To be entirely honest, I can't say that it was the perfect day.  There were quite a few family issues that significantly messed things up.  My paternal grandmother who I was very close to passed away three weeks before the wedding, and then my grandfather decided not to come because he was in grief.  My aunt and her family didn't attend either, partly because they had missed a lot of work and school for my grandmother's death, and partly because they are embroiled in a battle with my father over my grandmother's will.  In addition, my two-year-old half-brother ran around the front of our ceremony space for the entire 30 minute ceremony and my father and step-mother never made any move to stop him.

SO, asides from all of that negative stuff, the wedding day went pretty well.



Dress - A+
I got my dress from La France in Ybor City, Tampa.  The staff there is great and their seamstress was able to hack off about 8 inches of dress to fit my 5' frame.  All of the guests liked that my dress was "different," and I had a few people who couldn't stop touching it.

Tuxes - A
The tuxes were from Sacino's, and we didn't have any problems with them at all.  They were able to fix our order when my dad decided he wanted to wear his own tux from 1995 that didn't fit him at all (ha), and the tuxes came in clean and with all of the correct measurements.

Make-Up - A+
My make-up and my bridesmaids' make-up was done by Sarah Jane Luria.  Sarah is an absolute sweetheart, and she helped me get just the look I wanted.  She is also very gentle, and that probably sounds like an odd thing to praise in a make-up artist, but it made all the difference for me.  I am usually very fidgety when it comes to putting make up on -- other people that I had trial-runs with actually had the nerve to tell me that I was "hopeless."   Sarah was able to do all of my eye make-up without ever making me the least bit uncomfortable.  She was a very relaxing person to have around on a morning when I was already nervous to begin with.



Ceremony Venue - A
We had our ceremony at the Embassy Suites near USF.  The staff was unbelievably friendly and eager to help us with whatever we needed. 

Officiant - C+
Our officiant was Rev. Virginia Bishop.  She was able to create a wonderful ceremony for us, but she kept saying my name wrong!  I'm trying not to dwell on it, of course, but... well, frankly, I'm annoyed.  I go by Mia.  Half the time she'd say it "Me-a," which is how I pronounce it, but the other times she'd say "My-a."  All the important times -- before the vows, during the candle ceremony, during the pronouncement at the end.  Sigh.

Music - A+++
Our DJ was Shawn Bates, booked through Breezin' entertainment.  He was *great* and I'd highly recommend him to pretty much anyone.  Our "prelude" music was stuff like Death Cab for Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" and Dave Matthew's "Crash Into Me."  It threw him at first, but he went ahead and played it and it made me really happy to hear the wedding playlist that has been sitting on my iTunes for months finally being played!
During the reception, we wanted to keep with a jazzy/Hispanic theme, and he was able to compliment the few songs I had selected perfectly.  He made sure that he had every single song I had selected on my list -- many which I never thought he'd be able to find.  (Like "Eddie's Theme" from the Roger Rabbit soundtrack.  Really, how many people have that on their playlists?  And yet he found it and played it just in time for the cake cutting!)  He kept the "mood" of the evening moving along perfectly, changing the music a little as we moved from cocktails, through dinner, to desert. 
I reminded him that we didn't want any "Electric Slide" or "Chicken Dance" type songs, and he reassured me that if anyone asked he'd say he hadn't even heard of the Chicken Dance. :)  We also didn't want a big DJ presence -- not many announcements or anything like that, and he kept a low-key profile the entire evening.
The other great moment was that my fiance and I had decided not to do any formal dances because we are A) shy and B) really bad dancers.  But we had always joked that we wanted our first dance to be to Louis Jordan's "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby."  At the end of the night, when the room was empty and we were heading out, Shawn just HAPPENED to play that song.  It was a great stroke of luck, and my husband and I danced to it in the empty room.



Flowers - B+
We got our flowers from Mario at Ybor island Flowers.  We had problems getting a contract in because we contacted him around Thanksgiving and then Christmas, but other than that, he was great.  The flowers held up very well, and my gardenias smelled beautiful.  The only other big problem was that instead of two groomsman bouts., we somehow ended up with one that had two calla lillies that were awkwardly taped together. (?)  Thankfully, one of my friends was able to quickly separate them and use the tape to patch them up, so the crisis was averted.

Reception Venue & Food - A++
Our reception took place at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, Tampa.  The restaurant is 103 years old, and it is absolutely beautiful.  The food was delicious -- we had a buffet dinner and several people were "caught" on second and third trips down the line. :)  Their servers were excellent, too -- they made sure to check on me and the groom to see if we needed anything, and even though they were busy trying to run around and help serve 45 people, they always made sure to stop if I had a question or request.  The entire dining room gave the staff a round of applause after dinner -- those guys were great!  Also, their sangria is delicious.  Our menu for the evening was:
fruit & cheese display
mini beef empanadas (passed by waiter)
white rice
black beans
fried plantains
mixed vegetables
cuban bread & butter
pollo salteado -- a sauteed chicken dish
puerco a la Cubana -- Cuban-style pork -- made with a sour orange marinade and garlic, among other things
mahi mahi Cayo Hueso - Key West style fish -- guest favorite from everyone I talked to
flan
guava cheesecake



Cake & Cookies - A+
Chocolate Pi was awesome.  We were their first Pi Day wedding, and their cake was absolutely delicious!  They matched out wedding colors well, and the sugar gardenias looked like the real deal.  Everyone was very impressed with both the look and taste of the cake.  We had two flavors: key lime cake with key lime/strawberry creme and fresh strawberries, and vanilla cake with mango, pineapple and passionfruit.  I had a slice of each. Unfortunately for me I dropped the top tier of cake before we could get it home (oops!) but we weren't planning on freezing it anyway, so no big deal there.



Photography - A (so far!)
Our photographer is Marcia Simmons.  Marcia was relaxed yet professional the day of the wedding -- it felt like I had friend behind the camera.  Of course, I haven't gotten the pictures back yet, but I'm pretty sure she did an awesome job.