Data can tell you a lot. For example—data tells us weddings are expensive. The Knot.com reveals the average wedding ceremony and reception in 2023 cost $35,000! Data unveils new trends, like the fact that 91 percent of wedding planning is now done online. And data shows that some traditions remain strong, including a first dance between a groom and bride on their big day, which 92 percent of surveyed couples say they did.

What data does not tell us are the inside jokes friends use to craft the fail-proof after-party, the perfect way to write vows or a precise blend of elements that go together just right for a ceremony—because every person, every couple and every wedding day is different.

Lakeland is filled with stunning venues, extraordinary vendors and experienced photographers for couples planning their celebration, and here are some of our favorite Real Weddings that took place around the Swan City in recent years.

“We did a first touch...and I was so emotional, I was crying reading our private vows.”

— Jane-Anne Phelan

Ryan & Zoe

February 24, 2024

PHOTOGRAPHED BY DUSTIN PRICKETT

This is a story about how Ryan and Zoe Harper had a magical wedding in Ryan’s parents backyard, but it’s also a story that serves as a reminder that yes, sometimes friends do know best.

Zoe became fast friends in 2022 with Cat Kirkland through the Summer Leadership Program put on by the Lakeland Economic Development Council. Cat said she knew a guy Zoe had to meet, and Sam Dickman, the roommate of “this guy,” did a little pre-first date screening for his buddy when he ran into Zoe downtown. He approved.

Soon after, Ryan and Zoe went on a date to Scarpa’s Italian, Ryan proposed to her in his parents backyard on September 23, 2023, and five months later they hosted a modern Western themed celebration with more than 140 guests in that exact location.

Ryan, a graduate of LCS who works for Land South Realty, the company owned by his father Rob, had grown up at the home located in CanterWood in Mulberry, and his older brother and sister-in-law were married there as well. So it’s fitting that one of Zoe’s favorite moments that she planned from the ground up—with significant help from the couple’s wedding planner Nicolette—was a snapshot of the family.

The couple’s nieces, Harper, 5, and Marley, 2, were walking down the aisle as flower girls when something caught Marley’s attention.

“We had a violinist playing, and she decided to stop at the violinist, drop her flower girl basket, drop everything and just start twirling, showing everyone her ballerina skills,” Zoe recalls. “Harper was like, ‘Oh my goodness, my little sister is not doing what she’s supposed to be doing’...so she just kept going and left Marley.”

The celebration was festive with a live band, plenty of dancing and a night cap that included fireworks. The food and drink was a nod to some of Lakeland’s finest.

The couple brought in Palace Pizza for catering, hired Frankly Bartending for the drinks and had Granger & Sons grilling steaks.

“He was literally cooking 'em while we were setting up the wedding and going down the aisle. So they were fresh and everybody complimented the kabobs they made.”

That’s so Lakeland, just like Ryan and Zoe.

“We had a violinist playing, and she decided to stop at the violinist, drop her flower girl basket, drop everything and just start twirling, showing everyone her ballerina skills,” Zoe recalls. “Harper was like, ‘Oh my goodness, my little sister is not doing what she’s supposed to be doing’...so she just kept going and left Marley.”

COORDINATOR & CAKE | NICOLETTE ALLYS EVENTS

BAND | SILKEE SMOOVE

VIOLINIST | LARON HEARST

CHAIRS | A CHAIR AFFAIR

TENT | UNDER ONE TENT

FOOD | GRANGER & SONS BBQ AND PALACE PIZZA

BARTENDING | FRANKLY BARTENDING

DRESS | ESSENCE OF AUSTRALIA FROM THE BRIDAL STUDIO OF TAMPA BAY

Wyatt & Jessica

February 4, 2024

PHOTOGRAPHED BY MADI ELIZABETH

It was perfect that on January 27 The Lakeland Country Club hosted a grandiose centennial celebration, because just eight days later a Lakeland couple whose goal was to throw a “Roaring Twenties” style party were married in the same building.

“Everything was black and gold and elegant, and we had lots of pearl accents on everything,” Jessica Thomas says. “Our photo booth had Gatsby themed props like little fans and flat caps and all these cute sayings…and my sister printed these stickers that were in art deco form that had different quotes from the Great Gatsby about love and romance.”

Jessica and Wyatt’s love and romance started out in their home state of Oregon right before the pandemic lockdown, and although the couple moved to Florida in 2022, Jessica’s engagement ring will forever point back to the couple’s origin story with an Oregon sunstone at the center of it.

Jessica said she and Wyatt were up for adventure, and liked the prospects of living in Florida. The thing that made Lakeland a desirable location was more than just the size of the city or the culture of it—it was the fact an Aveda Co-Brand Concept Salon, Venue Salon, was here and she was an Aveda-certified stylist.

The decision to move to Lakeland and earn a position at Venue Salon under the tutelage of Patricia Uiterwyk was doubly beneficial for the Thomas because Uiterwyk was able to utilize her membership at The Lakeland Country Club to get them access to the venue for their special day.

Jessica said the goal for the couple’s wedding was to create a fun themed atmosphere that paid homage to the music, the aesthetics and the social lore of the 1920s—and according to the bride, the result was picture perfect.

She said the support of so many friends and families made the planning and execution of the event fairly easy and it helped her achieve her goal of being “the opposite of a bridezilla.”

One of the couple’s most cherished moments from the wedding was their intimate personal vows that they shared, with Wyatt’s stepdad officiating the ceremony.

While they didn’t share their vows to go in print, it’s a fun fact that the couple first crossed paths at a gymnastics club out West, where Wyatt was training and Jessica was coaching young children.

“Everything was black and gold and elegant, and we had lots of pearl accents on everything...my sister printed these stickers that were in art deco form that had different quotes from the Great Gatsby about love and romance.”

VENUE & CATERING | LAKELAND COUNTRY CLUB

DJ | GRANGERTAINMENT

HAIR & MAKEUP | VENUE SALON & SPA

PHOTOGRAPHY | MADISEN ELIZABETH

PHOTOBOOTH | THE GALA PHOTOBOOTH

DESSERTS | MARY DUCKWORTH

Mario & Melaina

February 24, 2024

PHOTOGRAPHED BY EMILY PLANK

When a big white van rolled up outside the Junior League Building along Lake Morton, members of Melaina and Mario Perez’s wedding party frantically waved the driver around to the back so they would remain incognito.

Mario, whose parents are U.S. citizens who immigrated from Mexico, loves mariachi bands. Melaina had long wanted to include the ensemble of musicians to their wedding, but wasn’t sure they had the budget to make it happen. One of Mario’s groomsmen caught wind of that desire and helped her make it a reality, as a complete surprise to his friend.

“It was a surprise and made for a really magical moment,” says Mario. “And I know my parents really loved it, and my parents already loved Melaina, but if they weren’t already, they fell in love with her after that.”

More than 100 people gathered from as far south as Mexico and as far north as Canada for a wedding set in what the couple calls the quintessential Lakeland spot.

“It is just beautiful….Lake Morton is just so Lakeland—that's the Lakeland spot, you know? I mean, that's where the Swans live!” Melaina says.

At the time, Melaina was a board member for The Junior League of Greater Lakeland, meaning she was able to rent the venue at a greatly discounted rate.

The venue, sometimes also referred to as the SOROSIS building, was also ideal because the couple’s goal was to throw a gigantic party, and that mission was accomplished because the ceremony and reception all took place there.

“We had family staying downtown at The Terrace Hotel so it was just like, okay, if you have a lot of drinks you can just walk back…and that was the vibe,” Melaina recalls. “There were some photos, I think, of us doing tequila shots. It was a party. It was so much fun.”

The couple made sure to take their time enjoying the delectable cuisine provided by Banquet61, and Melaina noted how happy they were with the photo booth experience from Enchanting Entertainment.

The party was the coronation for a couple who met as co-workers at QGiv and started dating just before the pandemic. Mario was born in Lake Wales, graduated from Bartow High School IB, and is a Florida Southern College alum.

Melaina grew up in the Midwest and relocated to Lakeland in 2017 for a job at Florida Southern College. The couple relocated to a small town outside Chattanooga, Tenn. last year but is so grateful for how their wedding turned out in the heart of Lakeland—especially Mario, who happily recalls beginning and ending the day with his friends at Revival.

“[The mariachi band] was a surprise and made for a really magical moment,” says Mario. “And I know my parents really loved it, and my parents already loved Melaina, but if they weren’t already, they fell in love with her after that.”

VENUE | JUNIOR LEAGUE OF GREATER LAKELAND BUILDING

PHOTOGRAPHER | EMILY PLANK

CATERING | BANQUET61

CAKE | SUGAR AND SLICE

GROOM'S SUIT | INDOCHINO

DRESS | WHITE CLOSET BRIDAL (TAMPA)

LINENS, CHAIRS, TABLE SETTINGS | A CHAIR AFFAIR

COORDINATOR | HOLLY PIERSON

FLOWERS | BLOOM SHAKALAKA

DJ | ENCHANTING ENTERTAINMENT

MARIACHI BAND | MARIACHI LOS VIAJEROS

Josh & Jane Anne

May 6, 2023

PHOTOGRAPHED BY CARMELA BLACKWELL

Josh and Jane-Anne Phelan love the outdoors. So much so that during the pandemic the Polk County natives installed a platform bed in the back of their Subaru and hit the road for 72 days to visit national parks and quintessential landmarks across the country.

“There were [times] where we didn't shower for eight days in a row because we had to pay $20 every time we would shower,” Jane-Anne reminisces. “We were basically living out of a car in a cramped space, but I think it made us strong and we didn’t have that many fights…it was definitely life changing to see the country together.

It’s no surprise that Josh—who sat behind Jane-Anne in world history class at Bartow High School before the 2018 IB graduates became lunch pals that just never stopped talking to each other—proposed to his love at Garrapata Beach on the Big Sur coast about half way through their cross country trek.

And the couple is forever grateful that Lakeland’s latest and largest outdoor gem, Bonnet Springs Park, opened in 2022 with a distinctive event space that accommodates weddings well.

“I really wanted an outdoor wedding in a field, but having that in Florida is kind of impossible,” Jane-Anne says with a laugh. “We really liked how Bonnet Springs had the big windows and the park made it feel like you were outside, even though you were inside.”

The primary colors for their wedding were very earthy: terracotta, sage, eucalyptus and light pink. The outdoor aisleway was lined with everything from cactuses to lavender, and photographer Carmela Blackwell captured shots of the couple and their wedding party in front of a picturesque greenhouse.

One of the bride's favorite memories from the wedding was when the couple did their "first touch" and privately read their vows to each other while locking hands with their arms draped around the corner of a building.

"It was so emotional, I was crying reading our vows," Jane-Anne recalls. "After that I was like, OK, I can't do this, I have to give him a hug. But he still didn't see me."