ft myers florida wedding Archives • Coastal Bride

With much of their love story spent at the beach, Jessica and Theo sought to create a wedding that reflected the aspects of the coast they love so much. Driftwood, sea glass, coral, and gold oyster shells, are just a few of the coastal details they included in their wedding day. As a couple that loves to host, their wedding included a weekend full of events that gave guests a welcome experience. Kaitlyn Blake Photography captured Jessica and Theo’s wedding at the White Orchid at Oasis in Fort Myers, FL to perfection and we are excited to share it with you below.
How did you meet? Theo and I met at the veterinarians office. I was there supporting a dog of mine who since passed away, while he was taking *our* dog Cooper to his first vet appointment! This was in the Washington DC metropolitan area back in 2015.What is your proposal story? Theo and I had been apart for almost 8 months because of his Army training. Letter writing, infrequent visits, phone calls, and a FaceTime here and there was the norm for us.

While we were apart, Theo and I always talked about our “perfect date”. For us, that meant being on the beach watching the sunset in Captiva Island, FL. For months we talked about this perfect date and soon enough it became a reality.

On December 23, 2016, after a nice boat ride and lunch in Fort Myers Beach; Theo and I decided to drive to Captiva for our “perfect date”. With the windows down and perfect music to set the mood, we cruised over the bridge and headed into absolute paradise. Once we reached the edge of the island, we parked and walked along the beach to pick the perfect spot. We spread out our blanket and popped open a bottle of champagne to watch the beautiful undisturbed sun set. It was sheer bliss.

Relaxing, catching up, and reminiscing over things we did in elementary school, Theo suggested we get up and look for seashells. Captiva Island is known for its pristine shells so this wasn’t uncommon. As we were at the waters edge looking around, Theo tapped me on the shoulder and dropped to one knee and asked for my hand in marriage.

Needless to say, the “perfect date” exceeded all expectations.Tell us a little bit about your wedding: Theo is in the army and for us, it’s almost impossible to plan trips in advance. I can’t tell you the amount of times, we’ve missed birthdays, holidays, or cancelled trips due to army obligations. There is always uncertainty so for our wedding it was extremely important that it took place during a time that he was guaranteed off, which was thanksgiving. Because our wedding was essentially a “destination wedding” we wanted to have a weeks worth of activities planned for our guests. Our events included a traditional thanksgiving party at our beach house, my bridal shower, a casual thanksgiving party on the beach, rehearsal dinner, and of course the wedding. We love to entertain, have dinner parties, and host other social events so we wanted our wedding to be an extension of this! This was the most important aspect for us in regards to planning the wedding.Our wedding took place in an old Florida style home on the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers, FL. We both wanted the wedding to reflect our lifestyle, which was our love of natural and everything “beach related”. One of our favorite places in Florida is Sanibel and Captiva Island, so we wanted the wedding to reflect the natural landscape there. Cool tones, hues of blues, peach, ivory, gold, and mint. Our tablescape featured driftwood, sea glass, crusts with garden roses, gold painted oyster shell name cards, faux corals, lanterns and more.I also want to add a shout out for our photographer Kaitlyn Blake Photography. Kaitlyn and I met, because I was her personal trainer, who turned into our wedding photographer and now a dear friend. We did not have a planner for this wedding but Kaitlyn would be there for me during our sweaty gym sessions, listening to my dreams, offering advice, collecting oyster shells and so much more. She is so nice, kind, personable, and made everyone feel comfortable. We felt like supermodels being photographed by her! I know everyone brags about their photographer, but Kaitlyn truly is one of a kind. It truly was the wedding of our dreams!