Our Tips for the Best Wedding Day Accessories

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Photography: Matlock & Kelly

Every bride deserves to feel like a queen on her wedding day. Once you’ve found the perfect dress, you can add accessories to finalize your entire look. When shopping for your complimentary pieces, consider the following.

Shoes

When deciding on shoes make sure to pick something that you are comfortable in. If you’ve never walked in heels before, we wouldn’t recommend trying them out for the first time as you walk down the aisle. Instead, choose a pair that you can see yourself in throughout the entire night!

Embrace Your Every Day Style

You should feel like a princess on your wedding day but that doesn’t mean you have to dress like one (unless that’s your thing). Choose a dress that compliments your style and wear something you couldn’t envision yourself in.

Don’t Overdo It

Similarly, don’t get too adventurous when it comes to jewelry. Instead, choose something that compliments your dress rather than overpowering it. If you’re wearing a gown covered in rhinestones then it might be best to keep your accessories simple. If you’re wearing something with less bling, feel free to incorporate more statement pieces into your attire.

Consider Your Venue

If your wedding venue is outdoors and you are getting married in the winter you should probably consider incorporating a shawl into your outfit. If your ceremony is on a sandy beach, 9 inch stilettos may not be the best thing to wear either.

Earrings

Consider your hairstyle before selecting your earrings. If you plan on wearing it down, then incorporating studs would be a great way to finish off your attire. If you are thinking about having an updo then you can compliment the look with longer, dangly pieces.

What’s the biggest take away from this? Wearing something that you are comfortable in and can last throughout the entire night. Remember that trends come and go and just because all the other brides are wearing something doesn’t mean that you have to as well!

Isla del Sol Wedding – Sara & Carson

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After graduating from nursing school, Sara decided to treat herself to a new car. Upon arriving to the dealership, she was greeted by a charming salesman named Carson and instantly had a connection. After dating for 5 years, Carson decided to pop the question at a friend’s boutique while Sara modeled their new inventory. Once she chose her favorite dress, she went outside and was surprised to find Carson standing in front of a beautiful archway with a photographer and a recently snow covered ground.

When planning their wedding, the couple knew that they wanted to get out of Oklahoma’s cold weather and exchange vows somewhere warmer (and hopefully more tropical). After looking at countless venues, the two decided on Isla del Sol because it immediately checked all of their boxes.

Sara and Carson decided to hold their ceremony on Isla Del Sol’s private beach right before sunset. Although the area was already beautiful, Event Design enhanced the setting even more by adding drapery to the gazebo and chairs along with two massive flower arrangements comprised of their wedding colors – varying shades of pink, ivory, and white!

When deciding on the decor for the reception space, the couple wanted to make sure to compliment the already present deep hues of Isla Del Sol’s ballroom. They chose gold chiavari chairs and chargers for their accent piece which blended perfectly with the venue’s three brass chandeliers. Event Design accented the center lighting fixture with ceiling drapery which helped create the perfect first dance photograph.

Flowers were a really big necessity for Sara and Carson’s decor. Along with the ceremony arrangements (which was later reused on their sweetheart table), the two decided on mixing up the centerpieces by incorporating both tall and low ones on the tables. Event Design also created a dramatic and cascading bouquet for Sara while providing smaller round arrangements for her bridesmaids.

When it comes to planning a wedding, Sara wanted to make sure it was as stress free as possible. We asked her what her biggest advice to newly engaged couples is and she responded by saying “to invest into companies, like Even Design, that does absolutely everything on the day of! Event Design helped me plan my dream wedding because they took care of ALL the decor and flowers! Other vendors came up to me during hair and makeup time and commented on how impressive the decor was turning out! Event Design did all the ceremony and reception set up and breakdown. It truly was a beautiful and stress free day!”

Venue: Isla Del Sol | Photography: Lifelong Photography Studio | Decor & Florals: Event Design | Planner: Kandace McElroy Events | Videography: J&S Media | Cake: Kristen Marie Cakes | DJ: Grant Hemond | Hair & Makeup: Jennifer Beauty & Co

3 Reasons to Hire a Videographer

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Venue: The Vinoy | Photography: Salvador Robles Photography

When planning your wedding you and your fiancé are going to have an ideal budget that you want to stay within. You two are going to discuss the absolute necessities numerous times along the way. While we agree that there are some things that can be easily cut, here’s a list of the three reasons why we don’t think a videographer should be one of them!

Capture Words and Moments That Photographs Can’t

Images are great for just that, capturing still life moments. There’s so many sentimental occasions in weddings that photographs aren’t able to accentuate such as recitting your vows, hearing the toasts from your parents, and your first dance as husband and wife. Meaningful times like these captured with audio give you the opportunity to look back and feel the raw emotions that you felt on that vary day.

Opportunity to See Missed Moments

During your wedding day you are likely to run into circumstances where two things happen at once. There will be precious moments that you and your significant other will miss , but that’s the benefit to hiring a videographer. It gives you the opportunity to soak in every single thing that you are physically present for, but allows you to look back at the ones that you weren’t!

Ability to Share Your Wedding With Loved Ones

Unfortunately there is going to be a loved one who isn’t able to attend your wedding. Whether it being a relative who lives out of the country or a grandparent in the hospital – having a video copy of all of the significant moments of your wedding day is a great way to look back on it with the people who weren’t able to be there.

The Vinoy (St. Pete) Wedding – Breanne & Quinn

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Breanne and Quinn met each other when Breanne was only 4 years old and Quinn’s mom was her pre-kindergarten teacher. Although the two grew up together, they waited until they became adults before officially starting to date. They knew immediately that their connection was strong which led to Quinn asking Breanne for her hand in marriage exactly one year after starting their relationship. Pro Move: Quinn proposed at the same location that he asked Breanne to be his girlfriend!

The couple decided to have a traditional wedding and held their ceremony at St. Mary’s Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. Since the church already had stunning features, Event Design added a few small flower arrangements to some of the aisle pews (which were later donated!) 

Looking back, Breanne thinks that the ceremony was the best part of her wedding day. She remembers walking down the aisle with her dad by her side and seeing Quinn standing at the alter with a big smile on his face and thinking “this is perfection”. 

When selecting reception venues, Breanne had her heart set at The Vinoy. After seeing her sister get married at this location a few years prior (which we also helped design, btw!) Breanne fell in love with the atmosphere of the hotel. Even though her family was local to the St. Pete area, The Vinoy made her feel like she was having a destination wedding.

The couple envisioned a romantic and classic style wedding. They wanted to avoid using anything trendy so they were able to look back on it and still love the timeless decor. In order to achieve that look, Event Design used white flowers with simple touches of greenery and gold accents through vaseware, table numbers, and chiavari chairs. We also placed a greenery hedge wall behind the sweetheart table with white flower accents across the top and an LED sign of the couple’s last name secured to the middle.

If Breanne could offer one piece of advice to any couple planning their wedding it’s to not procrastinate. It’s never too early to start planning and your wedding day will sneak up on you before you know it! She said that hiring Event Design made her process even easier due to constant communication. Breanne said that she was extremely picky with her flower design and the Event Design team was able to create exactly what she envisioned and carried it through to her wedding day!

Ceremony Venue: St. Mary Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church | Reception Venue: The Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort & Golf Club | Chairs, Flowers, and Decor: Event Design | Photography: Matlock and Kelly Photography | Videography: Kemari Lyn Films | Dresses: BHLDN | Hair & Makeup: Femme Akoi Beauty Studio | Suits: Men’s Wearhouse | Invitations: Jerry and Julep | Band: Taylor Fletcher Music | Cake: Cakes Plus Tampa

3 Advantages to Hiring a Decor Company for Your Wedding Day

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Venue: Armani’s (Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay)

When it comes down to planning your wedding day the ambiance of the ceremony and reception spaces plays a major roll. Simple touches like Chiavari chairs and floral centerpieces can enhance the room and cater it towards your specific style. Instead of adding one more thing to your plate, we recommend reaching out to companies who specialize in designing weddings. Still not sure if outsourcing this role is necessary? Check out these three advantages to hiring a decor company that will definitely make you change your mind!

Venue: The Vinoy | Photography: Salvador Robles Photography

Create Symmetrical Atmosphere

The limit does not exist when it comes to designing the style and atmosphere of a wedding (if we were tech savvy we’d insert the Mean Girls gif here). Even though you might have a specific style in mind, coming up with ways to achieve it can be a complete headache. Luckily, if you hire a reputable professional in the wedding decor industry, it is literally their job to advise you as to what works and what doesn’t. Whether you’re planning a modern reception or a rustic ceremony, they are there to tell you what elements to use to enhance the ambiance!

Venue: Tampa Yacht & Country Club

You Will Save Your Time and Money

Wedding planning takes up enough of your time as is, so why not put a trusted professional in charge of figuring out all of the decor elements? We often hear couples talk about DIYing some of their own pieces which sounds great in theory but ends up taking A LOT more time than expected. Additionally, buying individual items from different companies can end up costing more than what was originally proposed by renting them through a decor company. On top of all of that, what are you going to do with all of the purchased items once your wedding is over? Unless you plan on getting into the wedding industry, there isn’t really a reason to keep 200 partially used candle votives and glass cylinders.

Venue: CL Space | Photography: Lindsey Vander Wal Photography

Set Up and Tear Down

The last thing that you’re going to want to do on your wedding day is figure out who will be available to set up and tear down rented items. Although it’s nice if your loved ones offer, it can be hard to expect them to when they’re going to want to spend their time getting ready and celebrating with you as well. Luckily, a professional wedding designer can focus on these tasks instead so your friends and family members are able to be apart of the entire wedding day process.

Now that we’ve convinced you that you need to hire a decor company, feel free to reach out to us on our contact page so we can sit down and discuss creating the design of your wedding!

Let’s Talk Invitations: What you need, what you don’t and who the heck gets one?

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Venue: Tampa Yacht & Country Club

Receiving a wedding invitation gives guests an opportunity to get a sneak peak of the decor of your special day. These paper invites can foreshadow the entire ambiance of your ceremony and reception and what they can expect in the months to come. On the surface, you may think that all of your elementary school birthday parties prepared you to send out the perfect invite, but there are some things that we recommend thinking about as you start the process of designing your stationary!

Colors

Make sure the colors on your invitation are the same ones that will be seen on your wedding day. Though choosing light/pastel hues might seem great if you’re sending your invites out in the spring, it can be confusing if you intend to use dark shades in your fall wedding.

Online RSVPs

This day and age, many couples are deciding to forgo mailing back RSVPs and instead switching to online versions to ensure that nothing gets lost in the mail. If you plan to invite an older generation to your wedding, providing a phone number to call instead will help as well!

Directions

If your ceremony and reception are at two different locations, including directions from one place to the other is an unexpected addition that can show guests you went the extra step!

Include Meal Options

As funny as it may sound, some couples forget to add the meal preferences in their invite. By including the options at the very beginning you won’t have to go back on a later date and ask each attendee their decision.

Avoid Mentioning the Registry

There are more appropriate times to discuss gifts and more than likely guests will ask you directly for ideas. With that being said, including a link to your wedding website is completely fine and from there you are able to add a wedding registry tab.

Specify Who is Invited

Make sure to include the name of each person invited on the envelope. If you don’t have enough space on the envelope, you can use verbiage such as “X number of seats have been reserved for you” to ensure clarity and avoid assumptions.

5 Tips for an Epic Engagement Shoot

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Photography: Limelight Photography | Location: Craig Park

Engagement photographs are the perfect way to get comfortable in front of the camera as well as allow your photographer to learn more about you and your significant other’s personalities before the wedding day. The days leading up to these photographs may seem a little stressful, but our friends at Limelight Photography have given us some tips and tricks to get the best engagement shots

Personalize It!

Pick a location or setting that involves something that you and your significant other like to do together. Some examples of this could be going to the beach, cooking in your house, or even walks in the park! If you pick an atmosphere that is meaningful to you and your fiancé you’re more likely to be comfortable in front of the camera so your photographer can capture genuine happiness!

Use Props

Having items that are important to the ambiance that you are trying to recreate is vital! Imagine having a picnic blanket laid out on the beach to make the setting appear more like a date or bikes to ride on for shots in the park. Even smaller elements like champagne and glasses to use for a toast can take your pictures up to a whole new level.

Hire a Hair & Makeup Artist

Having someone else in charge of doing your hair and makeup will give you one less thing to stress out about. Doing this is also a great time for you to test out your wedding day hair and makeup stylist to see what you do and don’t like – that way there aren’t any surprises later on down the line!

Hire a Professional to Assist Pets

What’s better for an engagement shoot than to include your animals! Taking photographs with the entire family is an awesome way to have all of your loved ones in a single image. Keep in mind that pets most likely won’t be in every single image taken so make sure you hire a professional (or have someone in charge) of holding and entertaining your pet when they aren’t in photographs.

Avoid The Sun

It is recommended to avoid the sun at least one week prior to your engagement shots. You are spending good money for these images and the last thing you would want seen is a bad sunburn or unwanted tan lines!

Of course, the number one tip is to relax and have fun! You should never feel forced to do anything and if there’s something that you aren’t comfortable with let your photographer know!

Kapok Special Events Wedding – Dior & Bobby

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Dior and Bobby approached Event Design in the summer with a dream of a Beauty and the Beast styled wedding for the following year. Since they were already planning on having their ceremony at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, they decided to hold their reception somewhere close to the Tarpon Springs area which led them straight to the Kapok Special Events Center. If you’re new to the Clearwater area, this venue has a pretty long history (being once considered a top restaurant in the Tampa Bay area as well as an Inn), but in present day is commonly known for having a Kapok Tree located directly in front of the building. Having floor to ceiling windows exposing a lush and well maintained garden, the couple decided that this would be a great place to hold an outdoorsy themed wedding which is commonly seen in the Beauty and the Beast movie.

With both a ceremony and a reception venue decided on, Dior and Bobby were ready to bring their theme to life. Similar to the famous film, the wedding colors were going to be navy blue, gold, red, and touches of greenery (ivy in particular). With family members, including the band itself, flying in from Greece, the couple’s original 350 guest count wedding grew to 422 in a matter of months. With that being said, the two felt the pressure of making an even bigger impression on their attendees and did not want to skimp on the details to make the wedding even more memorable. Including their already contracted decor elements of gold chiavari chairs, navy and red linen, chargers, and lush centerpieces, Dior and Bobby immediately decided to include a monogrammed GOBO of their initials to be projected onto the dance floor.

Of everything that Dior and Bobby wanted included in their wedding day, the two most significant things were the sweetheart table and the bridal bouquet. To achieve a classic Beauty and the Beast styled wedding, Event Design used candelabras on their table, as well as the iconic single rose inside a dome vase. For the bridal bouquet, we decided on an all rose arrangement and accented each stem with diamond pins to bring out the red hue even more.

The day of the wedding Event Design received a call from Bobby’s mother saying that as a surprise to the couple she wanted to extend the wedding an additional hour and a half. The wedding that was once supposed to end at 1:30 AM had now been extended to 3:00 AM (at the earliest) and from the pictures that we received from their photographer the wedding extension did not go unappreciated!

Ceremony Venue: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral | Reception Venue: Kapok Special Events Center | Photography: K&K Photography | Decor & Floral: Event Design | Cake: Hands on Sweets

Don’t Make These Mistakes When Wedding Dress Shopping

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Photography: Benjamin Hewitt Photography

You just got engaged! Now what? Many brides immediate answer is to go dress shopping, of course! While having the perfect dress is obviously a BIG deal, there are many things that newly engaged couples don’t consider when picking out the gown for their big day!

Not Having a Set Wedding Date or Location

Having a wedding date and location is a necessity before you can even consider finding a dress! Even though you may have a style in mind, there are so many elements that can change the actual design. For example, if you were to get married in the summer in Florida (preferably in the Tampa Bay area ?) you may be too hot to be wearing a long sleeved dress. If you were to decide on a beach wedding, you would likely find sand underneath your fabric if you were to choose a train. Once a date and venue is set you will have a better idea of what is the most practical during the time of year and location of your wedding.

Getting Overwhelmed by the Different Styles

Did you know there are over a hundred different styles of wedding dresses? With trends constantly changing new designs come into the market every single day. Just like deciding on your hair and makeup, it is strongly encouraged to browse different designs online to see which ones appeal to you the most. This will prevent you feeling bombarded when you do go to a salon and give you a more set idea of what you’re envisioning!

Not Bringing the Proper Undergarments to Any Fitting

Getting closer to deciding on the perfect dress? Make sure to bring the undergarments that you plan on wearing to your wedding that way you know what works and what doesn’t. This will prevent you from scrambling day of trying to figure out how to hide a bra strap or panty lines.

Not Having a Set Budget in Mind for Your Dress

One of the most devastating stories that we hear from time to time is that someone found their dream dress just to see that it is completely out of their budget. To avoid the heartbreak, many salons recommend having a set budget prior to going in store to shop. This also allows the bride to be focused on exactly what is within her means as opposed to getting attached to styles that she isn’t able to afford.

Lastly, remember to have fun! Wedding dress shopping is something that can be done with friends and family members to make the experience even more enjoyable. So sit down, pop a bottle of champagne, and remember that this is leading up to one of the most memorable days!