Amanda and Zack
With Photography By Melissa Lauren Images
Reception at the St. Pete Beach Community Center
Amanda and Zack's celebration has to be one the best examples of what I consider a "perfect wedding." I measure its success based on their willingness to think "outside" the box and follow through on almost all of their ideas and my suggestions as their planner. Their other wedding vendors included some that I suggested and others that they found on their own.
From relaxing first look pictures to immense personalizations that included a special tribute to a favorite grandfather, Amanda and Zack created special day they will remember for many years to come.
Their wedding day began like most couples' with the girls getting ready at an AirBNB with finishing touches at the church. Their ceremony was held at Christ United Methodist in St. Petersburg.
Amanda and Zack rented a limo bus for the first part of the day transporting the bridal party from the vacation rental to the church and to then reception at the St. Pete Beach Community Center. They spent a relaxing time with two photographers from Melissa Lauren Images, participating in "first look" photos together along with parents and bridal party members.
The traditional ceremony was held in the timeless sanctuary of the church. The pews were laced with small bouquets of wedding flowers that were utilized later at the reception.
A guest in "spirit" was Buppa, Zack's grandfather. A special figurine of him appeared throughout the day.
Guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d'oeuvres on the upper terrace of the community center overlooking the beautiful waters of Boca Ciega Bay. Utilizing indoors and out, we placed color-coordinated sign in and gift tables, and bar.
Early in her planning process, Amanda had chosen a pale palette of dusty gray, spa blue, and blush as her color scheme. She added darker hues of blue and pink in her flowers.
Amanda and Zack also "branded" their celebration with a clever A-Z banner that we included on the gift table.
2 Birds Events provided all of the beautiful flowers. Besides providing extra stems of white orchids for the guest table centerpieces (in varying heights of glass cylinders), they gave us some extras which we used inside our variety of chrome vases.
Amanda gave us "carte blanche" with adding some whimsical accents to some important tables. I fell in love with a pale multi-colored ribbon banner I found at Target. It was used on the sign-in, sweetheart, and place card tables.
Because the couple and their wedding party had a huge amount of pre-ceremony pictures taken, they were able to arrive earlier to the reception site for more casual poses along the waterfront. With everyone arriving in the limo bus together, no time was wasted in their cocktail hour timeline.
After 45 minutes of cocktail hour, guests were ushered into the main ballroom where they found their place cards on a table right inside the door.
Using a base color of white, we accented the guest tables and spandex-covered chairs in spa blue with a touch of silver/gray.
Table Numbers included childhood pictures of the bride and groom. Favors were tasty cookies in a thank you bag. A "pink champagne" was poured to match the wedding colors.
Because Amanda and Zack really wanted sunset pictures on the Gulf, they arranged for themselves, the photographers, and videographers, to drive a short distance to Upham Beach right after they finished dinner.
After returning to the community center, they got the party started with lots of fun dance music.
Above photos from video captured by Celebrations of Tampa Bay
Wedding Cake: Publix
Drapery Provided by Ideal Design
