Waterfront Wedding | Melissa & Daniel

As soon as we met with Daniel & Melissa I knew their wedding day would be intentional and full of thoughfull planning. Their Tavares Pavilion waterfront wedding included their closest family and friends and tons of personal details carefully thought out by the bride and groom. One of our favorite details was the amazing, Chillula Band. Music was important to these two, especially since Daniel is a music director! They truly crafted their day to fit them and we love that!

Bride Tip:

These gorgeous bridesmaids dresses were from Azazie. Melissa said:

Highly recommend. This online store allows you to pick 3 dresses and just pay $10 each to have them sent to you for a week so you can see them in person and have your bridesmaids try them on.”

The couple shared an emotional first touch which was one of their favorite parts of the day.

We stood on either side of a door, read 5 sentences of why we loved each other, and exchanged gifts. Listening to my husband emotionally read what I wrote to him meant a lot to me. My husband lost both his parents years ago so it was very important that we somehow recognized them throughout the day. It started with my wedding gift to my husband. I got him cufflinks with his mom’s initials on one and his dad’s on the other to make sure he knew that his parents were with him that day. For the ceremony we left two open chairs and I took two flowers from my bouquet and placed one on each chair at the beginning of the ceremony to honor them. I am having them preserved in a shadow box se we can keep them forever. Also, instead of having a mother/son dance, my husband danced with his sister to a song by their mother’s favorite singer.

Second kiss is our favorite ;)

Plenty of time was built into the timeline for couple portraits and we were able to get a wide variety for Daniel and Melissa! This is why it’s so important to stay on time and having coordinator helps immensly. Katie Dallas from At Last Weddings kept the day flowing so smoothly. Melissa said:

I can’t say enough about how much of a help Katie was. Even though I only hired At Last for day of coordination I received emails once a month every month starting a year out with a list of everything I needed to do each month. The day of the wedding went very smoothly and we were ahead of schedule the whole day. I didn’t have to worry about anything.

We love the way Daniel looks at Melissa.

The Chilula Band kept the dance floor full all night long!

Melissa’s advice for couples planning their wedding:

It’s never too early to start planning. The more you do ahead of time the less you have to worry about closer to the wedding. I was able to enjoy the process because I planned ahead and didn’t wait until the last minute to get things done. Also, I highly recommend choosing vendors that know your venue and have done multiple weddings there, especially the photographer and coordinator. That really helped the wedding run smoothly and the photographer knowing all the good places to take photos was definitely a plus.

Thank you both for inviting us to capture your thoughtfully planned wedding. We know your marriage will be as beautiful as your wedding was!

– ♥ The SFP Team