Natalie and Daniel are New Yorkers but love spending time down in Naples, Florida where Daniel’s family resides on the private estate of the Kensington Golf and Country Club. Friday night they had an informal welcome party at Daniel’s parent’s home, and they gave out their gifts to their bridal party: purple Chuck Taylor sneakers with customized embroidered nicknames for all of the groomsmen. Picture frames and custom made necklaces and earrings from Unique Kreations were gifted to the bridesmaids.
On the wedding day, Natalie and her bridesmaids got gorgeous at The Ritz Carlton Naples Beach Resort. The girls slipped into in their deep violet dresses from Alvina Valenta and Badgley Mischka. The colors of eggplant and orange for the bridesmaid’s bouquets were perfectly autumn themed from 50-Fifty Creative Floral. Gift bags with water, maps and goodies were distributed to the guests from the Wedding Paper Divas. Natalie shimmied into her gorgeous wedding dress from Monique Lhullier with a lovely floral detail on the waist sash, slipped into her fabulous floral Badgley Mischka wedding shoes and a lovely Christian Dior veil and headpiece. Across town Daniel and his men got shined up at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort. About 250 guests gathered poolside at the Kensington Country Club, and Natalie’s eye’s filled with tears as her father walked her down the aisle, and Daniel shed a tear or two as well. When the ceremony ended, the bride and groom did a ‘jumping of the broom’, an African wedding tradition that represents the joining of two families and the couples new home together.
The reception tables were filled with flowers with fall colors of eggplant, sage green, chocolate brown and orange from 50-Fifty Creative Floral. The couple’s first dance was to Eric Benet and Tamia’s “Spend My Life with You”. Their wedding cake from Dominique’s Couture Cakes was magnificent (and delicious with the couple’s favorite red velvet on the inside), with a lovely jeweled initial cake topper as a finishing touch to look like a piece of antique jewelry. As a surprise to their guests and a nod to Natalie’s heritage (her father is Armenian), belly dancers from Gypsy Sugar gyrated and fan-danced to traditional Middle Eastern music. The videography was provided by Captiva Video of Ft Myers. The couple and guests got low, low, low on the dance floor and shimmied to hip hop and classic r&b until midnight. Milda Vaivada, (Soiree), wedding planner from Miami did an excellent job orchestrating the fete. Look for Natalie and Daniel’s wedding featured in the upcoming spring 2011 issue of Inside Weddings magazine! Click on the image above to see their Love Story show.
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