~ The Details ~

Venue: Jennifer and Claude exchanged vows in the backyard of a friend’s private home in the beautiful historic district in Ocala. What an incredibly magical place to exchange vows! If I could plan my wedding all over again, this is the setting I would choose in a heartbeat…

Catering/Cake: Cindy Dinges By Decadent
1730 Ne 50th Ave, Ocala, FL 34470-2123
Contact Phone: (352) 236-7668

I had to get a little bit of that flare going on here!

The beauty of this home really needs no words! And this is Jennifer’s daughter…she was the flower girl and did an amazing job.

Jennifer’s gown was the prefect mix of classic and modern detailing.

Jennifer and her daughter waiting….

This wedding REALLY made me long for some real black and white infrared film. I love the ethereal and magical feeling of these images…

In love and married!

What’s not to love about the scenery here! Look up or down or around and you have something beautiful staring back at you. And look at Jennifer’s beautiful bouquet. So fresh!

In a sea of ferns….

The first image below is my favorite of the day…..

A beautiful setting….

I don’t know what to say about the brunch served other than it was incredibly delicious. I’ve had the pleasure of eating at a lot of fine establishments during my career, and I don’t usually say this very often, but this was one of the best catered events I’ve ever tasted. It was our first brunch and Cindy Dinges totally outdid herself. I hear that she is a top favorite with the locals and we could totally taste why! Yes, that is Rum-soaked pineapple and true Southern French toast with a caramel sauce.

Jennifer’s favors were dark-chocolate covered expresso beans (yum yum)! And for the centerpieces? Beautiful vintage green glass bottles looking fabulous in the Florida sun!

You can’t help but to be always looking up into the sky here…..

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and congratulations to Jennifer and Claude and their family. It truly was a perfect day!

This is a shot of Jennifer and Claude enjoying a kiss during the brunch. Everything from Jennifer’s preparations to their last goodbye was held in the lovely and magical backyard of this historic home in Ocala. Come back again soon…I’ll be posting more images from their special day and hopefully a bit of history on the house!

Our wedding was set for Saturday morning so after our meeting with our bride Friday evening, we set out to explore before heading to our hotel for the night. Enamored with the venue for our wedding, we walked around the historic district whose perfectly manicured lawns adorned beautifully restored historic homes with character, personality and colorful history.

Naples is relatively new and the historic district in Naples certainly has a different look and feel than the historic district in Ocala. I found that the beauty of Ocala is the kiss of Southern style abundant everywhere. Beautiful old and sinewy Oak trees, covered in Spanish moss elegantly sway in the cool air here. They are so romantic and really transform the scene tremendously. I’ve seen some of these trees around Naples as well. A good friend of mine has a backyard full of them, right here in Naples.

Back to Ocala, the roads follow rolling hills. A quick drive out and you are in pastureland. The greenest velvety grass covers the hills that roll, one after the other. Beautiful horses, of all colors and shapes dot the landscape. It’s a horse lover’s paradise. And after a bit of time in Ocala, you can see that the city revolves around horses. We came to find out that Ocala is considered a serious center for thoroughbreds that began in the 1940’s, calling itself the horse capital of the world! Several Kentucky Derby winners have come out of Ocala and the penchant for anything horse here is strong!

Unfortunately, and as it is with the rest of the world, the future of the industry there is in question. Urban sprawl is threatening to take away the rolling pastures, which the horses require. Apparently, Marion County is becoming very popular, land prices are going up, and developers are flocking in. The city has offered no incentives for farmers to hold on to their land and continue to raise horses. So, what’s to keep farmers in the area when a developer offers them a lot of money? It’s sad really but just another example of what’s wrong with this world.

On a lighter note, since Ali has fallen in love with riding, Ocala took on a new significance to us. We will be visiting Ocala much more now and keeping an eye out for horses. She’s already mentioned (more than once I might add) that she wishes she had her own horse. If she’s serious about, we would certainly do our best to accommodate her wishes and Ocala seems like a great place to learn all about the sport and the animals.

So, if you are looking for a wonderful place to visit, see some different scenery and look at some magnificent horses, definitely check out Ocala!

And a very special thank you to Karla Fountain, of Karla Fountain Photography in Orlando. She referred us to Jennifer and Claude, the bride and groom we photographed in Ocala (teasers very soon)! Thanks for getting us up to Ocala!

And what blogtrip post wouldn’t be complete without eye candy? Here they are!

Here are a few of our favorite shots of the magnificent trees we encountered while on our journey.

What would a blogpost be without a little flare love?

This was the most incredible tree I have ever seen! It sat directly next to the house and must have been 10 feet wide at the base! What an incredible tree. It’s about 75 years old!

These are some of the trees that grace the front yard.

Working our way to downtown square, we couldn’t resist grabbing some detail shots along the way.

Grabbed this shot of a tiny toddler folding chair in this entrance way.

There are some totally cool and unique stores here. These are just a couple of the windows that caught our eyes.

A bit of architectural detail.

I absolutely love this shot. Perfect backdrop for a portrait, too!

This is the fabulous little gem of a theatre, called the Marion Theatre. This beautiful art deco structure was built September 11, 1941. It closed in the mid-1970’s as a movie theatre and stood empty for 13 years. The exterior is in its original state and looks absolutely fantastic. The interior has been restored to a nostalgic 1940’s style and feel. Visit the Marion’s history page here if you’d like to learn more about the theatre.

If you’d like to take a look at how the Marion theater looked like during its grand opening in 1941, take a look at this link! The Marion Theatre opened on September 11th, 1941, with a seating capacity of 800. “Aloma of the South Seas”, starring Dorothy Lamour was the feature!

Four of the loveliest hand-painted horses adorn the downtown square. This one was our favorite because of the butterfly on his face. We immediately thought of Ali, who loves butterflies and horses. If you’d like to see a whole bunch of images of painted horses all throughout Ocala, make sure to visit this link!

Last but certainly not least, this little gem caught our eyes the moment we passed it. It’s Ocala’s own, Rockiversity, The Music School! I love the Jimi Hendrix mural on the wall. We definitely wanted to stop in and visit, but it wasn’t open during our trip. Check their site out here! They have a great mission to teach music to all ages in a fun and creative way!