What Style of Veil Is Right for You?

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Photography: Darin Crofton Photography

When deciding on the perfect veil to wear for your wedding day there are a lot of things to take into consideration. One of the first things to think about is whether or not it will accent your dress or take over the entire ensemble. You should also make sure that the design will be practical for the style of ceremony you are having. For example, if you plan on having a beach wedding you may not want a long cathedral style veil that could collect a bunch of sand.

If you’re completely lost on how to pick the best veil, have no fear! We’ve created a list of the most common styles and tips of when they’re best used.

Birdcage Veil

Birdcages are short veils that are used to cover the top half of your face. This design is usually made of stiff mesh or lace that can hold the structure of the design. These veils are commonly used with vintage style dresses with lace designs.

Blusher Veil

Blusher veils are mid-length designs that typically stop at the top of your dress. This style is commonly made with tulle and is secured at the crown of your head. Designs like these are perfect if you plan on having your face covered as you walk down the aisle since it is easy to toss over your head once you make it to the alter. Blusher veils are also perfect to use if you don’t want to cover up your shoulders!

Elbow Length Veil

Elbow length veils are commonly seen as a more traditional style. This design stops right at the elbows and is extremely lightweight which makes it perfect for any outdoor ceremony.

Chapel Veil

Chapel veils are floor length styles that flow a few inches on the ground. This style is perfect to create the illusion of a trained dress without the hassle of having to bustle it later on!

Cathedral Veil

Cathedral veils are one of the longest veils available to this day. This design extends well beyond the dress’s train and can create a very dramatic look. Cathedral veils are most commonly worn with A-line dresses and ball gowns.

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

Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay Wedding – Katie & Zach

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Katie and Zach met their senior year of high school at a scholarship weekend for Boston College. Katie’s older brother, Ben, hosted Zach during the five day program where Katie found herself spending every possible moment coming up with excuses to tag along. After an immediate connect the couple decided to make their relationship official before parting ways at the end of the event. Although they both were eager to go home and tell their loved ones their news, they knew that they were going to have a challenge due to the distance between them. Even though this hurdle could have made any other teenage couple break up, the couple decided to make the most of it by Katie flying to Boston to attend Zach’s prom and Zach meeting her ENTIRE family after only one month!

The couple continued to date all throughout college and eventually decided to tie the knot in Tampa to be closer to Katie’s parents’ home. Since guests were coming in from all across the country, Katie and Zach decided to throw a big party immediately following the rehearsal dinner the night before. This allowed the attendees an additional opportunity to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones!

Following the traditional theme of their wedding day, Katie and her bridesmaids decided to get ready at her parents’ house while Zach and his groomsmen got dressed at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. The two traveled separately to Sacred Heart Catholic Church where they chose to see each other for the first time during an hour long Catholic Ceremony at 11:00 AM. Similar to Katie’s parents’ wedding, Event Design dressed up the church pews with white satin bows and designed Katie’s bouquet completely out of gardenias (which is what her mother had as well!)

After exchanging vows, the couple shuttled guests from Sacred Heart Catholic Church to the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay for the cocktail hour. During this time Katie and Zach were able to take photographs with each other and their families. Although they ended up missing the majority of their cocktail hour, the couple had the opportunity to be alone together and reflect on the morning’s events.

After the all of the sentimental moments, Katie and Zach were ready to party! The reception took place in the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay’s ballroom. Upon entering the space, all 400 of the couple’s guests were blown away by centerpieces in varying heights as well as the one on the couple’s head/family table that was made of only white roses. Along with the custom made arrangements, the tables were finished off with Event Design’s lace overlays, gold chargers, table numbers, and chiavari chairs!

Immediately following their meal, the couple had their first dance on a cherry rose dance floor with a GOBO projection of their initials displayed across. Eventually the day became even livelier when the wedding party did the classic New Orleans Umbrella Dance and Katie was able to throw away her complimentary toss bouquet (because how could she give up her real one?!)

Floral, Chairs, Uplighting, & Decor: Event Design | Ceremony Venue: Sacred Heart Catholic Church | Reception Venue: Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay | Photography: Your Story By Us | Videography: Life’s Highlights | Makeup: Michele Renee The Studio | Cake: Hands On Sweets | Wedding Dress: Cici’s Bridal | DJ: Eric w/ Grant Hemmond and Associates

The Stylish Groom – 3 Tips for Choosing the Perfect Fit for Your Guy

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Venue: Tampa Marriott Water Street | Photography: Corey Conroy Photography

On your wedding day your significant other’s outfit can be just as important as yours! When choosing a style, you want to make sure that you pick something out that compliments your dress instead of creating a distraction. Here are three tips that we recommend thinking about when you are picking out the perfect ensemble!

Coordinating Colors

It is best to make sure that the color the groomsmen are wearing accents well with the bridesmaids dresses. We recommend avoiding shades that don’t mesh well to prevent the style looking thrown together last minute. The safest route to go is sticking to black and complimenting the wedding colors with a matching tie or pocket square

Choose the Style Based on Formality

Most couples decide on how formal they want their wedding to be early on in the planning stages. If you intend on having a casual beach wedding, it would be best to save the guys from heat stroke by avoiding a full on tux and instead go for something light and breezy. If you want your guests to dress like they are headed to the Oscars, khaki shorts and a polo shirt would create an eyesore.

Consider His Body Type

There are thousands of different styles of suits out there and each one can compliment the Groom’s body type differently. For example, if he’s on the shorter side, a jacket with two or three buttons with a lower placement will make him appear taller. Additionally, if he is a bit larger, a darker color can help him appear leaner and and is more slimming.

When picking out an outfit for the boys to wear it is best to keep it simple and not over complicate things. If you’re still at a loss, we recommend going to a tailor to get an expert’s opinion!

5 Moments to Look Forward to on Your Wedding Day

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Is your wedding day right around the corner? Are you starting to feel the anxious jitters, butterflies, and every other emotion pouring out of you? Even if you still have some time until you walk down the aisle, you can probably relate to this feeling at least once or twice in your life. I mean, you’re only human, right?! So we can all take part in the excitement together, we’ve made a list of some of our favorite moments to look forward to our your special day!

Delivery of Personal Florals

Hand delivering bouquets and boutonnières is one of our favorite things! Typically, these are dropped off first thing in the morning and we love to see everyone’s faces light up once they’re seen. Another bonus to this is that it’s kind of like a sneak peak to what’s in store for the rest of the day!

Decorated Archway

Seeing the ceremony space in general is usually when the “OMG!” moment starts to kick in. Imagine walking down the aisle and seeing your significant other standing in front of the perfect archway that you both dreamed about. This is typically the time of day that your excitement pours out and tears begin to be shed!

Seeing Your Reception Space for the First Time

A lot of the times, the reception area is where couples dedicate the most attention to detail. Through numerous proposals and only mental visions, it is a whole different feeling seeing everything come together for the first time.

Finished Centerpieces

Seeing the arrangements that you once saw on Pinterest but weren’t sure would look good with your wedding colors. After countless hours going back and forth to make the perfect design it finally comes to life and is everything that you had imagined!

Small Touches That You Forgot About

There’s so much going on when you’re planning your wedding that there’s bound to be at least one thing you forgot that you splurged on. Whether it be the custom table numbers or specialty linen, seeing them on display is a nice little reminder of all of the work that you two put into your wedding day!

Okay, okay. We know there are far more than only five moments to look forward to on your wedding day. We could probably make an entire website dedicated to these occasions. After all, your wedding day is what you make of it so there’s a million things that you can be excited about!

Thanks to the awesome photographers Darin Crofton Photography, Lifelong Photography Studios, Jon Montis Photography, Sunglow Photography, & JCanelas Photography

Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay Wedding – Kimber & Nick

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Kimber and Nick met at a bar in their hometown of Chicago, Illinois. They began dating and eventually took their first vacation at the Grand Hyatt in Tampa Bay. They immediately fell in love with the hotel and after Nick gave a heartfelt proposal a few years later they knew that they had to come back to Tampa, Florida to exchange their vows.

After much discussion Kimber and Nick decided that they wanted to go with a modern theme that included blue and white hues. They decided to focus a portion of their attention to the ceremony space by including drapery and hanging blue delphinium flowers from the top. They also had two large arrangements on either side of the aisle that accented the sweetheart table when it was placed between them after the ceremony was over.

For the remainder of the reception space, the couple decided to include soft touches such as uplights, lilies, and blue table runners. Looking back on her day, Kimber says she is happy she put so much attention to the details and was able to get exactly what she envisioned. Though she claims that marrying Nick was the best part of her wedding, we think that our help with executing the decor came in a close second ;)

If Kimber could give any piece of advice to couples who are planning their wedding she would recommend finding vendors who stay in contact with you throughout the whole process. With planning a destination wedding, she was extremely comfortable with the constant communication between everyone on the Event Design team. Kimber is thankful that we took the time to discuss her entire vision and provide a variety of different options in order to achieve her dream decor. “(Event Design) helped us create the most beautiful set up and make our design dream a reality! (They) handled everything and communicated with our other vendors to make the day go flawless!!”

Venue: Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay | Photographer: Carrie Wildes

I’m Engaged! Which Vendors do I Hire First?

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Ceremony Venue: Bell Shoals Baptist Church | Reception Venue: The Regent

You just became engaged and can finally start the planning process for one of your most memorable days! Once a set budget is in mind, you might ask yourself where to start and which vendors should you reach out to first? While every single one of them is important in making a smooth and painless wedding day, there are a few that we recommend going to immediately to ensure availability!

Venue

We highly encourage couples to decide on a wedding location before they even pursue other venders. Once a date is chosen, you will be able to get a better idea on availability of other venders and if the facility is within their area of travel. Additionally, certain venues only allow the use of their preferred venders which could limit the ones to choose from.

Planner/Coordinator

Planners and coordinators are under utilized gems inside the wedding industry! It might not seem like it at first, but planning everything out and sticking to a schedule is a full time job! Having someone there to map out every detail and create a timeline can alleviate unnecessary stress and make everything run much more smoothly.

Photographer

There’s an art to taking the perfect photograph so if you’re in love with someone’s work don’t hesitate to reach out to see their availability! Photographers (especially well known ones) can fill up fast and chances are if you found the best one on Instagram, other couples have too!

Decor/Floral

The possibilities are endless when it comes to the decor and floral aspect of a wedding! We encourage speaking with a company early on to see how much it would cost to recreate absolutely everything that you envision. Once that’s figured out, you will then have the opportunity to decide on what you really want/need as well as get a better idea on how much money you’ll have to spend on other things.

Planning your wedding may seem overwhelming at first, (trust us, we know) but once you have your core vendors figured out everything else will come together more easily. Remember, it’s never too early to reach out to these individuals, especially the ones that you have your heart set on!

Happy Year… Happy New Year

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For some, the words: “When you know, you know” aren’t just lip-service.  For some, these words represent the serendipitous magic that seems to hang in the air and swirl around you.  Such is the case with Jill and Marcus who enjoyed a whirlwind romance in 2011 – having  met, fell in love, found a home (subsequently started renovating it), began their move and then (for good measure), got engaged all inside of one year.  What’s better than that?!

With a little imagination and a whole lot of guts, this incredible bride managed (with a little help from Event Design) to organize an New Year’s Eve Engagement Party party people will be talking about for years to come because when guests arrived at the Don Vincente de Ybor Historic Innon December 31, 2011, they never suspected they were attending a surprise wedding ceremony and reception.  Tre celebrity!

We are honored and humbled to be included in the May/June issue of Destination Weddings and Honeymoons Magazine.  Thank you to K&K Photography for their always excellent visual depiction of a magical day.