Reuniting With Local Roots - Destination Wedding in Central Florida

Jessie and Ryan's June wedding celebration in Central Florida was reflection of their close ties with their native state even though careers had taken them far away to Louisiana . . .

We love the challenge destination weddings provide! Here's some glimpses into this special couple's celebration that started at their family church in Winter Haven and ended at the Magnolia Building in the Mirror Lake Complex in Lakeland.

Many thanks to Divine Light Photography for capturing the beautiful mood of this celebration.

Event Planning, Design &  Catering - Catering By Robert / Event Concepts. FL

Flowers - Carmen's Flowers

DJ - DeLite Entertainment

Foliage - A1 Foliage

True Blue at the Garden Club

Kristina's and Jesse's early May reception at the Davis Islands Garden Club followed a popular trend this year with the color combination of cornflower blue and apple/sage green. With uplighting help from Celebrations of Tampa Bay the interior of this popular venue was transformed into a mystical blue backdrop for their evening celebration after the sun went down.

We absolutely adore events that offer a both a daylight and an evening mood. Because the Garden Club emphasis is on the outdoors, it's always wonderful to be able to focus on party mood set by professional lighting once dancing gets into gear indoors.

Kristina started early in planning her reception look. Her guest table decor was featured at our December 2010 open house by our event designer Christy. Kristina furnished her proposed guest favors, a ribbon-tied bottle opener along with some general ideas on her centerpieces which would be higher glass cylinders with natural brown sticks and lower fish bowls with embedded blue and white flower clusters.

When fresh florals became too expensive, Kristina explored other options for silk clusters and use of butterflies which were a part of her original garden theme. About a month prior to their wedding, we were able to meet at our studio and revised the original table design to intermingle her DIY-friendly elements with our in-house (no charge) centerpiece components. She furnished two sticks per table with hot-glued butterflies and alternating blue and green monach silk butterflies within our fish bowls with the silk calla clusters.

Small LED lights illuminated the bottoms of all centerpieces positioned on top of our mirror squares and surrounded by four flickering votive candles.

Flexibility is the key here. We also advised Kristina to utilize many of her church ceremony elements within the reception setting. These ranged from her attendant bouquets to some tall silk hydrangea vases used on her altar.  Event coordinator Bradley mimicked the couple's centerpiece concept with three tall custom silk pieces on their buffet table. 

Blue butterflies highlighted fish bowls with white silk hydrangea clusters.

Our funky chrome vases perked up the buffet table set on the far right side of the garden club main room.

Well placed blue uplighting captured the club's new crystal curtains behind the traditional long head table.

Let Them Eat Cake provided a non-traditional cake display that featured mini cupcakes on the bottom tiers and a double wedding cake on top. All decorations were edible and glass tiers were held up by tulip champagne flutes.

Guest tables featured neutral cloths and chair covers with cornflower blue napkins and alternating ivory and apple green chair sashes.

On the patio, the round displayed hors d'ouevres table featured a tall set of olive green candle holders that provided illumination on both sides of the large picture window.

Our signature cheddar cheese spread was fashioned into a fanciful butterfly by production manager Chris Hazel.

Everything Matches! Our bar settings even reflect the reception color scheme. Here our bartender Dave Redman added some small matching embellishments to his station on the back patio.

Pre-arranged floral pieces from the church were added to the gift and head tables.

The Perfect Marriage: DIY & Our Creative Energy

As a hands-on event planning and catering company, we are always excited to see the results of many months of intensive planning surrounding a client's serious DIY projects.

First, you wonder about the quality of these elements that can range from place cards to centerpieces.

Second, if you have made recommendations on improving or changing these items, will the client take these to heart?

When it came to Yolanda and Anthony's August wedding reception at the Lion's Eye Institute, everything came together in perfect harmony. Yolanda hired first-time wedding planner, LaVonne Fernandi, who became our focal communication person during most of the planning. When we had questions, she got the answers in record time.

Still, the decor decisions seemed to remain in limbo up until two weeks before the wedding because the bride had a lot of anxiety over how her room and tables would ultimately look. Her wedding budget just could not accommodate the fresh floral centerpieces she had wanted. Despite this disaapointment, she moved on to create an amazing subsitution that matched the many of DIY projects she had already finished.

Thanks to open lines of communication, we were able to match and enhance this vibrant blend of tangerine, orange, and hot pink with our in-house custom-made silk flower centerpieces, accent fabrics,

 and tabletop decor.

Here's a peek of Yolanda and Anthony's colorful tropical wedding.