Katie and Justin's Light and Easy Florida Beach Wedding by Stacy Paul Photography

Happy Tuesday everyone and to all my lovely American followers, Happy 4th of July! To celebrate I have the most adorable wedding for you from America, from good friend to the blog Stacy Paul Photography. It’s the most adorable Florida beach wedding, with the cutest of couples, Katie and Justin. With a gorgeous outdoor ceremony right on the beach, followed by a beautiful outdoor reception this wedding just oozes love and I know you are going to love it.

I’m obviously biased but I think our wedding was the best wedding ever! A magical day overflowing with love, good vibes with plenty of smiles, laughs and hugs from our amazing family and friends.

Light and Easy Florida Beach Wedding by Stacy Paul Photography

Katie and Justin were married on the 14th April 2016, at Postcard Inn, St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. ‘Picking a location was difficult because we were living in Texas at the time but we had met in FL. My whole family is in Michigan and his family is scattered but mostly in Florida. So we had a lot of options as to where we would have the wedding and it would mean traveling for a lot of our guests no matter which locale we went with. We didn’t go with Texas because we had only lived there a short time and felt no connection with any certain area venue. We thought about Michigan, where I grew up but again, we didn’t have a connection to it as a couple. But we do have a lot of amazing memories from when we lived in FL and specifically going to the beach in St. Pete so that felt like the right place for our special day. We had one of our first “dates” at Postcard Inn and have hung out there several times after that. We had about 130 guests. We were engaged for a year and a half and started planning right away.’

How they met
We met at my old apartment in Tampa, FL. I was having a birthday party for my then boyfriend and Justin came with a mutual girlfriend of our friend group. We stayed in contact over the years and he began flirting with me on facebook haha. He asked me out shortly after that and we have been together for five years!

The Proposal
Justin proposed Thanksgiving night at our house, totally unplanned. We had been talking about marriage and I assumed/hoped a proposal was coming sometime down the road but had no idea that he was going to propose that night. In the spring, we were with my dad and apparently he had asked for my dad’s blessing but didn’t tell my dad that it was a surprise. Later that day, my dad made a comment about us being engaged and I was like huh? what? And Justin froze and looked like a deer in headlights. Then my step mom quickly changed the subject. I blew it off but its funny to look back and see how my dad almost spilled the beans! Justin also was sneaky and got a hold of my great grandmother’s ring that my mom had. Justin took note and arranged to have the ring sent to him in FL. It almost got lost in the mail and they were both worried sick about the ring so when it finally arrived, Justin couldn’t wait any longer and just sprung it on me haha! It was very sweet, informal and cozy proposal and I cried like a baby!

How did you allocate your budget?
We were blessed to a lot of help from my dad for the wedding venue and flowers and my mom bought my dress.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
The biggest splurge was the venue for sure! We had our desserts donated by my new aunt Rhonda and my friend Keira. My friend Aimee donated some awesome décor and Justin and I diy’d the centerpieces. My cousin Aimee did my hair and wouldn’t let me pay her, so I inadvertently saved there.

How did you choose your photographer?
One of my best friends, Keira, referred us to our photographer, www.stacypaulphotography.com. Keira had some photos done by her and also is good friends with her. Upon looking at her website, I was sold!

The Dress
I bought my dress off of etsy from a Polish designer called Monika Venika. I didn’t wear shoes! But I made myself some “barefoot sandals”. And I made all of my other jewelry with the exception of my hair piece that my friend Veronica of Aurora Shadow made special for me.

The Suit
Justin bought his outfit from TJ Maxx and bought a pink bow tie and braces from etsy.

Theme or Colour Scheme
Pastel. I wanted everything to feel light and easy.

Flowers
We got our flowers from 2 birds events in St. Petersburg and they did an amazing mix of garden roses, peonies and succulents.

Decoration
For the centerpieces, we hand painted old jars and bottles with pastel paint for some and others in mercury glass and had the florist use those for the flowers and succulents. Justin found a lot of the old bottles during his barn teardowns and my mom gave us a lot of vintage crystal creamers that we painted in mercury glass and were used for succulents. I added rose quartz crystals to each table (this crystal symbolizes love). I work with jewelry and crystals so I really wanted that added touch. And we added pink and silver confetti and stars to the table. My friend Aimee bought us a cool rustic wood initials for our names for one of the tables, which was perfect because Justin has a reclaimed wood business. All the details were perfect!

Food
Our venue had packages and we picked a buffet style with a mix of food for everyone including appetizers, salads, smoked chicken, pulled pork, brisket and side items.

Wedding Cake
We didn’t do a traditional cake! My new aunt Rhonda made us 2 delicious red velvet cakes. And then my friend Keira made us the most adorable mix of bite sized desserts including cake pops, macaroons and mini cupcakes and put them on her mom’s vintage aluminium platters which matched our theme perfectly!

Entertainment
We used the Rhythm of the Night Entertainment from Orlando for our DJ and we also had him supply a photobooth which was a huge hit with our guest.

Stationery
We bought our invites also from etsy from a designer called Jamene Invitations. She did an amazing job!

Personal Touches
Making my own jewelry was the biggest personal touch I added. Being a jewelry designer, I really wanted to incorporate that into my look. It was hard to imagine myself in a wedding dress or like “bride” in the traditional sense so adding my own flare to my look made me feel better in my own skin.

Special Moments or Highlights
A huge highlight and special moment was the way my dad looked at me when he saw me in my dress for the first time. It was so sweet! I loved having him walk me down the sandy aisle and I know he was so proud of the wedding he made happen for me. He died a year and 10 days after my wedding so the timing of everything couldn’t be more perfect. I am so happy he could experience that with me before he passed and so happy he gave me the opportunity to have the dreamiest wedding I could ever imagine!
More special moments included getting ready with my mom and mother in law and having my friends pop in there to say hi. I loved that whole process! My makeup artist, April brought her fiancé Nova and they were so much fun to be around as well. This really helped ease my nerves because they were so much fun! And Nova took a ton of photos of us getting ready and snuck over to Justin’s room to document him getting ready. What a blessing that was and not expected!

Advice for Other Couples
Plan way earlier than you think you need! For the day itself, just try to be as present as possible and if you can, take a moment to just stop and look around to take it all in. You will be in the wedding tornado, which is a blast but a whirlwind!

Biggest Surprise
I think having one of my best friends, Aimee put all these special touches in the mix as a surprise! She bought the initials like I mentioned earlier but also brought an adorable “just married” banner that you can see in one of our photos and hung it on our hotel room balcony. She went around at our rehearsal dinner and took photos of everyone and made an awesome scrap book for us with the photos. She also sneakily had everyone write down relationship advice for us for certain milestones like 1 year anniversary, 5 year and so on and put those all in separate envelopes that we open on those specific anniversary dates. She surprised us with all these extra fun goodies that made it all that more special!