spending time with your family and guests. With any destination weddings, your guests will typically be staying for a few days before and or after the wedding giving you more of an opportunity to interact and spend time with them compared to the standard 5-hour hometown church wedding and reception. With all the excitement of the wedding and the events leading up to the big day, its a great way for both families to get to know each other better.

2) Less Costly – Assuming that you are not paying for all your guests to travel to Anna Maria, destination weddings are not as expensive as you might think. In fact, most destination weddings are considerably less expensive than traditional weddings, possibly because not as many guests show up. Its a little more difficult in today’s busy world for guests to take the time away from work or family to leave town, not to mention the fact that it can be a costly proposition for your guests.

3) You Get to Turn Your Wedding into a Vacation – If you are a couple that enjoys relaxing on a white sandy beach with nothing but blue skies and crystal clear water in sight, then why not make that a part of your wedding. It’s a natural fit and the perfect back drop for your wedding photos.

4) It Minimizes Tensions – There is always debate about the guest list and a handful or more guests that you may not what to invite, but feel obligated to do so because of family politics etc. Once you’ve made the big decision to have a destination wedding, you’ll find that the list is easier to come up with and far less stressful.

These are just a few of the benefits to having a destination wedding on Anna Maria, so my recommendation to everyone is to have a destination wedding and be prepared to have the most amazing day of your life.

For the majority of brides out there, the wedding dress is the focal point of the wedding, but the flowers are the definite runner up. Some brides or bridal couples choose flowers simply for the beauty and ambiance that they add to the venue and some select each flower for the meanings they hold.  Wedding flowers can reflect purity, others can symbolize love and passion and some can convey the feeling of happiness.  No matter why you pick the flowers that you do, we all know that flowers add so much to any wedding.

Everyone has their own ideas on how to choose the flowers for a wedding and once you have an idea of what you want, its important to find an Anna Maria Island Wedding Florist that can turn your vision into realty.

There are several things to think about before deciding on your wedding flowers.

1) What time of year you plan to have the wedding.  This can be very important as certain flowers are only avaialable at certain times of the year and if you are on a budget, you will want to use the flowers that are in season and
readily available.  If budget is of no concern, you can always have anything you want specially flown in so its a good idea to work with a florist that knows how to find what you’re looking for.

2) Where you plan to get married.  The reason I say that the wedding venue or location plays into the choice of flowers as well as the quantity of flowers you need is because you can turn any old space into a wedding wonderland with flowers, but if you have a beautiful park-like surrroundings with gorgeous trees and plenty of flowers, you may not need to order as many.

3) The color of the wedding dress as well as the bridesmaids dresses is another important facter in choosing flowers. I like to have fun with color and the flowers play a huge part in how that is accomplished. You can match the flowers to the dresses or complement the dresses with contrasting colors.  There are so many options and variations that it is highly reccommended to have an experienced Anna Maria Island Wedding Florist to help you create the look and feel that you want for your special day.

There are so many ways you can incorporate flowers into the wedding. Here are a few more ideas to follow when designing and choosing your wedding flowers:

1. Less is more at the wedding ceremony. All of your family and friends have assembled together on your special day and the focus should be on you.

2. Reposition the ceremony flowers and use them at the reception. This will save money and allow you to stay within your budget.

3. Make the biggest impact when your guests are sitting up close and personal to the centerpieces, but make sure not to block the view of the person that is sitting across from them.

4. Choose hearty flowers that will last a long period of time, especially if they will be sitting in the sun.

5. Pick flowers that will make an impact and also make you happy!
Personalize Your Wedding Bouquet

Turning the bouquet into and even more meaningful part of the wedding is something that many brides are doing.  They are personalizing their bouquets with family heirlooms such as a grandmother’s locket or
the wedding bands of your great granparents. Have your wedding florist secure these wonderful pieces into the bouquet so they don’t get lost.  What an interesting detail they add.  A few other simple, but wonderful ways of personalizing your bouquet is to have your Anna Maria Island Wedding florist wrap the stems of the bouquet in a piece of your mother wedding dress or the handkerchief from a special friend or relative that may or may not be around for the wedding.  Your family will be honoured that a part of them will walk down the aisle with you and be with you every step of the way!

When you hear the word “wedding,” what immediately comes to mind? The answer actually can be as varied as people’s personalities and preferences. One thing is for sure though; most couples view this day as a fairytale-like occasion that comes only once in their lifetime.

Apart from the wedding photography that will capture every detail for future memory, choosing the right Anna Maria wedding venue is a crucial part of wedding planning for every bridal couple.

EXAMPLES OF THE BEST WEDDING VENUES ON ANNA MARIA

Although Anna Maria Island is only 7 miles long, it offers a variety of choices for gorgeous wedding venues and is known to be the “Wedding Capital of Florida”. Whether the couple wants to hold the wedding ceremony and reception in the same location or not, they can always find a place that will perfectly suit their taste and needs.
If its a small intimate affair you’re looking to have or an elaborate elegant event for all your friends and family you will find that on Anna Maria Island.  The first place to consider is any one of Anna Maria’s beautiful white sandy beaches.  The gorgeous blue water and stunning sunset is a backdrop hard to match.  Y0u just need to stand with the waves crashing behind you as your small private party watches and listens as you say ‘I do’ to the one you love and you’ll get the most incredible photos.  If you’ve chosen to have your ceremony and reception at the same location, you won’t need to forfeit the beautiful back drop as there are several restaurants and bistros on Anna Maria Island located directly on the beach that you can work with.  The Sandbar Restaurant located at the north end of Anna Maria is one such place.  It has received accolades throughout the years for Best Wedding Venues by brides.  With its open air pavilion, you are ‘covered’ no matter what the weather decides to do on your special day.  Another terrific venue is the Beach House Restaurant.  It is located in Bradenton Beach which is the southend of the island and has a wonderful staff that will be happy to help you coordinate your wedding.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN LOOKING FOR THE BEST ANNA MARIA ISLAND WEDDING VENUE

Like other parts of wedding planning, selecting the best wedding venue requires careful consideration on the part of both the wedding organizers and the couple. The costs and the place’s atmosphere, however, are the two primary things to consider when picking a wedding venue on Anna Maria.  Surely no couple wants to hold their wedding in a boring place and for the budget consious, you don’t have to.  Of course there many gorgeous vacation homes from the beach bungalow to the stunning villas that remain on the list of prospective wedding venue for smaller receptions.  With the private backyards and stunning pools or beachfront and canal homes or condos, the perfect place is waiting.  Keep in mind that being such a popular wedding and vacation destination, its best to book early.

No matter where you decide to have your wedding and or reception, Anna Maria will not disappoint.  Weddings after all should be remembered as a magical and lovely occasion not only by the couple but by their guests as well.

Anna Maria Island Florida is becoming one of the greenest cities in the USA.   As a leader in green clean transporatation the Island is now offerring multi passenger electric shuttles for large wedding parties.  We can fit 14 passengers in your personalized Island style limo.   This vehicle can be used to transport your wedding guests from the beach to the reception hall or from the church to the reception venue.  The uses are endless.  For prices and availability visit this wedding transportation rental company

Wedding transportation made easy

Getting married on Anna Maria Island is a dream come true for many brides and grooms.  Planning a wedding from a far can be a daunting task.  After countless hours of searching on the internet and leaving messages for wedding vendors one may feel discouraged.   A local wedding planner on Anna Maria has made planning a simple wedding very easy.  Her wedding plannging site is called Anna Maria Island Wedding This is just one wedding option for more options go to the wedding guide and search other wedding planners and vendors.  Good luck and we are sure you will create spectacular memories to last a life time

One of the most popular and busiest photographers on Anna Maria Island is www.Memoriesbybilli.com She works with all wedding vendors on Anna Maria very closely and will be happy to help you with all your wedding planning.  She is an absolute pleasure to work with and if full of knowledge and has the experience to get the shots to ensure you have memories of your paradise beach wedding forever.  Please let her know you saw her listing on our site www.AnnaMariaIslandWeddingDirectory.com