Nikki and Taylor’s Wedding on the Beach
Nikki and Taylor didn’t let a change of date get in the way of their dream wedding at Sundial. By working closely with our team and Catering Sales Manager Lavender, their perfect day was a reality. Find out more about Nikki and Taylor’s story and their memorable wedding on the beach.
How did you meet?
Taylor and I met at the University of New England for our college orientation back in 2013. Soon after developing a friendship and living together as roommates, we realized we actually had something much more than just a friendship. The rest is history! But that’s why we created our very fitting wedding hashtag: #RoommatesToRondeau.
How did she propose?
Taylor proposed to me on Christmas Eve of 2017. We went to a family party where we usually do a Secret Santa gift swap. I was the first to open a gift, and what I unwrapped was a white notebook that read, “Let the wedding planning begin!” I immediately knew what was happening, and locked eyes with Taylor across the room as she came over to me and got down on one knee. Thankfully the whole proposal was recorded because I must have blacked out in the moment from excitement and couldn’t remember anything other than yelling “YES!” All of Taylor’s family stood up and cheered us on as were finally engaged – something we spoke of often throughout our whole relationship because we both always knew we wanted to be with one another forever.
Describe your wedding style:
Our wedding style was very tropical. Our main wedding color was a dark teal, and it matched up perfectly against our tropical greenery and peach/blush flowers.
Our beach ceremony had the aisle lined with palm leaves, leading up to the altar which was covered in tropical plants and flowers – it was beautiful!
Our reception area was on Sundial’s Lace Murex lawn, surrounded by lots of palm trees and plants. We had a long farm table and bamboo chairs to go with our tropical theme. The table was lined with palm leaves and floating candles, making for a very beautiful and elegant setting. We had a very small guest count of only 15 people, so the lawn was the absolute perfect location for an intimate dinner and dance party.
What were some of your favorite details about your wedding?
Some of our favorite details of the wedding were all of the little touches that highlighted our tropical theme. Everything from our wedding welcome sign, to our table place cards and our gift/guest book sign had a tropical design on it. While planning for our wedding, there seemed to always be a recurring leaf that was included on all of our decor, which was a monstera leaf. Taylor and I soon started to consider this to be our main symbol for the wedding, and we ended up getting matching tattoos on our wrists because we loved it so much. I think looking back, Taylor and I loved just how well everything matched and it felt so much like “us” everywhere. The furniture/tables and decor Sundial offered us was perfect and it was exactly what we had envisioned for our dream wedding.
What were some memorable moments from your wedding day?
The most memorable moment for me on our wedding day was my first look with Taylor. This is a moment we talked about often leading up to our wedding day. Taylor is not an overly emotional person and I would always joke with her and say, “If you don’t cry when you see me for the first time I’m going to turn back around!” We would always laugh about it because I think we both knew we would be an emotional mess come the real day. And we absolutely were.
Taylor and I had a moment standing back-to-back before we did the final first look reveal, and Taylor just kept saying “I’m so emotional, I’m already crying and I haven’t even seen her yet!” This moment we finally saw each other was a moment I’ll never forget – I’ve never seen Taylor so happy and I could feel the love from her so strongly. I too was emotional to see her, she looked breathtakingly stunning. This moment was something that was much anticipated for us, and it was better than I could’ve ever imagined!
Why did you choose Sundial as your wedding venue?
We chose Sundial as our wedding venue for a few different reasons. One, because it is in a prime location, on the beach, on beautiful Sanibel Island, and has all different kinds of beautiful areas to be on the wedding day.
Another reason is because of the amazing packages they offer, giving a wide variety of options to choose from to make someone’s dream wedding happen! We liked that there were different options to choose from and how they included pretty much everything you’d need for a wedding, making the wedding planning process that much easier!
And the final reason we decided on Sundial was because of a vacation we had the year before our wedding. We stayed for a few days in October and totally fell in love with the resort and the views and we knew we wanted to say “I do” there!
Would you recommend Sundial Resort to other couples? Why?
Taylor and I would absolutely recommend Sundial Resort to other couples! The catering/event manager we worked with was Lavender, and let me tell you, she is one of the main reasons our wedding turned out to be so perfect! Lavender was so helpful every step of the way, from the beginning process of our wedding planning, all the way up until our actual wedding day when she made our dream wedding possible!
We were expecting inclement weather on our wedding day, but Lavender knew our dream was to have an outdoor wedding. She went out of her way to make sure this happened and provided umbrellas for our ceremony as well as our reception area! Taylor and I got to have our dream outdoor wedding after all.
Sundial was such a beautiful venue, the food was amazing, and we were blown away at all of the kind gestures from everyone at the resort! The fact that Sundial provided almost everything we needed for our big day made everything stress free and flow so smoothly!
What was your experience like having your wedding during COVID times?
Surprisingly stress-free. We did have the unfortunate situation of having to postpone to a later date (we were originally supposed to get married on 4/26/2020), but everyone made it super easy to pick a new date and make sure we would still get everything we wanted. We were confident in the safety measures the resort had taken and knew we would still be able to enjoy our day to the fullest regardless of getting married during a pandemic!
What concerns did you have and was Sundial able to address those?
One of our main concerns was being able to have our wedding outside, since this is something we had envisioned and planned for over a year. Obviously, no one can control the weather, but our catering/event manager Lavender was able to control everything she could to allow us to still have everything outside! Umbrellas were provided, and changes were made to our timeline to avoid the oncoming rain. It meant the world to be able to still have the dream wedding we always planned on, even though the forecast was showing inclement weather.
What, if any, changes did you make to your original plans?
We changed our date due to the pandemic, but other than that we really didn’t have to change much about our plans. The weather held out for us luckily, so we didn’t have to change our ceremony or reception locations, which was amazing! We lost a few of our guests due to everything with COVID, but in the end I think the important people were there and we were lucky to have had the most perfect day.
