What We Do
Crystal Beach Weddings is a privately owned and operated company. We offer an opportunity for the bride and groom to custom tailor their packages. Our staff will help you arrange the details of your wedding ceremony, and address any other needs that you might have for your special day. After all arrangements are made, we setup at the beach, state park, or the location of your choice in the Florida Panhandle area. We provide the Officiant or Minister to perform the wedding ceremony, which you may customize with poems, readings, and passages. Your ceremony may include a Unity Sand Ceremony, Shell Blessings, or the planting of Sea Oat seedlings along the base of the dune line. We also provide professional photography service with all our package choices. Our ceremonies are positive and stress free events that involve family and guests to create a fun and relaxed experience for all.
Personal Dedication
The Florida gulf coast is blessed with some of the most pristine and unique beaches, with origins from the Appalachian Mountains. The sand consists of finely ground quartz crystals, which are powder soft, and squeak when you walk on them. Over the years we have worked with several environmental organizations, and participated in local beach cleanups, Earth Day events, and dune restoration projects. Because of our personal dedication to the area, there are a few things that Crystal Beach Weddings does just a little differently... we choose to conduct our business in an eco-friendly way. We are committed to reduce your wedding's ecological footprint, while still throwing a chic and fabulous event. This approach has created a number of firsts for our business, and to this area.
A few examples of the "firsts" are as follows:
Our company offers our clients an opportunity to customize the wedding package of their choice. "Green" options are offered along with some of the standard selections, such as: Champagne flutes that are mouth blown from recycled glass or Crystal Champagne flutes. We provide recyclable /compostable white forks, plates, & napkins for cake service. Our inventory includes lanterns that are solar powered, and we provide VeriFlora certified organic flowers for the bouquets, boutonnieres, and cake toppers (no pesticides on your cake).
The consensus is that the best floral decorations to use at outdoor "green" weddings are dried or silk arrangements. Ultimately, these can be recycled by donation to charitable organizations for use or resale when they need to be replaced. We have chosen to use the silk floral option with our packages, and have many different flowers and colors to choose from. Organic fresh floral arrangements are also available, at an additional fee.
We provide shells for the Shell Blessing ceremony that have been harvested from the beaches to the east of Panama City, and are native to the Gulf Coast. If you prefer to use stones, we gather small white quartz stones locally, which are of the same origins as the sand. This eliminates an import situation with purchased shells and stones from other parts of the world on our beaches.
We offer dried organic Rose petals, Lavender, or Jasmine flowers for the Bride and Groom sendoff. This works like bubbles, rice, or birdseed as an alternative without the eco-problems.
We offer complimentary use of a basket decorated with heart cockles and shells for a flower girl, and a beautiful abalone shell for ring bearing presentation. This eliminates the purchase of merchandise that will never be used again. However our items are quite special, are suitable for continued display or use, and are also available for sale. We offer complimentary use of cake service knifes, and cake slicing services as well.
We provide an Envirosax reusable gift bag for the wedding couple to carry away keepsake items from their event.
We are also the first wedding service to offer sea oat seedling favors to the wedding party as a lasting testimony to the vows of the couple. The seedling root mass is contained in 100% muslin drawstring bags, and they can be planted at the end of the ceremony or soon afterwards (within a couple of days). We will provide small trowels for those that wish to incorporate the planting as part of your ceremony. This only takes moments, and is a way for everyone to give a little love back to such a special and fragile place. Sea Oats help stabilize the dunes, which act as a protective barrier when the weather gets rough. The plants are very resilient against adverse conditions, much like most successful couples.
Who We Are
The owners have lived in the area for more than 25 years, and have many cumulative years of first hand involvement with event layouts, coordination, photography, and customer service. We are the first wedding service in the area to include chilled bottled water with all our packages, and we feel this is part of being a considerate host to your event. Our experience and attention to detail adds the personal touch that will make your occasion a resounding success. |
