Katie and I met kind-of last minute. She was planning a wedding in a hurry because her husband has been battling colon cancer and wanted a perfect wedding day for them both. And it was! Beautiful at the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Country Club and Lodge with lots of wonderful friends and family. Thank you for including us and congratulations Katie and Jake! xo
Describe your wedding day style in one sentenceOur wedding style was classy and sophisticated Favorite memory of the day Where do I start!? I’d have to say my favorite was not doing a first look then turning the corner and seeing the love of my life standing waiting for me at the end of the aisle What songs I walked down the aisle to an instrumental of Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home”. I also love our first dance song, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. The Lyrics are so “perfect” for us that we had everyone in tears, including my dad who still can’t get over that song Wedding day color scheme Dark purple, gold, and green Describe your wedding planning process Fast. My husband has been battling colon cancer for a couple years and due to health concerns we needed our day to be perfect and quick! I’m easing going so I made decisions without second guessing. With the help of friends I had the best team come together and get things done! What advice would you give to future brides for their wedding day Don’t stress about the details, let the professionals do their job and your day will be perfect. (As long as you picked the right vendors of course 😜) Anything you would have done differently? Besides the uncontrollable no. If my husbands health was not a concern I definitely would have picked a winter month and done an outdoor wedding. Most memorable moment during the planning process I loved shopping for all the small things. I did not get the traditional dress experience but I lucked out with my dream dress that I ordered off of a pre owned dress site. It was unaltered in the bag never worn and PERFECT! Which moment are you the most excited to see in photos?I’m hoping we have some great “raw emotion” photos What was your wedding inspiration? I wanted to make sure the wedding fit “us”. My favorite color is purple, we love golf… it all is a part of us.
Liz and Joe’s wedding was so beautiful and fun! Starting at the Alfond Inn in Winter Park and then over to the Farmers Market for their reception. So much love, family and friends! And of course, a Millennium Falcon Grooms cake! Congratulations Liz and Joe! Courtney and I are so happy to have been a part of your amazing day xo
Describe your wedding day style in one sentence: Romantic
Favorite memory of the day Our first dance as Mr and Mrs. We were so unsure of what song to pick for our dance and we put it up for the end… It was already the last week prior to the wedding and we didnt have a first wedding dance together so I was getting stressed out about it. I had pictured my first dance to be like one of those of Dancing with Stars but it wasn’t a realistic thought. Finally on the last Tuesday we picked Stand by Me by Ben E King and we began to practice… but we had a tough time coordinating the right moves. Joe had found the Bachata version of that song too and he wanted to incorporate it in our dancing as well since I am Hispanic and it would have a little bit of worlds. Well the following days, we tried to practice but we didn’t do too good of a job so I started to feel a little bit sad that we didn’t practice much before and we just had to settle for what it was.
Friday night arrived and after the Rehearsal, we went back to our house and we did a last one dance in front of my family and to my surprise, Joe nailed all the steps and all the Bachata moves to what I was almost in tears. He said he knew our dance was super important to me and as he didn’t want to let me down he had secretly woke up super early that day and watched a lot of Youtube Videos and practice while I was sleeping and doing errands. Hence this became the moment I was waiting the most after being pronounced married of course! 😀
What songs: Stand By Me ( First Dance), Can’t Stop Falling in Love (Bride Entrance), A Thousand Years (Unity Sand)
Wedding day color scheme Blush, Baby Rose, Creme, White, gold! I wanted the romantic look 🥰
Describe your wedding planning process Fun and exciting! I am an engineer, I have helped designed major things in the engineering world… so for me it was a no brainer that for my wedding, I would be the person to design it and put all my wishes and vision into place! My mom, my matron of honor and my mother in law were also a lot of help and my wedding had a touch of them too. Like in the engineering world, I had reviews for my wedding too ha! But in this case it was more about inputs for design selections and colors that I had in mind.
Planning a wedding is a lot of work for sure! I have to say my matron of honor was a key person in my wedding. She always runs events that look like a million dollar events and she was always on top of my little details for my wedding. If it weren’t for her, I would have forgotten a few things here and there!
What advice would you give to future brides for their wedding day? 1. Get mentally prepared to handle some type of bridal party crisis. Don’t sweat over and don’t let your heart be sad, real friends will stand next to you and will help you to make your wedding an amazing day without caring for their titles.
2. Get a wedding day coordinator! You’ll need an outsider control the hectic moments, the schedule and to call anyone out that might be adding stress ha!
3. It’s your wedding, if someone wants you to wear a princess gown and it isn’t your style, don’t be afraid of letting someone down. Also try on that dress you think might never fit you or might not enhance your body because you never know if that would be your dream wedding dress!
4. Make sure you write down exactly your photo schedule and who take priority! The day goes by so fast, take it all in because in the blink of an eye the magical moment will be gone. Take it all in, enjoy it to the fullest!
Anything you would have done differently? Hire a wedding day coordinator for sure! I’m thankful for my bridal party and my friend Sandy because they went above and beyond to coordinate my activities that day. But def it would have been better to have just a one designated person outside of family and friends that wouldn’t have minded be the strict hand for coordination that day.
Also, request a much earlier makeup schedule since we ended up running behind and then I couldn’t get all the pics with my bridal party as I was hoping.
And lastly but not least..putting together a more strict photo schedule ensuring I wouldn’t miss the pics with family first. Everyone was so excited after the ceremony that my order of photos changed; here’s where that coordinator would have helped a bunch!
Most memorable moment I have 2 most memorable moments. The day I found my wedding dress!! I always saw at the wedding shows those brides crying with their dresses and I never thought that a moment like that would happen to me but it did!!!!
Expect the unexpected they say! Every time I think of the first time I saw myself in a wedding dress with a veil, I just cry. It is one of those moments that you can’t express what it is… you wait for that one moment to come and for me, it had much more meaning than anyone can imagine. Seeing my parent’s faces and seeing them so happy to see me in a wedding dress was just unbelievable and unforgettable.
What are you most looking forward to as a married couple? Growing old together, expanding our family and raising a beautiful family. We look forward to family trips and all those little things in life that have more value than what money can have.
Which moment are you the most excited to see in photos? To be honest, all the moments hold a special moment for me. I look forward to seeing my groom with his groomsmen, my son, my parents, my bridal party, my family, me walking down the aisle with my dad. Every photo will capture a magic moment
What was your wedding inspiration? Well watching Saying Yes To Dress for so long shaped this image of what I wanted for my magical day, my wedding day. According to my amazing Florist, Steve, my taste for flowers and decor was very romantic, clean, very New York wedding style… hence it might be due to the wedding show ha!
I wanted to capture a mix of romanticism, elegance, contemporary and yet a bit of traditional wedding style. I spent a lot of time trying to find venues that would give me that inspiration until the Alfond Inn and the Winter Park Farmers market came into place. Both venues combined had all the charm I was looking for 😁
Describe some of your favorite wedding details and how you came up with them. Groom’s cake and wedding favors! Joe and I are Star Wars fans but Joe.. he’s at another level he’s the biggest fan ever!! With that said I wanted to put something that he liked as part of our wedding because the wedding already had a lot of things I liked. One night searching for unique cakes, I decided to google for Star Wars cakes and there the Millennium Falcon cake popped, it was like meant to happen.. it was a wedding cake and I wanted to surprise Joe. I sent it to my cake designer waiting to see a price for such a majestic cake, but when I got the quote… my heart skipped a little bit as it was def a well worth it cake but it was out of the budget.
When Nick, the best man, heard I wasn’t going to be able to gift that cake to Joe, he jumped to the rescue with no hesitation and offered to contribute and make this dream come true. Nick is not only a BIG Star Wars fan too but he’s also like a brother to Joe, and in his words. The cake was so bada$$ that it was worth so Nick and I got that increíble cake wooo!
As for the wedding favors, Etsy became my best friend and we figured coaster would be something that people could keep too! 😁
Maria and I have worked together over the years – she is DJ Maria – the famous DJ from The Celebration Expert! We hit it off right away and are so honored that she choose us to photograph her wedding from all of the amazing Orlando wedding photographers in our industry.
Mike proposed to Maria while he was a contestant on the Jeopardy Show! It made national news and hit all the talk shows (See Jeffrey Stoner’s video of their reveal here) #Whatisyes
Courtney and I had a wonderful time at Maria and Mike’s sweet Sunday Brunch wedding at the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs. All about love, friends and family.
Words from Maria: Describe your wedding day style in one sentence – I’d call it “Sunday Brunch”…we wanted simple, classic…a touch vintage. Favorite memory of the day – There were a few…our “first look”…my Maid of Honor’s toast…but mostly, the few moments I took just to look at our families blending together. In 11 years, we’ve never had that happen before that day. And the absolutely amazing gift my Matron of Honor gave me just before walking down the aisle…a little framed photo of my sister who died several years ago, to attach to my bouquet. I am tearing up again just thinking about it! What songs? – Because we did a simple brunch, we opted to use our own playlist. This was Mike’s job, and not only did he include songs that meant a lot to the two of us, but also included favorites that were part of family memories. Wedding day color scheme – Mostly pinks and purples…we left it up to the florist. I just want it to be “spring.” Describe your wedding planning process – I work in the wedding industry, and so one of the first things I did was contact a planner to help me with the process (Melissa with Juniper Events!). I knew which vendors I wanted, and she helped with the rest. The little details like table numbers and seating charts were found by doing online searches for ideas based on things we like, and things that brought us together. What advice would you give to future brides for their wedding day? Get a planner – I see too many brides, groom’s and families going crazy over all the last minute details and set up. I knew it was important, and it was one of the smartest things I did. Anything you would have done differently? Eaten more! Most memorable moment during the planning process – The absolutely hilarious conversations with my Matron of Honor. What are you most looking forward to as a married couple? We’ve already been together 11 years, so not too much would be different. But I do love that I am now an even more “official” member of his family! Which moment are you the most excited to see in photos? Hard to say…I am not a patient person with photos. But Kelly and Courtney are great…and I guess I am most excited to see what they saw through the lens. The photos I’ve seen so far are wonderful! What was your wedding inspiration? For colors, just spring. Overall…everything was done with family in mind. Describe some of your favorite wedding details and how you came up with them. Mike proposed to me during an episode of Jeopardy! and I wanted to give a few nods to the show without making it all about it. We used a Jeopardy! font for our seating chart, our hashtag (#whatisyes) came from the show, and we had a photo of Mike and Alex Trabek. One of my favorite details that day was the photo wall – there was a wall with shelves and ivy in the cocktail area, and we used it to put photos in different frames, including each and every family member. It was so much fun picking out the photos, and we shed more than one happy tear looking through them all.
We loved Stacia and Kaden’s wedding at the Ford Pasture in DeLand! They are high school sweethearts and had so many great friends and family there, this couple is truly loved. Since Kaden’s mother is one of our dearest friends, this wedding was very special to us.
Thank you to:
Event Planning/Coordination: Courtney Ford Event Design
Catering: Free-Wil BBQ
Tent/Chairs: Special Event Services
Farm Tables: Cameron Lane
Floral: Lowe and Behold
Appetizer Station: Katrina Starling
Hair: Stephanie Castaldo, Style Works
Make-up: Cori Newhook Make up
Dress: Lilly’s Bridal Orlando
Angie and Patrick’s wedding was SO fun. My favorite part was right after the ceremony when the Brown Bag Brass Band lead everyone through the courtyard, conga line style. It was a great way to start off the party! Congratulations Angie and Patrick! We are so happy we were there to help you celebrate 🙂
Venue – Art and History Museum Maitland
Catering –Cocktails Catering Band – Brown Bag Brass Band Flowers – Bride and bridesmaids bouquets arranged by the bride, purchased at Orlando Wholesale Florist Cake – P is for Pie Bake Shop Wedding Dress – David’s Bridal Shoes – I wore sandals, life is too short to get married in uncomfortable shoes. Bridesmaid dresses – David’s Bridal Menswear – Jos. A. Bank
Describe your wedding day style in one sentence: Semi-homemade and collaborative, our wedding was a team effort with more than a little help from our friends. Favorite memory of the day: One of my favorite memories was right after the brass band led us into the courtyard after the ceremony. We made our way to the sweetheart table as our friends found their seats and the band played. I felt so grateful that we had this opportunity to gather so many of the people closest to us in one place to celebrate. What songs? The song we chose for the wedding processional was “Forever” by Ben Harper. We also made separate playlists for dinner and whenever the band took a break between sets. A friend of ours who has a jukebox recommended an oldie called “To The Aisle” by The Five Saints that several people asked about. We included “Galway Girl” by the Kilkennys, because we got engaged in Galway, Ireland. It was fun making the playlists. Wedding day color scheme – Teal, Orange and Champagne Describe your wedding planning process: Lots of booze… What advice would you give to future brides for their wedding day? If you’re going to do your own make-up, practice applying your false eyelashes more than once. Anything you would have done differently? I would have made Patrick practice saying our vows aloud. During the ceremony, he made up words that the officiant didn’t say. Just made up words… Most memorable moment during the planning process: The moment we toured the Mayan Chapel and Courtyard, we knew this was our venue. Small and visually stunning, it was a perfect fit for us a couple. What are you most looking forward to as a married couple? During a final walk-through of the Mayan Chapel and Courtyard, we met a couple who had held their wedding at the same venue decades ago. They were there because it was their anniversary and they celebrated each year by visiting the chapel. We look forward to sharing our memories together, and like that couple, creating new traditions. Which moment are you the most excited to see in photos? The most exciting moment of the day was immediately after the ceremony (because, yay we did it!) We’re looking forward to the photos of these first moments before the real celebration began. What was your wedding inspiration? (think decor, overall theme and feel of the day, etc) We wanted our wedding to be a cheerful, semi-casual celebration. Our colors and theme were originally inspired by the Mayan revival design of the Mayan Chapel and Courtyard. We wanted our wedding to be bright and bohemian, and most importantly, small and intimate so that we could truly enjoy the company of our friends and family. Describe some of your favorite wedding details and how you came up with them.Wedding Bands: I wanted our wedding bands to be unique, so I handmade them using precious metal silver clay. I chose a pattern based on designs we found on the walls in the Chapel and Courtyard so that the rings would always remind us of this amazing day in this beautiful place. Paper Flowers: Rather than using fresh flowers from a florist, I made flowers for the table décor and cake using crepe paper. Several of my friends pitched in to make them, so in addition to lovely, bright flowers, I now have memories of creating a central part of my wedding décor with some of my closest friends.
More to come…
