Tampa/Clearwater beach House Venue

My family rents beach houses every year in South Carolina that are managed by a Real Estate office. Most have some kind of management company looking over rentals. Due to obvious insurance issues, it would seem an impossibility for a house itself.

I'm sure there are great venues in the area that overlook the ocean, the fun part is determining what your budget is going to be and taking it from there.

Im kinda in the same boat. im looking for a beach venue in Florida also but for under 50 people and a lot of the say 75 or more.

if I find any links ill send them to ya.

good luck.

Most of the houses that I have seen are through some kind of rental agency. There are very few that allow over 50 people which I am assuming is because of owner liability and maybe laws/regulations. I'm just hoping that I don't have to settle for a reception hall type venue because i wanted something outside of the box!

Yay for area brides! Angie is getting married at Cay Pointe Villas -- they are right on the beach and it's not a single beach house, it's a smaller inn with various suites that fit a number of people. Are you dead seat on the beach house, though?

I had friends married at the Grand Plaza Hotel. The ceremony was on the beach then the reception was in their top floor penthouse ballroom -- beautiful views of the beach.

Oh, also, since you mentioned vintage themed, I was married at the Peninsula Inn in Gulfport, FL. Cute, laid back town right by the water. They have an outdoor courtyard/patio that we used for the ceremony and then they turned it for the reception, along with their back patio. Very charming, vintage feel to it, beautiful veranda, delicious food and the price was beyond amazing. We rented all their rooms, though they could have fit more than the number of people we had there.

Hi Angela I wanted the same feel for a key west wedding however since my guest list was 80-100 it was almost impossible. I decided to do miami beach instead.

Hi Shelby if you are willing to consider Islamorada Fl (90 mins south of miami airport) I have some amazing venues I looked into that I could tell you about

I'm not dead set on a beach house. Renting multiple villas would work too. My problem is having the reception on the property. I have briefly looked into a place called Postcard Inn and waiting to hear back from them. The beach house idea just sounded fun to me and convenient as I am going to be doing some DIY things and floral on my own. I really don't have much interest in high end resorts and typical ballroom receptions, but something with water views may be nice.

While I am open to ideas of different venues, I would like to stay in the Clearwater/Tampa area for sentimental reasons. Just not sure how difficult this is going to be with planning from Michigan!

I did think about Key West, however I want to make the commuting a little easier for guests. I originally was going to do a Caribbean destination, but found that many guests would have a difficult time with costs of coming.

I just remembered we celebrated my gradparents 70th anniversary at the Sheraton in Clearwater. It was a nice venue and has great landscaping for outdoor photo ops.

I recommend looking into a catering company called Catering by Robert. They do beach house weddings in the bay area. Check out their website

http://www.cateringbyroberttampa.com/Florida-Loves-Weddings.html

I used them as my caterers for my April wedding and they were wonderful. I highly recommend you contact them, Susan would be very happy to help you find a beach house venue.

Cat Pointe Villas is on Treasure Island (basically St Pete, the beaches have different names) and the Peninsula Inn in Gulfport is immediately south of St. Pete -- same area, not technically in the city of St. Pete.

In Tampa for vintage (since we don't really have beaches) you can check the Don Vicente Inn in Ybor City (neat downtown Tampa.)

On Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key and in Sarasota Lido and Siesta Keys, there are small beachfront motels. You can rent out the whole place.

I got married at the Pink Shell Beach Resort in Fort Myers Beach and they do small, destination packages where everything is included. The wedding planner Dony is awesome!!

I had a friend get married at the Clearwater Beach Library & Recreation Complex - it's on the water and is beautiful. The prices are really good too!

http://www.clearwater-fl.com/gov/depts/parksrec/facilities/cbrc.asp

http://www.clearwater-fl.com/gov/depts/parksrec/facilities/pdf/CBRC_Social_Hall_Rentals.pdf

Thanks for all of the info everyone! I have added all of these to my list of places to look at now! Would it be smart to fly down and check out these places too since sometimes internet pictures can be deceiving..haha. I am thinking that I can set up appointments at my top places and go from there to better help me make a decision since I need to set a date soon for a wedding next June for my traveling guests.