If you recall their utterly adorbs paddleboard engagement session , you can understand our excitement when Chelsea Erwin 's submission for Erica and Roman's wedding hit our inbox. Let's just say, their authentic creativity and rad team of pros did not disappoint. This is a goodie, y'all!
These two grew up together, and share the same passions: life near the water, travel, and spending quality time with friends and family. There's plenty for them to base a marriage on, but this bit from Erica is probably the most meaningful: We have always been on the same page with our core beliefs and values which was what eventually helped us take the step towards marriage after dating for 6 years.
Roman is one of the least selfish people I know and his love for his friends and family is contagious. So I really wanted to have a wedding that celebrates this important decision in our lives, but also honors and allows us to celebrate all of the people who influenced who we are today. It was a fairly sizable wedding with over 140 people but it felt really intimate at the same time which was exactly what we wanted to accomplish.
I enjoyed taking photos before the wedding ceremony with our bridal party. This allowed for Roman and I to spend quality time with our friends and family during the cocktail hour and spend more time with each other on the dance floor during the reception.
Our theme for our wedding was Florida Grown since Roman and I are both born and raised in Florida. The Bonnet House provided the perfect location to achieve this with its outdoor, vintage feel with lots of lush greenery and charm in every corner. They had an extremely helpful "day of the event" coordinator named Nicholle that made planning our wedding there a great experience. Lastly, the venue was located on the beach which we loved.
Before we joined the cocktail hour, we had the ability to walk around the reception area to admire and take in every beautiful detail executed by our stylist Angela Compton from The ALTARnative and our florist Alexandra Clark from Coastal Blossoms . We enjoyed a cocktail and some food with our band, The Uproot Hootenanny , who were finishing their setup and even rehearsed our first dance on the empty dance floor while signing the lyrics to our song.
“It was the perfect moment to stop, reflect and really be grateful and present in the moment.”
All of our vendors were friends and people we had relationships with so it was really neat spending the day with people we really loved, from the girls getting ready with stylists I've known since I was 15, our florist who I was able to trust to do whatever she desired with our flowers and add an element of surprise to the day when I showed up, our stylist and photography team who I absolutely trust and adore and have too much darn fun working with while planning and putting their creative visions to life.
Another moment that was really special to me was the surprise of receiving a digital file of our finished wedding photos from Chelsea Erwin and a wedding video trailer from Chris Snyder Studio while we were still in Hawaii on our honeymoon! It was such a neat experience to be able to take the time to reflect on the most amazing day of our lives while in paradise with all the time in the world to browse. Not to mention, the quality and finished products far surpassed all of our expectations!
And here's the wedding trailer for your viewing pleasure:
Congratulations, Erica and Roman. Thank you so much for sharing your sweet day with us and high fives to all the creatives that made it happen!
