Real Wedding Florida

ABC member planner: Christine Terezakis, ABC™, Dreamday Couture Wedding Planning & Event Design, Palm City, Fla., 772.426.9954. info@dreamdaycelebrations.com, www.dreamdaycelebrations.com.Non-member businesses involved: A Piece of Cake, Chantals par Avion (catering), Cassidy’s Ice (ice sculpture luge), Eventmakers International (rentals & lighting), Focused on Forever Studios, Harbour Bay Florist, Traxx Entertainment (DJ).The couple: Candice and Michael are a Maryland couple who chose Michael’s grandfather’s Stuart, Fla., vacation home, nestled on a lush tropical location overlooking the river, for their wedding.INSPIRATION: The theme was “tropical elegance”—inspired by the bride’s favorite orchid and the couple’s love of the tropical outdoors. Colored up lighting in green and yellow was installed throughout the landscape to enhance the beautiful foliage.Color palette: Pale yellow, green, and white with gold accents.Approximate budget: $60,000.Guest count: 60.MOST UNIQUE ELEMENTS: Orchids were everywhere. They were inserted into chair-back hangers; floated on the pool in up-lit glass bowls; incorporated into the centerpieces, place settings, and stationery pieces; and hung with crystals over the cake, which was displayed under its own gazebo and adorned with sugar orchids. The grand finale of the evening was when all of the guests were invited onto the lawn to release lighted lanterns into the night sky.Biggest challenge: Bad weather was our challenge. The couple wanted an open-air event because the grounds were so beautiful. After watching weather projections, I convinced them that we needed to tent the entire area. High winds and rain forced us to use the house interior for cocktail hour instead of the riverside lawn as originally planned. The winds eventually died down, and the guests enjoyed a beautiful setting, amazing food, and a fun night of dancing.Hindsight: The large tent shielded us from the rain, but unexpected wind gusts created difficulties during ceremony to reception conversion. Since the couple wanted the area as open as possible, the decision was made not to order sidewall flaps for the tent. In the future, we’ll always order side flaps that can be rolled down and secured for protection from the elements, especially if an event is near water.[nggallery id=15]