It won’t come as a shock to anyone that Jessica and I LOVE weddings. What may be slightly more surprising is that Garrett County loves weddings, too! One thing that is obvious when you look at Jessica’s content and photography is how much she loves where we live, even during “Tundra” season 😉 and she and I bond over this OFTEN. While there are many reasons I could argue Garrett County is a great place to get married, one reason is that Garrett County is such a beautiful and serene place to be. Our wedding industry here has grown significantly through the years, and more and more vendors are added to the list each season.  Destination weddings to Garrett County are about half of Jessica’s wedding business, so we wanted to do a feature on setting up a “Planning Weekend” for your destination wedding.

Some of you may not have booked some of these items yet, and it’s very likely you may need an entire weekend just to visit venues. No judgment here, please come to Deep Creek Lake as many times as you need to!! However, for the purpose of this blog, I’m going to assume you’ve settled a few of the key items on your list, and this might be the final visit to figure out specific details for the big day. Below are a few helpful tips to enjoy a flawless planning weekend at Deep Creek Lake.

Schedule Your Engagement Photo Session

I was a very excited bride when I found out Jessica’s photography packages come with an engagement photo session. I’m not completely sure we would have gotten them done if it hadn’t been a service Jessica provided, but I am so glad we did!  Not only do Tom and I have these beautiful photos together now, but it was such a great experience to work with Jessica before the wedding, and to see how we would react to each other in front of the camera. It was awesome practice before the wedding, and we even used the engagement photos for a photo book to have at the wedding for our guests to look through.

Also, it just so happens I wrote a fun post awhile back about getting ready for your engagement photo session if you need any tips on what to wear! If your photographer is local to the area and you’re a few hours away, doing the engagement session during your planning weekend helps check off one more thing on the to do list!

Set Up Vendor Appointments

If you have a wedding planner it might be a good idea to have him/her with you for each of your appointments, or perhaps they will even organize this planning weekend for you (#Winning!).  

This visit is the ideal time to set up as many appointments with vendors as you can. From your event space and caterer to your photographer (and even your hair and makeup stylists), there are a lot of items best taken care of in person. My advice is to start with your event space. Some venues make it incredibly easy and everything is rolled into one (space, food, cake, music, etc.), or the venue may make their space available to you to meet with your caterers and vendors, etc. As long as they don’t have another event going on that weekend, your venue is the ideal place to meet with each of your other vendors to ensure everyone has a solid feel for how the wedding day will unfold.

Pick Up Your Marriage License!

Fun fact: If you’re getting married in Garrett County, your marriage license ALSO needs to be from Garrett County! If you are within six months of your wedding date this is definitely a good item to get checked off the list while you’re in town!  Jessica wrote a great blog post for The Deep Creek Wedding all about this with each step written out, including information about our local Clerk’s office and what you’ll need to bring.  

Items for Later Down the Road

Take the opportunity throughout this planning weekend to scope out items you’ll need for later down the road. Examples might be rehearsal dinner spots, cocktails the night your guests arrive, or even for your Day After Brunch spot. If you’re booking a block of rooms at a local hotel they may even be able to help with this. Some places may make their lobby available for informal events like cocktails after the rehearsal dinner, or coffee & goodbyes the morning after the big event!

 

My next “Monday Musing” is going to be all about the Wedding Weekend with an emphasis on ideas for your guests throughout their stay. Use your planning weekend to scope out some places you might want to highlight about Garrett County and Deep Creek Lake – especially if your friends and family are going to make a long weekend out of it! When Tom and I made our Welcome Bags for our guests we made sure to include a map of the area with fun things to do around town, even if for just a short amount of time. Even though Tom and I live here, a majority of our guests came in from out of town, so we wanted to highlight what we loved about the area!

Relax!

Make sure to spend some time relaxing with the one you love. There’s a reason you chose to get married in Garrett County and I’m guessing it’s not because this is a place that stresses you out. Your guests will want to know “Why Deep Creek” so be sure to “plan” some time to reflect on that! Garrett County has nine beautiful state parks, so you may have time to plan an afternoon hike in between vendor meetings or relax lakeside with cocktails at Dutch’s Harbor Bar, or dinner on the deck at Ace’s Run. 

I realize a version of this advice goes into every one of my “Monday Musings”, but I can’t emphasize it enough. Your wedding is a celebration of your commitment to each other so always be sure to carve out some time for yourselves through this intense planning process!  

Maureen Myers is a writer and architectural designer near Deep Creek Lake.  She lives in Accident, MD with her husband Tom and Golden Lab Parker. Check out more of her Garrett County adventures on her website, Coffee on the Mountain.