“When it came to planning our wedding, I always knew I wanted to get married in Downtown St. Augustine, Florida. Not only is it beautiful and historic, but it is also where I grew up and made many wonderful memories. Naturally, I wanted our wedding to become part of those memories as well.
However, when it came to planning the day itself, we had to be practical since many of our guests would be traveling from both out of town and out of state to celebrate with us.
After deciding where we would hold our intimate Catholic marriage ceremony - which included fewer than 25 people, including the priest, photographers, videographers, and violinist - the most important decision left was choosing our reception venue. Unlike our small ceremony guest list, our reception would host more than 150 guests.
Because I no longer lived in Florida and was also finishing graduate school at the time, I was unable to tour reception venues in person. Thankfully, my parents graciously spent several weeks visiting and inquiring about many of St. Augustine’s notable wedding and reception venues, helping us narrow down our options.
As someone born and raised in Florida, we had several important factors to consider when planning a wedding in the middle of August - especially for our out-of-state guests. First, August is both incredibly hot and humid. Second, it falls during the heart of Florida’s rainy season, when heavy rain and thunderstorms are common. Because of this, it was very important that our reception venue be completely indoors and well air-conditioned. These requirements narrowed our choices to only a select few, one of which was the historic Casa Monica Hotel.
What ultimately solidified our decision to choose the Casa Monica was that it was not only beautiful and perfectly suited our historic wedding theme, but it was also the most practical option and checked every box on our list. Both the cocktail hour and reception were held entirely indoors between the Flagler Ballroom for cocktail hour and the main ballroom for the reception. The venue comfortably accommodated all of our guests, and room blocks were available for those attending the celebration, allowing them to simply head upstairs at the end of the evening rather than worry about transportation.
In addition, the hotel staff and event manager were incredibly professional throughout the planning process and on our wedding day itself. The chef and kitchen staff also absolutely nailed our buffet selections. If you want to know just how good the food was, we still have people talking about and praising our wedding food to this day!
If you are still trying to decide where to hold your wedding reception, I cannot recommend the Casa Monica enough. It was everything we hoped for and more, and it helped create the most perfect wedding day we could have asked for.”
