Advice for Planning Wedding in Outer Banks

Hi! My fiancé and I are thinking of getting married in the Outer Banks. We got engaged there in October of ‘21 and have been going there together for 15 years.


We want to do our ceremony on the beach and have the reception at an event home. We’d also like to extend an invite to our closest friends (and maybe immediate family)? to stay at the same house where we’ll have the reception.
We’re looking at no more than 75 for our guest list, so obviously not everyone will stay in the house.

I guess I’m writing because I need some advice on how this whole process works lol. I’m assuming we have to find a house that has availability next summer first before we can really do anything else?
If you did something similar, did you have friends and family in the same house? Did you have them pay to stay in the house? Did you reserve the house before you did anything else? I have so many questions lol so any advice would be super helpful!