If there is one thing I know for certain about glamorous weddings, it’s that they tend to leave me speechless. Which can sort of be a problem, since it happens to be my job to talk all things pretty. And when you throw in a breathtaking setting like the historical Ringling Museum of Art, beautiful blooms from Beneva Flowers and a whole host of yummy goodness from Milan Catering and Event Design (hello, grilled cheese panini), I become a blubbering mess of adjectives. See why in the full gallery captured by Jenny Haas Photography. It’s amazing.
From the Bride… Landyn and I are both engineers and typically drawn to clean and modern design. However, we found ourselves absolutely captivated by the romance and history at the Ringling Museum of Art Courtyard. It reminded us of a European vacation we took for graduation and felt it truly was the venue of our dreams. It really dictated the themes of romance and travel, but we injected fun with live music and modern flourishes when appropriate.
We chose a color palette of black, white and pale green because it complimented the pale pink walls of the courtyard and evoked the old world appeal of space. I wore a lace mermaid gown for the ceremony that felt renaissance and changed into a modern paillette sequins covered dress for dancing. Landyn loves hats and wore a top hat, suspenders, and white jacket to make his look unique and as he describes “made him feel like James Bond.” We kept the flowers basic because the courtyard had plenty of style and we didn’t want to detract from it. All the bridesmaids carried a different bouquet, each of one type of white bloom – lilies, hydrangea, roses, baby’s breath, gerbera daisies, lisianthus and white stock. We had the bouquets wrapped in lace to reflect the lace in my wedding dress. Each groomsman had a matching boutonniere to his coordinating bridesmaid and each dinner table centerpiece contained a vase of one type of the same blooms. Since we love to travel we named each dinner table a city where we had a great memory. Escort cards were made to resemble luggage tags and guests were prompted on how to use the card and find their seat by a poster exclaiming “Where in the World am I sitting?” The ceremony programs were designed to look like black and white passports and each page was printed with a custom watermark.
Our family and friends are everything to us and our wedding was only going to be good if everyone had fun. That’s why I had the bridesmaid pick their own gowns. If they were feeling confident and beautiful, they were sure to have a good time with everyone at the wedding. We wanted live music throughout the evening because it felt more interactive. A string trio played a mix of our modern rock favorites and classical pieces through the ceremony and the cocktail hour. The live band and bold black and white checkered dance floor really motivated guests to dance throughout the evening. Food is another great love of ours so we wanted guests to sample yummy bites throughout the evening with passed hors d’oeurves at cocktail hour and ending the night with midnight snack food including grilled cheese paninis and mini cheese burgers (our personal favorite bite of the evening). All in all, it was the best night of my life captured so true and elegantly by Jenny and Will’s photography that I know the evening can live on forever in these images.
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Photography: Jenny Haas Photography | Venue: John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art | Officiant: Weddings By Christina | Planning: Alexis Alexander with Sarasota Wedding Gallery | Floral Design: Beneva Flowers | Catering: Milan Catering and Event Design | Cake: Slice of Heaven | Ceremony Music: Strings Attached | Cinematography: Movie Magic Video Productions | Hair + Makeup: Michelle Renne | Band: Aqua Groove