Studio Julie Blog

Restrospect: Jordan & Mike {A Westin Wedding}

As many of you know and to those who don’t my blog was done for a large chunk of time getting renovated so to speak. A wanted to go back a revisited some GREAT missed weddings and also allowed our clients to share some wedding advice, thoughts and funny details! I hope you enjoy! Now meet Jordan and Mike!

Jordan and Mike are both from Boca Raton, Florida. What’s funny is that they went to the same elementary, middle, and high school but did not meet until Jordan returned home from college at UF. Mike is a few years older.

We asked Jordan what her most memorable moment was from their wedding. Well, her answer is priceless.

Of course, walking down the aisle…seeing Mike’s face. Our first dance. The great speeches. The fun after party at Sloppy Joe’s. The night before party at The Bull. Having all of our family and friends celebrating with us all weekend long. The beautiful chilly weather. The boat parade. The air show. BUT, I think if you were going to ask ANY guest they would have to say the bird attack! While Mike, Julie, David and I were taking our awesome newlywed pictures the rest of the party was literally fighting off about 15 seagulls that attacked the sushi/appetizer display. From what everyone has told me it was very similar to a scene from “The Birds.” We have video of aunts and friends fighting them off and whaling their purses in the air.

The one piece of advice Jordan would like to tell other brides?  To get a day-of planner, especially if you are planning a destination wedding!

Allison from We’ve Got the Keys seriously ROCKED! I couldn’t imagine the day without her! I have since heard horror stories from a bride whose day was interrupted about 20 times because of stupid things that went wrong that she did not need to know about. No one else at the wedding even noticed but employees kept telling her about. I’m so glad that I had someone there to deal with everything. Then after Allison left, the wonderful Miss Julie then took over. There are a lot of things you don’t think about that luckily Julie helped us out with.

Out of 150 invited guests, 107 attended. Jordan thought it was the perfect amount! One of the challenges of planning a destination wedding is planning from a distance. In Jordan and Mike’s case, they were unable to do a taste testing before they decided on the food, but they lucked up! They had wonderful staff at the Westin to guide them. Their food looked delicious! Lourdes at the Westin suggested they do stations because of the amount of people (107 guests) and how far the kitchen was from the reception site.  Jordan left Mike in charge of choosing the menu items and they ran everything their moms to get their opinion. Moms know best!

All of Jordan’s bridesmaids all had different dresses on – different styles and colors, as well as different accessories. This is an awesome look…if pulled off successfully. And successful it was! Sometimes when this feat is attempted, the bridesmaids end up so mismatched that they don’t even look like they are in the same wedding. Here is Jordan’s advice for getting a diverse, yet complimentary look for your bridesmaids.

I told all the girls that I wanted everyone to get a dress in “pastel ocean” – pastel greens, blues, teals, turquoise etc. I was actually inspired to use these colors on the way down to Key West to pick a venue. I forget what mile marker it was but there is a long stretch where you look out and see nothing but ocean. The range in colors was gorgeous. Growing up in South Florida I grew up with the ocean, but the range of depth in Key West made the water so beautiful.

My advice would be to go to a David’s Bridal, or something similar, and pick a range of colors and a few dresses and let them decide which works best for them. I had to tell a couple of girls flat out NO. Just remember it is YOUR wedding. Also use your Maid of Honor as a spy. My Maid of Honor, my sister, was really good!

The girls started out strong. I never assigned one to a certain girl. Claudia, Elaine, and Allison picked first (the two on the end and next to Maid of Honor). Once those were chosen it was established that it would be “flowy.” I went with Meghan ( 3rd from me), and my sister, JoJo, and they both found their dresses at Alfred Angelo (where I got my dress) so I was able to influence them. Meghan took FOREVER to decide, I was getting nervous it wouldn’t come in time. Gina was the only one that waited until the last minute. She lives in NYC and said it was hard to find pastels up there. I sent her all the pictures of the other girls and she finally found the perfect dress online. I got extremely lucky as far as the range of color. We wanted my sister’s to be long because she was the Maid of Honor. She wanted to wear a sash that said she was the Maid of Honor so this was our compromise!

Now, the accessories are another story. I thought it would be so fun to get each girl a chunky/fun necklace from Anthropologie. But then with Gina and Meghan taking longer I had to wait to see their dresses before I could pick out their necklaces. Elaine’s dress had a different neckline so I wasn’t sure if a necklace would even look right so I got her a bracelet. I think I made this part way more stressful than it needed to be. Then, with Meghan, I ordered her a cool bracelet from Etsy.com because she had a halter, and I wasn’t sure how a necklace would look. Also, I didn’t want Elaine to be the only one with a bracelet. When Meghan’s bracelet came it looked like someone had made it in a high school craft class. Like I said before, I made this way more stressful than it needed to be. Literally the morning of the wedding I grabbed a necklace I had packed and Meghan used wire cutters to change it up a bit to match her dress (she’s an amazing artist). I was amazed how it all turned it!

When asked if there was one thing Jordan and Mike could have done differently, Mike stated he wished they had stayed longer that week and had a longer reception.  They enjoyed their wedding and time in Key West so much, that the only thing they would have changed is that they stayed longer! And also, of course, that their dog, Buddy, had been included in their wedding. He was there in spirit as they used photos of him as their table numbers.

Speaking of dogs, Jordan and Mike had a hilarious wedding crasher at their wedding! One of their guests returned to their hotel room to change because she was chilly. Their puppy, Journey, manged to wiggle her way out! Danno, one of the groomsmen, saw a few waiters chasing Journey and went running to aid them. Luckily Journey knew Danno and ran to him, and Journey was able to return safety to her hotel room. From then on, it was running joke that no one was allowed to tell Buddy, Jordan and Mike’s dog, that Journey was at the wedding.

Final words from Jordan!

I am not joking when I say that we still bring up that weekend every time the family gets together, every time friends get together, EVERY time I see my mom. Our friends joke that they have a lot to compete with. We even had a love connection. A friend of mine from pharmacy school is already living with one of Mike’s groomsmen! Everyone had such an amazing time and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The music, the food, the flowers, my make-up and hair, the weather, the boat show, the sunset and of course the pictures were everything I hoped for and more! We planned this wedding in six months and I miss it!

Thanks so much to Jordan and Mike for sharing so many awesome details of their wedding and for all the great advice! We had a blast at your wedding! We wish you nothing but the best in your future!!

Above are just a few of my favorite pictures from Jordan and Mike’s fabulous Key West Wedding! I think that fly over might just be my favorite…pays to know people in high places! LOL!

Vendors:

Wedding Planning: We’ve Got the Keys~Allison Diange

Venue: Westin Key West Resort & Marina

Hair & Makeup: Studio Marie-Pierre~ Marie-Pierre

Florist: Milan Event Florals & Decor

Cake: Publix

DJ: Jimmy Jamz -305.293.7401

Photography: me of course…Studio Julie with the help of Studio David LOL!