Cake AND Cupcakes

We blogged about getting a cake or cupcakes and we decided to do both- double yumm!

We are having 4 types of cupcakes- white, chocolate, coconut and lemon rasberry.

The cake lady we found, Andrea who is awesome is going to decorate them to match our purple haze theme- purple frosting, purple sprinkles and pretty patterned purple liners (you probably think we have too much purple going on, but trust us it's going to be fabulous).  She is even gonna dye the coconut purple for on top of the coconut cupcakes.

The cake we are getting is gonna be small, just enough for us to cut for a picture as we are going to pig out on cupcakes.  It will be 4 layers of white cake dyed purple sort of like the picture below.

And the cake topper, honoring George.

It's the Chinese Symbol for happiness. 



2 Months!

All the planning and preparation is for 1 day 2 months from now.  Will you be joing us?....  :)

Area and Hotels

We are getting married at the Wyndham Bay Point Resort, which is in Panama City Beach, but it's literally on a golf course away from all the hotels where all the spring breakers get their party on.  Here is the website for the resort.

http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/ECPWR/main.wnt?page_id=93

To give an area overview, the Bay Point Resort is located at the A ballon (the one above the blue balloon). The spring break hotels (which is what people think of when they think of Panama City Beach) are the red balloons in the Northwest area of the Bay Point. There are 3 red Balloons by Bay Point, and these are the closest hotels to Bay Point (approx 2-4 miles aways) if you are looking to stay close but not at the resort, and the lone red balloon in the northeast area is where the Panama City Hotels are (about 10 miles away) as opposed to Panama City BEACH.  The Panama City Hotels are about half the price of the hotels in Panama City Beach area but definitely requires a car.

The good news about our hotel is it has a private beach.  So the beaches along the strip mentioned earlier when people think of Panama City and spring break and all those partiers...we won't have that.

The bad news is because the hotel is a little farther out, there aren't many hotels within walking distance.  It's a resort, so it's secluded, but that also means more privacy for our big day.

The Bay Point is off of a main road with grocery stores and restaurants.  All the hotel rooms at our resort have mini-fridges so it's a good idea to stop at the Winn Dixie if you want to fill up on snacks while staying there. Also, there are Waffle Houses about every 2 miles along the road in the area.  Bad for for your arteries, but cheap, fast service and oh so tasty. 

The Bay Point Rate is about $149 a night, if you prepay it's about $134.

2 miles down the road and a right turn later is the La Quinta Inn on Thomas Road, they are about $99 a night, warning: if you are not getting a rental car it's a hike.  (For all of you from Ohio there is a Bruster's Ice Cream Parlor right in front of the La Quinta, Sherry was SO excited when she saw this!)

If you want a more econmical room rate you will need to cross the bridge from Panama City Beach to Panama City (Northeast of Bay Point).  It's about a 10 miles drive (15 minutes or so minutes in the car), but the prices drop to about $60-70 a night (see map area around lone balloon NE area).




When coming in from the Airport this is the road you take to the Bay Point.  Going RIGHT takes you to the Bay Point (the sign says Thomas Drive - Bay Point), going LEFT takes you over a bridge and into Panama City where the cheaper hotels are outside the beach areas. 



Panama City Beach Websites

While we were in Florida we picked up some brochures containing information on the area.  Check them out:

http://www.visitpanamacitybeach.com/do/

http://www.pcbeach.org/

http://www.pcbgov.com/visitors.htm





Room Reservations

In case you were wondering, we currently do not have a block of rooms reserved at our wedding reception resort, Bay Point Wyndham. As we are currently unsure of how many people will be attending our wedding, we were not sure if the block of rooms needed to get a preferred rate will be fufilled with our current invitees.  In addition, since our families are all staying for 3 nights, they took advantage of the "Stay 3 Save 30%" deal mentioned in an earlier post, which made their rooms $118 with an upgraded view, cheaper than the blocked room rate with a regular view. As of today, (2/15/12) the base rate for a room for Saturday night 4/28 is $149 and if you prepay, it's $134.10, making the prepaid rate right around the preferred rate if we would get with the block of rooms.  Once we get all our invites RSVP'ed, we will reassess whether the people attending would all want to stay at the resort, and potentially get a block room rate then if it is needed.

Airports Near Panama City Beach

The closest airport near Panama City Beach is Florida Northwest Area Beaches (ECP), but only Southwest and Delta Airlines fly into ECP.  If these 2 airlines serve your neighborhood airport, this will be your best bet and there is a hotel shuttle from our wedding resort that can pick you up at this airport for a $25-$30 one way fee.  The other airport options within 2 hours of Panama City Beach are Pensacola (PNS) and Fort Walton (VPS).  If you don't mind driving a little, you can also fly into Tallahasee (FL), Mobile (AL), Atlanta (GA), or New Orleans (LA).  All these are within a 3-5 hour drive to Panama City Beach.  The closest airport with all major airlines serving it will be Pensacola Airport (PNS).  This will probably your most bet if you need to fly American or United Airlines (89 miles to Panama City Beach).  Parking will be plenty and free at the Wyndham Bay Point Resort if you will be driving from any of these airports to the resort.  Let us know if you have any questions on airports venues and flight options if you plan to join us for our wedding!

Pictures of Wedding Resort and Panama City Beach

Attached are some pictures taken from our end of January weekend trip to our wedding resort, Wyndham Bay Point Hotel, and the Panama City Beach area.  Hope these pictures will give you a flavor of what you can expect on 4/28!


Standard Resort View Bedroom




Second Floor Overlooking Lobby





Discovery Room Behind Lobby





Outside Pool Area of Resort

Walkway to the Private Beach



Private Beach Area of Resort




Walkway from the Private Beach

 

Picture at Panama City Beach



Hope You Will Join Us In the Panama City Beach sunshine on 4/28!



Wyndham Special

Right now the Wyndham Resort Group is running a sale, stay 3 nights and save 30%. 

http://www.wyndham.com/main.wnt

The good news is the bayview room is $118 a night, but the catch is you have to stay 3 nights, which may not help if you only plan to stay one or two nights.

In you are interested in this deal, call The Wyndham Bay Point Hotel in Panama City Beach, Florida at 850-236-6000.

Reception Dinner Menu Choices

Invitations will be going out the second week of February and on the RSVP, six food choices exist on the RSVP website for reception dinner.  There will be 3 adult dinner choices and 3 kid dinner choices.

Adult Dinner Choices:

1) Sauteed Chicken - Boneless Chicken Breast, Sundried Tomatoes, Black Olives, Capers, Baby Carrots and Asparagus, with Parmegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

2) New York Strip Steak - Cognac Demi Cream, Mushroom Ragout, Seasonal Vegetables, with Parmegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

3) Baked Atlantic Salmon - Filet of Salmon, Fennel Butter, Seasonal Vegetables, with Parmegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

Kids Dinner Choices:

1) Hot Dog - French Fries, Potato Chips or Fresh Fruit

2) Grilled Cheese - Choice of Bread, Choice of French Fries, Potato Chips or Fresh Fruit

3) Chicken Fingers - French Fries, Potato Chips or Fresh Fruit

In addition to these dinner options, hors d'oeuvres will be served during the first hour of reception that include such choices as:

Coconut Fried Shrimp, Pineapple Curry Dipping Sauce
Brochette of Beef, Bell Pepper Peppercorn Sauce
Petit Crab Cakes with Creole Remoulade

After dinner dessert will include an assortment of cupcakes, including:

Lemon cake with Rasberry icing
Chocolate cake with Chocolate icing
White cake with Buttercream icing
Coconut cake with Buttercream icing and coconut on top

And of course, there will be open bar for at least the first 2 - 3 hours of the reception.

Sunshine

We are back from a quick weekend visit and are SO happy with our choices :D  :D  :D (triple smiley face).  If you don't know already, we booked the hotel based on the nice catering manager Hillary and picture on the website, but we are so happy with our decision.

We met with our photographers, the amazing Meg and Charles Baisden. We talked with them for about 4 hours on Sunday when we were down there and they gave us all kinds of fabulous ideas- another excellent choice made!

Not to say planning a wedding from a picture, phone call and web photo is a good idea, but it all worked out for us (if you recall Sherry bought her dress without trying it on and is very happy- lady luck is on our side)

We will post information on the area- hotels, food places, stores and brag more about our other vendor decisions later. Right now we have to work like suckers.

Here is picture of the beach taken from our phone.  We will post the camera pictures later, they are better but we haven't had time yet to download and then upload.

This is not the beach we're tying the knot at, but it is part of the beach that spring break will be taking place at.  Our beach is much more calm and secluded with no partying college kids.  But's it's typical of the emerald isle- blue/green water and white sand, that's why we picked the Florida panhandle.