What better way to see the personality of the bride and groom, than to watch a highly personalized, non-paper, extremely creative, very unqiue, “Save-The-Date” like this one!

After a year of lots of planning, and a year of collecting lots of sea biscuits, Naomi Manasala’s wedding was last night and it was perfect.  She and Rob married last week in the Bahamas with a smaller group of their closest friends and relatives, arriving back here in Gainesville 24 hours before their big reception.  They partied with a hundred more friends and relatives at Gainesville’s Historic Thomas Center, all decorated by Celebrations’ selecting a contemporary blend of tropical aqua, crisp white and sandy beige linens.  We added some aqua accent lighting, lots of seashells and authentic sand directly from the Bahamas, hung some paper lanterns, and concocted a mango mojito for the signature beverage.

Powers Photography spent the week in the Bahamas with the wedding party, taking hours of pictures of the week long celebration and ceremony.  The reception guests enjoyed a big screen viewing of a video presentation of the island ceremony, with Susan and Stewart Powers taking more photographs again last night, of the Thomas Center reception.

Here are some wedding moments captured by ME,… professional photos from the Stewarts’ coming soon!

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check out this wedding video by Powers Photography of the ceremony in the Bahamas!

Happy Tape Blog: 

Melanie & Jordan were hands down THE MOST non-complicated wedding couple ever at Celebrations Catering!  When I asked Melanie, just a few days before her wedding, what the topper for the wedding cake was, she wasn’t even sure if she remembered what she had selected.  I commented in reply to her then, this is not normal for brides, they plan this stuff for years in advance, and know EXACTLY the details about everything, with pictures and notebooks of details!   This lack of micromanagement of her wedding made Melanie all the more attractive and fun to work with, no bridezilla here and a playful, easygoing groom helped too!  She and Jordan pretty much put everything in our hands and didn’t ask too many questions or demand too many answers.  Some of this trust rested in the fact that Celebrations had catered Melanie’s sister’s wedding a year earlier!   I have to say, however, that when brides and grooms let us “do our thing” they usually get a lot more from us in the way of creativity and FREE STUFF!

UF’s Touchdown Terrace is right on the GATOR football field, an opportunity to show Gator pride, a sure fire way to get great wedding photos, and an attractive location where an ORANGE wedding reception doesn’t seem at all odd.  We softened the affair with a little champagne and beige tinted linens, some ambient orange & gold lighting, and our florist Gay Boros made us some earthy centerpieces that had NO BLUE in them.  And, since this room at TD Terrace is so HUGE and the chairs are all GATOR BLUE, some real talent from the planning department here at Celebrations was necessary to give this wedding reception a warm, family appeal.   Sometimes it’s quite a challenge to get a Gator-Themed Football Party Room turned into a romantic wedding venue, keeping the “tailgate” feel far at bay!    Mission accomplished!

Thanks for the help with this reception goes to…Kate Harte and Bryan Flood at UAA for allowing us early set up times, Rodney from Jay’s Entertainment, Angel & Greg, owners of Photography 35, and to Publix for a delicious Wedding Cake (with add- ons of ribbon and flowers, gems and cake plateau by Celebrations Catering) and of course a big thanks to our amazing kitchen staff, our head chef Mike Shimansky, our very competent design staff, our dutiful and exuberant wait staff, our attentive bartenders, and our  fabulous wedding planner for this reception… Jessica Slane!  What a great team and what a perfect wedding party… i got to go home early!  Leah

Click Here to see Photography 35’s BLOG about the Wedding!

Before 5:00 am this morning the Catering crew at Celebrations arrived to start the coffee brewing for today’s UF Foundation Breakfast at Emerson Hall.  Our kitchen had the aroma of bacon and sausage when I arrived, and everyone in this building was hustling!  Setting up a cook-on-site meal requires a lot of checklists and a very thorough  packing job the night before… no easy task to make sure we have every necessary set of tongs, enough gas for the cookers, lots of  clean towels, and a myriad of extensive details crossed and double checked…at this early morning hour.  Luckily,the caterers went to the site with two truck loads the night before, applied the linens to the tables and “pre-set” the room, making this morning’s 6:30 am delivery time less complicated.  Our first guests arrived to eat around 7:30 am, and our first omelet was absolutely beautiful. (Thank You JB!)   Cooking food directly in front of guests incictes a special excitement as well  anticipation.  Most eyes were focused on our head chef, Mike Shimansky, who prepared buckwheat pancakes with blueberries and fresh cream.   I had my eye on one immediately and sneaked a taste behind the scenes… it didn’t even need the warm syrup!  Our guests also enjoyed an extensive buffet of baked treats, fruit, bagels and English muffins, buttermilk biscuits and layered yogurt-granola parfaits.  Everyone enjoyed themselves and whew,… let the hours of clean up begin!  

Shout out to Kim Harris, our client at Emerson Hall, for going green today.  She selected biodegradable corn-made dinneware.  . . That’s 220 less plates, forks, knives and cups clogging up today’s landfill!

On to the next event today, a Wedding at the Football Stadium, yep…Gators love their football!

Brittnie Baker and UF’s Alpha Epsilon Phi had a great time Saturday night at Villa East, celebrating Family Weekend!

The monthly Chamber of Commerce After Hours Mixer was a “Winter Wonderland” theme event this month, hosted by the Marketplace Plaza in front of Renaissance Printing near Fresh Market.  The hosts included Paddiwhack, Capital City Bank, Region’s Bank, Utopia Chalet Day Spa, Quality Cleaners, Northwest Seafood, and our long time catering customer Renaissance Printing (the one and only Tami Keith).   With the winter theme, we all were glad to see the cold weather present during the event, making it necessary to have two heaters inside the tent, but also setting the mood and a chilly ambiance for a winter-time celebration.  Over three hundred local businessmen and women showed up and when the event was scheduled to end at 7pm, nobody left.  The crowd didn’t seem to mind the cool weather and very much appreciated the hot food and the passed soup shots.  When we began to serve the mini ice cream cups provided by D’Lites, we all wondered if this might be too much cold for a chilly night.. but the flavors were fun and the mini servings were enjoyed by all… glad to see our Gainesville crowd eating ice cream in 40 degree outdoor weather! 

In June 2009 I got a phone call from Margaret’s father, Charles Wood, regarding his daughter’s upcoming wedding reception at the Florida Museum of Natural History.  Margaret and Tony live in Cincinnati, so mother Maureen and father Charles would be helping a lot more than is customary with the planning process.  During the last nine months, I did meet with the bride and groom, but most of our conversations were Internet messages back and forth, and through Margaret’s patient parents.  It’s nice to have a group effort when pulling together friends, family and lots of long distance details! 

In December, all of us met at the Museum of Natural History, to review a floor plan and discuss menu details.  Christmas time is convenient for traveling family members, so arranging a site consultation during the holidays was necessary if we were going to all get together in person, before the wedding date.  I was pleased and elated working with this very lovely family!  Tony Stefater, the groom, was getting a great deal of love marrying into the Wood family!  This makes my work easier when true love and family respect are unquestionably sincere. 

Inspiration for this wedding… Cincinatti!  Margaret and Tony took pictures of all of their favorite locations… their first date, their favorite restaurants, etc. and suddenly we had a theme!  We emailed pictures back and forth of linen colors and before long, a brown/gold/silver color combination evolved as Margaret’s favorites.  She made things so pleasantly easy, as she mostly trusted our instinct here at Celebrations, trusting me to pick her linen without actually seeing the fabrics/colors in person… This is a real big deal for brides!

Together with Joan Prang’s beautiful flowers, and her help with hanging all those paper lanterns, Jay’s Entertainment handling the music, Kathy at KB’s Kakes, and TJ Morriseytaking all the photos, this whole big party fell into place promptly by 6:30 pm last night!  In spite of the unusually cold weather conditions this week that causing some guests’ travel plans to alter… and  causing the butterfly rain forest portion of our reception to get cancelled… the five hours of reception could not have been more perfect or more beautiful.  The Museum Gallery was warm and glowing and  made a happy location for this reception.

A perfect crispy cold day, clear skies and pure sunshine!  After their ceremony at the Baughman Center, Daniel and Heather Sarkis arrived at Villa East for their seven hour wedding reception!  It began with a two-hour “happy hour”, with over a dozen food options from Celebrations Catering and Dragonfly Sushi.  Joan Prange decorated with flowers, and Masterpiece Weddings orchestrated the continuous flow of events.   Then guests enjoyed a 24′ dinner buffet, on to a cheesecake buffet, organic ice cream buffet, Sarkis brand baklava, elegant mini desserts from ‘Mildred’s, and finally a smores station outside by the fire pit that included organic Paul Newman chocolate.  Lots of oldies and Armenian music by DJ Wayne kept us all singing along and tapping our feet.  Everyone lined up for the photo booth in between bar drinks, and by the end of the night a big successful party had been experienced by all.  Photography 35 rotated the room catching it all on camera, but meanwhile I’ll share my novice shots with you.