Ariel and Ricco's Sweet Celebration of Love

Ariel and Ricco were married on Saturday, October 17th at the Embassy Suites in Downtown Tampa. It was one of the sweetest celebrations I have ever seen! It was obvious how much they are both truly loved by their family and friends. You also couldn't help but notice how truly deep the love is between Ariel and Ricco.

It was a very elegant wedding and there were so many special personalized touches incorporated throughout the day that made it truly unique. To honor her mother's memory, Ariel started the ceremony off by having her brother place a couple white roses on the first chair on the left side. She also had Natalie from Chic Sweets create a pink and white candy buffet with a sign that said "For my Mother, because everyone deserves a lifetime". It was very touching.
(By the way, Chic Sweets did an AWESOME job on the candy buffet and they had the best candy.)

Their DJ was Eladio from Delite Entertainment and he knows how to keep the guests dancing. He provided the gobo light, the equipment for the slide show and kept the crowd on the dance floor all night long! The slide show was another unique touch. It played during their first dance, the father/bride dance and the mother/groom dance. For their first dance, it showed pictures of the two of them through the years. For the father/bride dance, it was pictures of Ariel with her father through the years. Then, for the mother/groom dance it was pictures of Ricco and his mother through the years. It was really fun to see how much everyone has changed over the years!

The amazing flower arrangements and bouquets were created by Stephanie at FishHawk Weddings. The centerpieces really transformed the room and the bouqets really went well with the bridesmaid dresses.

Both Chuck from Hearts Video and Tony from Artistique Photography were there to capture all of the beautiful moments. They were a blast to work with and both promised to share some of their video and pictures with us. I can't wait to be able to post their work on our blog!! Don't forget to check back to see them!!

The guests certainly had their share of sweets between the candy buffet and the delicious cakes created by Chef Nelson. The wedding cake matched the elegant theme and the Xbox Groom's Cake was really cute.

The staff at Embassy Suites was phenomenal to work with. They were very accommodating, quick and efficient. I can honestly say that all of the vendors at Ariel and Ricco's wedding were a pleasure to work with and everything went very smoothly. It truly was a fabulous event!!!

Ariel & Ricco - Thank you so much for hiring Flawless Occasions!!! It was so much fun working with both of you. Your family and friends are wonderful and it is obvious that you both are surrounded by leaps and bounds of love and support. Congratulations!!!

Artistique Photography will be sharing some professional photos soon - but here are some of the pictures I snapped. As you will see, from the toddlers on up, this group took full advantage of the great music and dance floor!

















































At the end of the night, Ariel and Ricco were still willing to pose for a few more pictures with vendors!

Here is DJ Eladio from Delite Entertainment with the newly weds:


Here is Natalie from Chic Sweets with Ariel and Ricco:


Last but not least, here I am with the new Mr. & Mrs.:

Mercy and Christian's Professional Photo Sneak Peak

A huge thank you to Carrie from A Fly on the Wall Photography who sent us these gorgeous photos of Mercy and Christian's September 19th wedding at St. Brenden's Catholic Church and the Safety Harbor Resort.

I really loved working with Carrie on the day of and during the planning process as I helped Mercy arrange all of the details. On the wedding day, apparently Carrie was everywhere because she got so many amazing shots while being extremely calm and easygoing. I am really looking forward to working with her again in a few months at our next wedding together. Here are a few of my favorite pictures taken by Carrie.

Holly and Ryan's Beautiful Fall Wedding

Holly and Ryan contacted us several months before their wedding because a former client recommended Flawless Occasions to them. (Thanks Danielle & Kirk!!). They did not book us right away - but as their wedding got closer, they realized just how important it was to have someone there to handle all the details on their wedding day! Luckily, we were still available and we were able to help out!

Holly and Ryan planned their Safety Harbor Resort wedding from the Northern Virginia area. They had their ceremony on the pool deck overlooking Tampa Bay and their reception in the gorgeous Four Springs Ballroom. They used very simple but elegant touches of fall colors for their wedding and it turned out gorgeous!

The weather was absolutely perfect for an outdoor ceremony! The skies were bright blue, the sun was shining and the water glistened. They had a beautiful ceremony with a string trio from Dillingham Strings and an arch decorated by their florist (Christine) from Black Forest Flowers. Christine did an amazing job on their aisle decorations, bouquets, bouts and centerpieces too!

The guests enjoyed a delicious dinner served by the wonderful banquet staff at Safety Harbor and they danced all night. As always, DJ RJ Vida from Advanced Entertainment kept everyone on the dance floor. Zekeshem Parsons from Blue Lane Photography and her assistant, Nate, were there to capture all the special memories. They were so much fun to work with!

The amazing cake was from Chef Michael at Let Them Eat Cake. It was quite yummy and I saw several guests going back for seconds! They also had adorable brown boxes that had chocolate candy inside. Some of them even had customized labels with "Holly and Ryan, October 3, 2009" printed on them.

I really enjoyed working with Holly and Ryan. They were just glowing with love and happiness and they were truly enjoying their special day. Holly and Ryan - Congratulations!!I hope you have a wonderful honeymoon! You two are a very special couple and I am so glad I had the chance to work with you.

Here are some of the pictures I took of Holly and Ryan's wedding. Stay tuned for some professional pictures in the next couple of weeks!































PS...thanks to Shawna and her Mom for helping with the set up! They are the best helpers in town!! Their help was very much appreciated!!

It's beginning to feel a lot like fall....

So that's not exactly how the song goes, but I do feel the beginnings of fall finally coming on. I love this inspiration board from www.keentobeseen.net (shown above). Although it is 90 degrees out right now, it dropped down to the 70's the other day. It was a fall miracle! And the stores are all bringing out their Halloween and Thanksgiving decor and food items, which is really fun. Since I'm feeling the changing of the seasons, here are a few fall wedding ideas!

Candy Apple Favors -- YUM! I saw these at Publix today, and they come in a package of 3 for $2.99. All you would need to do is repackage them in nice decorative bags or boxes, and they would be good to go! You could set them at each person's seat or attach a placecard to them and have them on a table when people enter your reception. For only around $1.00 per person, this gift would be a hit at any wedding or party! The brand is Tastee Apple and after searching online, I found them here, or just check out your local Publix.














A Fall Dessert Table -- Wow your guests with a dessert table celebrating the season with fall-themed treats. Serve apple tarts, candied pecans, spice cake, pumpkin pie, and cinnamon donuts, in addition to some pumpkin spice latte or apple cider. Not only will it taste great, but the aroma will fill your reception room and remind everyone that it is autumn. photo courtesy of the knot.com




















Seasonal Specialty Drinks -- When your guests enter the reception, have butler passed specialty drinks to get into the autumn spirit. Try this pumpkin martini from HauntedBay.com--

Pumpkin Martini

• 1/2 oz Drambuie Sylk Cream Liqueur
• 2 oz Absolut Vanilia vodka
• 1/2 oz pumpkin liqueur
• 1 tsp whipped cream
• Cinnamon stick for garnish
• Pour the Drambuie Sylk Liqueur and vodka into a shaker filled with ice and shake well. Add the pumpkin liqueur and shake. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Top with teaspoon of whipped cream. Garnish with cinnamon stick.

An Evening Affair with Share, part 2

On Wednesday evening, SHARE Florida Food Network hosted its first fundraising event in the Tampa Bay area: An Evening Affair with SHARE. They have branches all over the state, but this is the first time they held an event for our local branch. Flawless Occasions was brought in to assist in the planning of this fundraiser, which included a cocktail party and silent and live auctions. It also featured a short program about the organization with a special guest speaker, former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Shelton Quarels. At the time, they had only secured A La Carte Pavillion for their venue and Outback Steakhouse for catering. We were fortunate enough to find a few fabulous vendors to assist us in making this event a success. We had RJ Vida from Advance Entertainment provide the music and cool blue LED lighting, Carmen Gonzalez provided the awesome floral arrangements, and Linens by the Sea donated some beautiful specialty linens. We also had a great ice sculpture created by Matt of Tanya and Matt's Ice Creamiest.
Beth took tons of great pictures, but as she gets ready to coordinate a wedding tomorrow, I thought I would post a few sneak peaks that photographer Ken Marlewski took at the event.

An Evening Affair with Share - Part 1

We had the honor of helping the SHARE Florida Network plan their first fundraising event which was held on Wednesday, September 30th at the A La Carte Pavillion. I know Shawna will be blogging about it shortly - but it was such a great event, I wanted to blog about it too.

First of all, SHARE is a wonderful organization that is dedicated to providing high quality food at low cost while enriching the community through volunteerism. SHARE has been in FLorida since 1990 and is a part of Cornerstone Ministries. You can read more about them at www.shareflorida.org.

The event was a great success! Many vendors donated there time and resources to help this event turn out amazing. The room looked gorgeous with the beautiful flowers provided by Carmen's Flowers and the specialty linens provided by Linens by the Sea. RJ Vida with Advanced Entertainment provided some blue uplighting and background music. Matt & Tanya's Ice Creamiest provided an Ice Sculpture with the SHARE logo. It all came together very nicely!!

The guests enjoyed absolutely delicious food which was provided by Outback Catering. There were tons of great items for the Silent Auction so guests spent a lot of time checking them out and bidding. There were even a couple local celebrities there like formere Buccaneer's player Shelton Quarles (and Jack Harris from 970 WFLA.
In addition to the silent auction, there were some really nice raffle prizes and a live auction that everyone could participate in.

Photographer, Ken Marlewski, was there to capture the event. We had never met Ken before and we really enjoyed meeting him. Some of his pictures are in Shawna's blog above.

Here are some of my pictures of the event so you can see how much fun we had! We can't wait to start planning for the 2nd annual event!!!