Fall Wedding at the Ancient Spanish Monastery!

Fall is here and so was Marie and Roland's fabulous wedding at the Ancient Spanish Monastery in North Miami Beach. Theme theme included rich tones of burnt orange, red, and yellow and featured long tables complete with chocolate taffeta pintuck linens. Marie looked like a model in a Maggie Sottero gown and vintage bird cage veil. The cake was just gorgeous and showcased in the Chapter House. Enjoy the fabulous pictures by Melissa at Simply Captivating.

Colleen + Bill at the Bonnet House!

I had such an amazing time planning Colleen and Bill's fabulous Fort Lauderdale Wedding at the Bonnet House. Colleen had always dreamed of having a beach wedding, but wanted a mix of modern and eclectic style for the reception. We were in luck! Bonnet House owns 500 feet of private beach in which we were able to rent for the wedding ceremony. This was truly one of the coolest ceremonies I had ever seen. Bill is Buddhist, so Colleen and Bill decided to have a traditional Buddhist Ceremony with a Shrine complete with offerings and even a Shrine Master!

The weather was perfect and the bamboo canopy and Buddhist Shrine looked amazing with the blue sky and ocean backdrop.

After the ceremony guests were trammed back to the Bonnet House for cocktails and specialty drinks in the courtyard followed by a modern tented reception complete with full fabric draping and teal uplighting. Seating was open and included a mix of small intimate dining tables in all white with white orchid and curly willow centerpieces and a chic lounge area filled with white sofas, ottomans, and coffee tables adorned with green orchid and wheat grass centerpieces. The lounge also had a photobooth for the guests enjoyment.

My two favorite highlights of the evening were the tasting station dinner menu including a Sashimi Martini Station adorned with an array of sushi rolls, a Ceviche Station, a Gourmet Ravioli Station, and a Kobe Beef Slider Station with Cones of Truffle Scented French Fries and the amazing Cirque de Soleil Performers.

Enjoy the awesome photos by one of my favorite photographers Brian Immke from Adept Studios, http://www.adeptweddingphotography.com/.

"Blue Hot" Wedding at the Shane Center Miami Beach

I am so excited that Samantha and Stephen's wedding was finally here! From the time I met Samantha and her mom Donna, we all just clicked and I was thrilled to find out they were looking for a modern loft style reception with a club type atmosphere.

The Ronald W. Shane Center in Miami Beach fit the bill with its shiny wood style floors, high ceilings, and white draping. We decided on heavy blue lighting scheme including uplights and washlights and finished off the room with a white gobo of the couples monogram.

This wedding really had it all, a photobooth, lighting, lounge furniture, top of the line catering by Jeannetti's, and my favorite flair bartenders! Guests were entertained throughout the night as Rodrigo, the current flair bartending world champion, wowed guests with his bottle flipping tricks. We brought in specialty white acrylic bars with blue led lighting to make the look of the bar extra special.

A special floor to ceiling white drape was brought in to seperate a section of the room with the bar and photobooth during cocktail hour, and was later opened for a dramatic reveal of the dining and dancing room.

I truly loved every minute of planning this wedding and will miss seeing Samantha and Donna on a regular basis. I cant wait till Samantha gets back from Jamaica and we all go out for a girls night!

Thank you to Melissa Perez for the fabulous photos!

Destination Deering Estate!

It's wedding season and I am thrilled to be showing off Rebecca and Vic's destination wedding photos as the kick of to my first of many blogs this season. Special thanks to Timothy Beckford of Timco Photography for taking these amazing shots. As usual Tim has out done himself.

I started working with Rebecca and Vic over a year and a half ago when they contacted me from Chicago. Rebecca wanted a waterfront wedding in a private and intimate environment. Deering Estate was a perfect fit for their dream destination wedding.

The best way I can describe the style of this wedding is Martha Stewart with a Latin Flair. Everything was a detail from the eclectic color scheme, to the invitations, to the adorable ribbon clad boxes of delicious pastellitos. The table numbers were wine labels tailored to the stationary concept and of course the wine bottles did double duty as both a table number and entree accompaniment.

The bouquets were just stunning! Bruce really went above and beyond with these special amaryllis creations.

Each dining table adorned a trio of vases in a market look including white roses, blue hydrangea, and bells of ireland. The tables were dressed in battenberg lace overlays and finished with light mahogany chivari chairs.

Now from the photos you would never know this, but dinner in the Richmond cottage, followed by dancing the night away in the Stone House was not our original plan. Like many Deering Estate brides, Rebecca had dreamed of having her entire reception on the courtyard, following her ceremony at Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables. Early in the week, the weather report looked like it was going to be in our favor, however as the week progressed, the chances of rain kept increasing. Because Rebecca did not think a tented reception fit her vision, we decided to rent the Richmond Cottage in addition to the Stone House and in the event of rain, move dinner inside the cottage followed by dancing in the main house.

The morning of the wedding, there wasnt a cloud in the sky, we were confident the weather would hold out for this amazing couple and proceeded to set up on the courtyard. However, within a few hours, the black clouds began rolling in and we knew we had to move everything indoors. After making that call, I was off to the church to see Rebecca down the aisle and hoped she wouldnt be dissapointed about having to move things indoors. When I got to the church, Rebecca was radiant and just so thrilled to be getting married (not to mention in love with her fabulous bouquet of red velvet amaryllis). You could tell Rebecca and Vic enjoyed every moment of their ceremony and I couldnt wait to show her the Richmond Cottage, it was unbelievable! It looked like a dinner party in a beautiful historic bed and breakfast with an off the charts view of the bay.

Rebecca and Vic loved the reception and actually said they may have liked this set up better then the original plan. Who knew a rain plan could be so good?

By the time we were done looking around at all the reception details, the weather had cleared up and the bridal party was able to take photos outside and by the water. You cant beat the way the sky looks in South Florida after a bit of rain. Their pictures are truly spectacular!

In the end, the wedding was everything they dreamed about for the last year and a half and I am not sure it could have been any better even if the weather had been perfect.

Enjoy the photos!