Fancy Free Nursery in Tampa, Florida, Provided a Plant-Filled Backdrop for This Coral-Hued Wedding

Ariel and Kyle wanted their guests to depart the wedding "and say to themselves 'that was so them!' We wanted our day to be unique, fun and different with tons of personal and special touches that everyone would remember," Ariel says. "We knew we wanted to have our ceremony at Fancy Free Nursery, surrounded by plants and greenery, so it kind of started there. Ceremony at Fancy Free, cocktail hour at Foundation Coffee and reception at CAVU. All the spaces were right next to each other which made each transition effortless. I would say the overall theme had a boho/retro/chic/plant vibe to it with the disco balls, burnt orange, coral and cream hues throughout."

Since Kyle is Filipino and Ariel is Jewish, it was important to both of them to incorporate their heritage into the wedding day. "For the Jewish traditions, we used both of my brother's tallits to hang over the copper chuppah. Kyle also broke the glass at the end of the ceremony which he was looking forward to doing. It gave the ceremony a final 'hooray!' at the end which led right into the celebration of being married," says Ariel. "And we got to go up in the chairs during the reception to Hava Nigila which immediately got everyone to the dance floor to join. For the Filipino traditions, we did a candle, veil, cord and coin ceremony where all of his cousins came up to perform," Ariel shares. 

Beyond incorporating their heritage, the couple added even more personalization to the Tampa, Florida, wedding. To start the day, Ariel's older brother officiated the ceremony. "He kept it short and sweet like we wanted but made sure to add a good mixture of humor and sentiment," Ariel says. Beyond officiating the wedding, Ariel's brother also drew portraits of the couple that were incorporated into the wedding design. The image was put on a "black and white card on each guest's plate that said 'The Catabays Est. 2020.' The card also acted as something our guests could take home with them to remember our wedding since everyone seemed to love them!" 

Although the couple's ceremony décor was anchored by their chuppah, designing the rest of the wedding celebration was a little more tricky. "The hard part was figuring out the décor in my head for the reception. CAVU was just a blank canvas so the options were limitless but once I knew we could hang a giant disco ball from the rafters, the rest kind of went from there. I also knew we wanted wooden long tables for our guests to sit at and an epic sweetheart table for me and Kyle. At the sweetheart table, we used two big peacock chairs from Fancy Free in addition to the copper chuppah with the tallits from the ceremony. To make it more festive, we got a custom neon sign to hang on the chuppah that said 'k+a.' The table was surrounded by beautiful candle sticks from Etsy and smaller disco balls. All in all, I think the décor was spot on from the vision in my head and I couldn't of asked for a more stunning space," says Ariel. 

Looking back on the wedding day, Ariel recalls how her and Kyle's vision and hard work "came together into that single space and it was BEYOND BEAUTIFUL. I think for me mostly I was just so joyful that every detail was perfectly executed how I imagined in my head. We were so excited for our guests to see the space we created for them to dance the night away!"