Paging Teebee!

[Mandarine]

Teebee,

I can''t get over how beatiful your wedding site is

I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I hope you don''t mind sharing a little bit more detail (if you don''t mind)...

hehehe...I''m not even engaged yet, but a girl can dream!. I was thinking about a destination wedding...mainly because I thought it would be more "us" and also because of the cost of a traditional wedding where I live. I have been looking at potential destination wedding places, but my BF is much more an "mountain" guy rather than a beach guy.
Do you live close to the area? I''m worried that it might not be too easy to plan from far away (I live in FL). For people coming from out of town, (everyone that would attend!) is there fun stuff to do around there?.

And if you don''t mind me asking...from your experience, do you know what the average budget would be for a small, but nice, ~50 people wedding there?

Anyway, I love your site! Congratulations!!!!!!!

M~

 

[teebee]

Hi Mandarine!

Thanks so much - I am totally in love with our chapel - haha, I call it "our" chapel. I still can''t get over the place.

I don''t mind sharing info at all!!

The chapel is in Eureka Springs, Arkansas (Northwest AR) and it is a really gorgeous area of the country - obviously very different from coastline beauty or even Rocky Mountain beauty - but still very natural and organic type of feel to the place. Eureka Springs is in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. Lots of lakes too. The chapel itself has over 6000 (if I''m remembering correctly) square feet of glass - and IS air conditioned. Duh, almost forgot, it''s called the Thorncrown Chapel (www.thorncrown.com).

Eureka is a really nice, quaint little town. I think that there is really something to do for everyone. Some of our guests are coming up early next Thursday and going fishing Thursday and Friday. Some of our other friends are bringing their boats (it''s Memorial Day weekend) and going out on Beaver Lake Sunday and Monday. That probably wouldn''t be practical for your guests coming from Florida, but many of our friends live in Tulsa which is just a 2.5 hour drive. I know the guys are golfing on Friday and Saturday. And for the girls there is a ton of shopping downtown and quite a few really nice spas. If any of your guests are religious - there is the Great Passion Play, which is actually pretty cool. And... for the folks, it''s pretty close to Branson, Missourri if they want to catch a few shows in Branson before/after the wedding.

I too was considering a destination wedding - but more along the lines of Mexico... on a beach. But, I knew that many of our friends and family could not/would not travel that far - most notably my grandfather whom I''ve asked to walk me down the aisle - he has pulmonary problems and takes oxygen so no way can he travel too far.

We live in Oklahoma City - and most of our family and friends are here in Oklahoma or Texas. I lived in Tulsa for 20 years so kinda wanted to get married there. I''ve been in OKC for nearly 2 years, but it''s not really ''home'' to me yet so I had very little desire to have the wedding here. But THEN I remembered Eureka Springs... and it all just clicked. I''ve just been so lucky to have found some really amazing vendors.

I think you could really have a nice, fairly inexpensive (that''s a relative term of course!!) wedding there. I think the cost for the chapel is $425 which includes the facilities and the minister. We are using their music minister to play the piano - she only charges $125. Our reception will be the most expensive ''item'' - $1000 for the room for 4 hours plus food/drinks - which still isn''t that expensive compared to a lot of other places I checked into in OKC & Tulsa.

A lot of it would also depend on your priorities and what vendors you choose. Like, from the beginning I decided photography and music were my priorities & that''s where I spent a lot of money (again, relative because cost of living in our area is pretty low).

One really handy website is www.eurekasprings.com. That became kinda my first stop for finding info. Also, Fayetteville Arkansas is just about 30 minutes away from Eureka and is where I found most of my vendors.

If I can help or answer any questions, just ''holler'' at me!!

 

[Mandarine]

Hi Teebee!!!

Thanks so much for the info!!!

I''m not planning anything yet but do have a few places in mind...and now *your* chapel is one of those in mi mind!.

I love it, it''s gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the town too, looks very romantic

M~