Garcia, Griener wedding

At the beautiful Venue WaterColor Inn and Resort in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida Kellie Lynn Garcia and Kent Paul Griener were joined in holy matrimony on the 28th of February 2009.

    Their story reads like one from the pages of a popular Nora Roberts Novel. Having known each other for years, Kellie and Kent were both from New Orleans, LA; however, it would take a summer vacation to the snowy white beaches of Florida to bring them together. While vacationing, the two met up to watch the popular Blue Angels perform. They began spending a lot of time together and hanging out at the beach, and before long they were inseparable. Realizing that this was more than a summer romance, the two decided to continue their relationship once they got home to see where it could lead.

Where it led them was to New York City in December of 2007. The city was magical as they took a carriage ride through Central Park and then went ice skating. As they began to leave, with the visual backdrop of the ice skating rink behind them and the city lights before them, Kent knelt down in a false attempt to tie his shoe and expressed his love for her and asked… “Would you be my wife?” With the acceptance of his proposal, the two would once again find their way back to the majestic beaches of Florida that had inspired it all. Now with the area decided upon; Kellie turned to Em Wood, the on site wedding planner for WaterColor Resorts and Carla Thomas, WaterColor’s Resort Sales Manager in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida to help plan her dream wedding. The resort staff along with Em and Carla worked diligently with Kellie and Kent to insure them that their wedding would be perfect. Everything down to the smallest detail was overseen by the prestigious people of WaterColor’s Resort.

Kellie looked elegant in her Spanish silk Alvina Valenta dress from his couture collection. It was strapless with folds at the waist that carried around to the back and crisscrossed. Pearl buttons streamed down the side of the dress and she wore a layered veil that hung past her waist. The bridesmaids wore a short, midnight blue, shaved silk strapless dress with silver shoes, and pearl necklace and earrings. While the groomsmen wore khaki pants from Banana Republic and white shirts from the Gap with brown flip flops. Kent was stylish in a khaki Nautica suit and blue and white tie with a white shirt from Banana Republic matched brown flip flops.

Their memories were captured by a very talented and well know photographer to the Gulf Coast area, Genya Garrett from Vue Photography. The lawn on the WaterColor Resort was colorfully decorated with flowers, from Joy Segno of Destin Floral Design, in a tropical paradise arrangement. Beautiful colors adorned the tables in a glass vase full of birds of paradise, red ginger, yellow lilies, roses, dendrobium orchids and green hypericum berries.
 
The ceremony was performed while 100 guests witnessed Kellie and Kent saying aloud the vows they had written while a saxophonist played Avia Maria. After the ceremony everyone made their way to the reception that was tented with white drapes and accented with white lights provided by WaterColor’s Resort. Inside the top displayed a starlight persona with twinkling lights intertwined in the drapes and lanterns hanging throughout.
   
WaterColor Inn & Resort’s Em Wood and Carla Thomas organized the reception and catering. The guest enjoyed cocktail hour with a raw bar of sushi rolls, Apalachicola Oysters, gulf shrimp, stone crab claws and array of sauces. Later everyone feasted on Whitaker’s garden salad with green goddess dressing, grilled Yukon potatoes with roasted shallot and chive aioli and royal red shrimp risotto. Grilled and sliced filet tenderloin with salsa verde and homemade worchestchire sauce, roasted black grouper with a green tomato chow chow and grilled seasonal vegetables.

At the end of a long evening of dancing to a steel drum band, Kellie and Kent retreated up to their stunning rotunda suite at the WaterColor Inn. After their nights stay the couple honeymooned in Key West on a 7 day 6 night adventure of snorkeling, kayaking, and sailing, before returning home to settle into the real world. They now reside in Metairie, LA and are enjoying life as newlyweds.