"I'd dance around and tell people, 'this is what I'm going to wear,' and 'this is how I'm going to walk,'" she recalls. "Everyone thought I was crazy."

But last April, Evyan's wish came true, when the 24-year-old bride donned a princess dress of pink chiffon and married her fiancé, Ryan, on the shores of Longboat Key.

The New Jersey native and daughter of parents Joni and George Leiberman could have chosen The Plaza in New York, or even Paris. But when Ryan proposed to her in December of 2000-on Longboat Key-she knew instantly that was where the wedding would take place.

"Most people who get married in Sarasota want to be by the water," says wedding planner Bobbi Hicks. She estimates that only 40 percent of her weddings still take place in a church.

Debbie Allen, catering director at The Colony Beach and Tennis Resort, agrees. "There's a different air to saying 'I do' when you've got sand between your toes." And who wouldn't want to stare into the eyes of his or her beloved while azure waves lap at a crystalline shore and a sinking sun splashes sherbet hues across the sky? "We can provide what we call 'barefoot elegance,'" says Allen.

For Evyan's wedding, nearly150 friends and family members traveled from Colorado and New York to stay at The Resort at Longboat Key Club, The Colony and the Longboat Hilton. The growing popularity of romantic resort locations has given rise to one of the biggest trends in wedding planning today: the destination wedding. Such weddings are also family reunions, where friends and relatives of the bride and groom can enjoy a vacation along with the ceremony. "Forty percent of our weddings are destination weddings," says Alisa Bennett of The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota.

Resorts are ideal for destination weddings because families can fly in, book a block of rooms and never leave the hotel. Close to 90 percent of Sarasota's resort weddings take place on the beach, and imaginative couples take full advantage of the setting. One groom arrived at his wedding at The Resort at Longboat Key Club via helicopter. At The Radisson Lido Beach Resort, a couple sailed in aboard a blazing white sailboat. After the reception, they reboarded and drifted back out to sea for their honeymoon.

Also popular are mansions like the Edson Keith house at Phillippi Estate Park and the Powel Crosley estate. "Crosley is definitely my favorite place," says Wendy Wallis, owner of Sundance Catering in Sarasota. "It's like having your own private residence for the evening. It's secluded, and the grounds are magnificent."

Bayfront tropical gardens are the draw at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where koi ponds, massive banyan trees and gazebos create an exotic setting. The gardens' beautiful new Schimmel Wedding Pavilion is generating excitement for its modern styling and lighting, and fabulous view of Sarasota Bay.

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art offers another and equally romantic ambience. Couples can marry in the museum's courtyard, by the rose gardens, even on the terrace of John Ringling's former residence, Cà d'Zan.

From the Ritz-Carlton to the Ringling, Sarasota offers sites that can impress even the most sophisticated guests, says wedding planner Mary Kenealy. After a ceremony in the Ringling courtyard, a fellow events planner from Manhattan proclaimed, "You just blew me away!"

Sarasota also offers the professionals needed to plan even the most elaborate affair. Most catering directors can assist brides with everything from florists to booking a band, and for large affairs, wedding planners can be called into service.

Kenealy, who specializes in high-end nuptials, has organized weddings here that cost nearly a half million dollars. "I have a lot of entourages of 100-125 people who come down from up North just to get married here in Sarasota," she explains. "Who wants to deal with housing, dressing and feeding 125 people?" Kenealy also books hotels and coordinates entertainment beyond the ceremony, including trolley tours and authentic clambakes.

"Since I was living in New York, a planner made things much easier for me," says Evyan, who hired Sarasota event planner Jaymie Klauber to make her wedding arrangements. "Even though my mother did a lot, it was easier knowing that someone locally was taking care of things there."

"The key to choreographing a perfect wedding is to have a team of vendors that is run by one person in charge of it all," says Hicks, who has organized more than 100 weddings. Family members are frequently too involved in the action and emotion to deal with whether the caterer remembered to bring Aunt Martha's antique silver goblets to the reception.