From the Bride: We got married at Sunset Key Cottages in Key West, Florida. It is a beautiful private island just off of Key West. It has gorgeous little cottages that look out to the beach and is filled with lush bougainvillea gardens all around. When we got engaged it seemed like a large task to find a great venue for our wedding. I am from Texas and my husband is from the UK but we live in Australia and met 5 years ago in Brazil. We had guests coming from four different countries so finding a “middle ground” that had meaning to us was really important. My family has been vacationing at Sunset Key Cottages since I was a little girl. My parents are Cuban so we love that their culture is so close to Key West. We instantly knew it would be the perfect place for our wedding. It has family history and we loved the idea of giving everyone a vacation to a new place. Sharing a place that we love with everyone we love was a great feeling.
Busy Bees Events, a Florida-based wedding planning and design company, teamed up with a group of talented vendors to create this cosmopolitan beach styled shoot, which showcases a natural glam aesthetic. Here is what Bettina Benizri of Busy Bee Events and J. Morgan Florals had to say about this culturally exotic styled shoot:
“When the new Conrad Hotel opened in Fort Lauderdale Beach, I automatically had a vision of a wedding I wanted to create after seeing the spectacular view of the Atlantic Ocean from the deck. The hotel has a modern understated elegance, and my design was meant to complement that perfectly with touches of the tropical aura that this location exudes. I envisioned a mix of gold spheres, tropical monstera leaves and cascading, delicate white phalaenopsis orchids; so of course, I started to pull the look together with my amazing team of vendors to help bring this vision to life. For the bride and groom, I knew I wanted Doreen and her fiance as I’m working with them to design their wedding in the summer time. They are both from Africa and moved to the states for college. And then they fell in love and stayed, just like me!
With our gorgeous couple from Cameroon Africa, a place that heralds the most exquisite emeralds, our vision was fast to follow. We wanted to show a modern tropical wedding that showcased the couple and the venue rather than distract from them. We used monstera leaves that we painted with gold veins to add personality to them and a touch of glamour, as well as a plethora of white orchids. For the bride’s bouquet, we used a gold hoop as our base and entrusted it with the emerald green leaves and orchids, which created an unexpected twist. The table we used added some height with its tall centerpieces, which drew attention to the landscape’s stunning views and varied, simply lined containers intermixed with hand-painted candles.”
From The Bride: For our wedding, we knew we wanted to create not just a beautiful environment, but an experience as well. While we both consider ourselves to be religious people, we didn’t want our wedding to be completely traditional. Cayne and I have always had our own connections to nature and the ocean, so we knew we would want to incorporate them into our theme. We decided a beach wedding at a private estate, in Islamorada, would be perfect. It was especially perfect because we could host the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, reception and brunch all on one property and all in different places. Since we were getting married on Earth Day, we though we could incorporate my love of plants and fondness of fresh flowers as part of our theme. We even picked our caterer based on our theme; we went with a lady who does farm-to-fork, so everything was natural and fresh. Our color palette was very simple. For our flowers, we went with ivory, subtle blush, pops of burgundy and lush green garland. For the ladies’ attire, we had different shades of ivory, sand and champagne. For the men’s attire, we had different shades of blue, white, and sand/brown. I like to say our theme was “A night of growth, love and nostalgia.”
Charna and Vishal’s Munticultural Wedding was initially planned at The Florida Keys , but the venue was destroyed by hurricane Irma. Although the loved the resort, The Biltmore was their second option, and they just fell in love with the architecture and the history of the place. They knew it was their place from the start!
Shane is from Galway, Ireland and I am actually a south Florida native, having grown up in West Palm Beach. We chose Islamorada for a few reasons–we both have a love of south Florida, where our relationship began and flourished. We thought the Florida Keys would be an ideal location for our wedding, not only because the scenery if so beautiful, but also because it was easily accessible to Julia’s family and friends. We also knew that Shane’s family and friends in Ireland would jump at the chance to take a trip to south Florida and escape the cold and rain of Ireland!
My favorite elements without a doubt was all of the lush greenery. It was so important to me to create that natural feel. I knew strongly that I didn’t want the tropical flower explosion that many beach weddings have. Peggy and her team really put that together in a beautiful way. I also LOOOOOVED my shell chandeliers! It really topped off the bohemian feel that I so strongly resonate with. We have shell chandeliers all over our house!
