Pensacola Florida info please
 

We are planning a Pensacola wedding. We have rented a house on Ariola Drive. I am looking for information on what the beach is like in that area. Is the beach wide enough to have the wedding at the house? How busy is it?
Thank you

Although we have been to Pensacola many times I have no idea where Ariola Drive is located. I would take this question to the owners of the house you rented or to the rental agency you rented from, they should be able to give specified info.

look at it on gmaps

The beach all along Ariola Drive (it's a long road) is plenty wide for a wedding. Anywhere east of the high rises is usually not crowded except for a few surf spots (and then only if there's surf).

And like Katzgar said above, use Google Maps (satellite view) to see exactly what the beach looks like behind your rental. The maps are pretty up-to-date since the last hurricane destruction.

I live at Pensacola Beach but on the opposite end. As AustinTraveler said, Ariola is a long street. Some houses are near popular surf breaks - which are fairly constant but can change if the sand bars shift - but unless there's killer surf, I doubt there would be enough surfers out to be a problem.

Most people here are accustomed to beach weddings and are considerate. I've changed my path when walking along the beach to go behind (inland) of the ceremony rather than between them and the water. That's pretty typical behavior.

The beach profile is constantly changing. The distance to the water can be very different from one week to the next. But unless you're planning a huge wedding there should be room enough, even at high tide.

Time of day and time of year will also factor in. During the summer, when it stays light until very late, it's only natural to have more people on the beach and in the water for most of the daylight hours.

The biggest problem you may face is adequate parking for the guests. Street parking is limited and few of the beach houses have room on-site for more than 4 cars, 6 absolute max. And in that case the "ground" floor of the house (assuming it's on pilings) would be unusable for anything but parking.

My daughter was married on the beach behind an Ariola house in early October, 2000. My best advice is what I told her. Have a back-up plan. It can rain out here any month of the year. In our case, the house was on pilings and had almost no walls underneath. Had it been necessary, we were prepared to move the ceremony "under" the house, which is where we had everything set up for the reception. Fortunately, we had glorious weather and a beautiful sunset. Hope you're as lucky.

Thank you all for the great advice. The rental company would not give any details about the beach but google earth was a great idea. The beach looks great at this point.

Floridafran Thanks for the heads up on the parking issue. Do you have a suggestion on how to handle parking? I would also greatly appreciate any wedding vendor recomendations you could make. We are in search of catering, photos, flowers, cake, the works! Excellent advice to have a back up plan that hopefully we will not need!

When my daughter gets back from the mystery writers conference she's attending this weekend I'll ask her about the vendors. She's knows more about that than I do.

Do you have an address for the house? My son lives on that end of the beach and my husband also often goes surfing down that way. If I knew the location I could better advise you regarding parking.

1304 Ariola Drive. Would appreciate further info. Thanks!

what more info are you seeking?

We went to a house party for an 80th b'day of a dear friend there. It is a beautiful beach. Others in the party were staying at hotels so you might think about where guests will be staying. In light of the parking problem, I would arrange "limo"/bus transportation from where most could congregate to be brought to and from the wedding.
Our friends had a catered dinner by a private chef--and tables set up by "someone" so there is obviously a lot of catering ability in the area.
And Plan B is important. When our son married, they were planning a beach wedding on Marco and had to change it to the beach club where the reception was. Still married!!

Katzgar,

(what more info are you seeking?)

I believe the above was directed at me after my offer, as a P'cola Beach resident, to check out the actual location of the house they're renting in relation to available parking on that end of the beach. I also told her in a post farther up the thread that I would ask my daughter for info on wedding planners, caters, etc when she gets back in town after a weekend writers' conference in Albany, New York.

However, I'm sure tdelano would welcome any additional info such as what Gretchen provided in the post below yours.

tdelano,

I'll drive by that address tomorrow when I go to that end of the beach to babysit my youngest grandson for a couple of hours. I'll let you know what I discover.

You can look at it on Google and see the neighborhood--I think is what Katzgar was suggesting.

How about renting a trolley for the guests? You need to be more specific about the guests. Are they staying in hotels on the beach? Are they locals? If so, they could park at Casino Beach (the main parking lot area) and a trolley could take them to the house on Ariola. The trolley could also pick up the guests along the way from the hotels.

http://www.beachbumtrolley.com/

This group handles beach weddings:

http://pensacolabeachweddings.com/

Sheeyoot, the area can fit 60K people for outdoor concerts (http://www.delunafest.com/), your wedding should be a snap.

tdelano,

I drove by the house yesterday afternoon. There are 2 churches on Via de Luna Drive (the main road running east on the Island) where people holding weddings in houses on Ariola often have guests park and either walk -if close enough - or be shuttled to the wedding house. Neither the Catholic Church nor the Beach Community Church mind people parking there as long as they don't have an event scheduled at the church for the same time. So that's a possible option.

1304 is about 3 blocks east of these churches and 2 blocks south (Catholic church) and 3 blocks south (Community church).

AustinTraveler's idea regarding a trolley is also a good one, particularly if a lot of the guests will be staying in beach hotels.

I haven't talked with my daughter yet. I should sometime today.

tdelano,

My daughter reminded me that a local monthly magazine - Pensacola Bella - was recently all about local weddings. Here's a link. Hope this answers most of your questions.

www.pnj.com/section/bella