A Truly Meaningful Wedding – My Friends Art & Lana

Art & Lana

What can I say about them? They are perfectly matched for each other. This proving that it’s never too late to find true love. They did! And now they’re hitched, as of July 19th 2008. Congratulations my dear friends. Art being one of the people I’ve known the longest in the biz and Lana is part of our girls night group. The best friends a girl can have.

I was so lucky to be included as a guest at this intimate celebration. And of course I had to offer a bit of help. I know that my good friend Susie Weiss with Wonderful Weddings truly would have loved to help and to be there to see this couple get married. After all, Susie helped them get together. Unfortunately, Susie and Jeffrey already had a wedding that day at the lovely Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes. So, I did what I could to help make sure things were organized and was even smart enough to bring along some extra help in my talented associate, Sally Jarvis with Just Marry! With her there, I was able to relax and have fun at Art & Lana’s wedding.

They really made it their wedding. You could say that they put the Art & Lana stamp on it. Here are just a few of the special touches they chose to incorporate into their special day:

Keeping their event casual and intimate. Sun dresses for the ladies and guys in pants and casual tropical shirts. Not a suit to be found. And they only included their family and close friends. Which made it a truly love filled evening. Everybody celebrating Art & Lana and their marriage to each other.

Seeing each other before the ceremony to do some romantic pictures. This always helps to take some of the tension of the wedding day away.

Having the cocktail hour before the ceremony and having a specialty cocktail. A Mojito none the less. The perfect Florida cocktail for a hot day. Refreshing.

Including their dogs, Smitty and Nick in their ceremony and giving them lovely floral decor for their collars.

Including their grand-daughter and niece in the ceremony. The processional was beautiful with the girls and then Art & Lana being walked by the pups.

Writing their own vows. Now, I was already crying from seeing them off down the aisle, but all of us girls really turned on the water works when they read their personally written vows. It was so obvious to all of us how much they love and adore each other. This is one couple that will certainly stand the test of time. Precious.

The homemade limoncello that Art had been cultivating since December. It was included as a shot with the melon and prosciutto.

The surprise from Susie. She had hired the beautiful antique Rolls Royce owned by Larry Gerry for the departure. And they left to sparklers of course. Always the best pictures with those.

Here are some of the gorgeous photos shot by Art’s talented photography team,

Here’s some of our girls night group. Those of us who were able to attend. We missed you Bonnie, Faye & Jennifer. Pictured below from left to right are Susan Southerland from Just Marry!, myself, Janine Boylan from the Grand Bohemian Orlando Hotel, Lisa New with BBJ Linen, Stephanie Rounds of nu visions in photography, Lana and Lisa Konecny from E Events.

The happy couple!

Here’s some of Lana’s beautiful decor. You can visit her at Fairbanks Florist.

Such a silly couple

The vendors that assisted Art & Lana with their beautiful wedding were,

Ceremony & Reception site, Casa Feliz located in Winter Park

Family vacation rentals, Villas by Christi

Hair & Makeup, Kari Larsen with About Face

Bride’s Jewelry, Sandi Loychik

Officiant, Judge Rom Powell

Decor, Fairbanks Florist

Photography, Art Faulkner Photography courtesy of Neal Sands

Catering, Arthur’s Catering

Ceremony Music, J.R. Krisanda

Reception Music, Danny with Power Entertainment

Transportation, Larry Gerry with Classic Rolls Royce

Honeymoon Location, Grand Bohemian Orlando by Janine Boylan

An Orlando Wedding Guild Luncheon and a Wedding Remembered

Yesterday was wedding networking day in Orlando. Despite the rain. Quite a few of us came out for the Orlando Wedding Guild Luncheon which is sponsored by Central Florida Bride & Perfect Wedding Guide. It was hosted at Flemings Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar located in Winter Park. It was the perfect opportunity to check out this great steakhouse. A wonderful location for hosting a rehearsal or welcome dinner. And if you’re planning a lunchtime reception, you can take over the entire restaurant as they are closed for lunch. Eileen Antonescu handles all of the group dining events and comes to the restaurant from the Ballroom at Church Street. So, she knows her stuff.

Faye Novick and I attended the luncheon for the Just Marry! contingency and saw many of our wedding biz friends. Janine Boylan and Kim Moffat from the Grand Bohemian Orlando. Our good friend Deb Kettler from Special Touches by Deb. We just don’t get to see Deb enough. I guess planning weddings and doing flower decor can be very time consuming. We had a great time and Deb and I even had a glass of wine with lunch. Isn’t it 5pm somewhere? Thanks Deb. Also, got to catch up with one of my newest wedding friends, Tracy Marini from Eventfully Yours. I just loving counting the best wedding planners in the biz as some of my dearest friends. Where are you if you don’t have friends that know exactly what you’re talking about on a day to day basis in this crazy world of weddings? And always a pleasure to see my dear friend, the elegant Susie Weiss from Wonderful Weddings. Love her! And you never know who you might run into at one of the gigs. I haven’t seen Greg Dillon for quite some time. The last time that we worked together was at the Grand Bohemian Orlando for Mary & Dean’s wedding a few years ago. Back then I didn’t have a blog. Greg was so wonderful to work with and took such great photos that I wanted to share a few.

The vendors for this wedding were:

Grand Bohemian Hotel Orlando, Ceremony & Reception Site

Special Event Floral, Decor

Greg Dillon, Photography

A Magic Moment, Videography

Reverend Luther Kistler, Officiant

Mount Dora Trolley Company, Trolley Transportation

Classic Rolls Royce (Larry Gerry), Exit Transportation

DJ Frankie C, Reception Entertainment

Charlie’s Bakery, Wedding Cake

BBJ Linen, Rental Linens

Beautiful Music (Shannon Caine), Ceremony music

Star Tower Event

What a fun venue and what a view! Beautiful views of the downtown skyline. It was great to be included and get to see this wonderful venue. My friend, Tracy Marini of Eventfully Yours put this great event together. It was held on the rooftop of the new Star Tower. The food was catered by Graze, The Beacon and Fifi’s. And was quite delicious. There was a fun group of people there and some of my good friends. J. Michael with A Spectacular Event, Susie Weiss with Wonderful Weddings, Lee Forrest, Tommy Murphy with Greenery Productions, Janine Boylan with the Grand Bohemian Orlando, Jessica Lodispoto with the Winter Park Racquet Club, Bonnie Garfield with the Portofino Bay Hotel, Stephanie Rounds with nu visions in photography and of course Lisa Konecny with E Events. Never without my posse it would seem. We enjoyed the event and even took the time to tour one of the corner condos. It had floor to ceiling windows. That was quite something. Brian Adams took the photographs for the evening.

After the event ended, we just weren’t finished. We rarely are. So a few of us went to The Beacon to have some more food and drinks.