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Wedding Ideas for Gator Fans Weddings in Gator Country
Your personal style is reflected in the choices you make each day. The cut of your hair, the colors and fabrics in both your home and your wardrobe, your attitude toward work and leisure, your outgoing or retiring personality, all tell the world who you are. Combining the attitudes and choices of both bride and groom to achieve a blend that represents them well as a couple is a work in progress.
Daily you make choices, what colors make you feel wonderful, what patterns are great for you (plaids, florals, paisley, dots or stripes) and what makes you cringe. For your wedding, you might choose colors that you find in your closet, that of a favorite outfit which truly makes you feel like a million dollars whenever you wear it, or the colors you have chosen for your home or work environment. This is probably not a good time to experiment with a color that you would never otherwise drape over your couch, much less your person. If you haven’t had your “colors” evaluated to determine if you look better in white or ivory, cool or warm shades, now would be the time. A cosmetic specialist (please emphasize the word specialist!) can evaluate your skin tone for its blue/yellow balance. Several years ago, this was called “determining your season.” Spring and autumn persons have a more golden skin tone and look better in ivory and warm colors, while summers and winters have a bluer skin tone and wear white and cool shades well. By the way, this balance has nothing to do with tanning or race; all women need to determine their best colors (men too).
Next, evaluate your home environment. Is your furniture in a traditional wood style; sleek contemporary with metal and glass; ‘60’s retro with daisies, marabou and a kaleidoscope of color; natural with bamboo, soft greens and rattan or an eclectic mix of all of the above and more? Unless you have experimented radically with furnishings and absolutely despise your home setting, you can draw on those elements that make you feel most at home for inspiration. For instance, if you are an organized individual and prefer a balanced look in your accessories (identical lamps at each end of the sofa, matched pairs of accessories, colors that match exactly) you will likely be very pleased by a wedding setting with an emphasis on symmetry and balance, using just one or two accent colors. Alternatively, if you live with seven shades of green and four shades of blue (complementary, but not matching exactly), and each room is an adventure in complimenting furnishing/ accessory elements (eclectic), you may be right at home with two or three color palettes that blend well, with asymmetrically arranged decoration for your wedding and reception (such as, a different floral arrangement on each reception table). These two styles may not reflect your tastes, but should give you an idea about how to go about developing a color, balance, and architectural (contemporary, American traditional, Renaissance) scheme for your wedding.
Gator style does not mean that the attendants are wearing orange and blue. Gator weddings are just like any others in our community, except they add just a twist of that famous Gator Tail. The wedding may take place on the UF campus, pictures taken in the stadium or elsewhere, or Gator symbols might turn up on invitations, in the decor, the repast (food), as favors, or even in ice.
Nearly every weekend, couples marry on campus. In fact, on some busy wedding weekends in the spring, you stand a good chance of getting run down by a horse and carriage or limousine on University of Florida boulevards. The Bauman Meditation Center, architecturally reminiscent of the Frank Lloyd Wright tradition, is a popular site for weddings (accommodating up to about 100 people). Located on the shores of Lake Alice, the lovely garden setting with the lake in the background makes for absolutely beautiful pictures. Just around the corner from the Bauman Center are a small-unnamed island and bridge, a very pretty, seldom-used area, wonderful for small weddings (parking is limited). The Medicinal Gardens also border Lake Alice and, though somewhat wild at present, provide several wonderful spaces for garden weddings. The University Auditorium with its beautiful traditional wood, stone and brick Tudor style, accented with stained glass, provides a wonderful site for large weddings (usually available only during breaks in the school year). The Keene Center, an extension of Dauer Hall, has the same lovely dark wood, and is decorated in a British East Indies style, accommodating small groups for a wedding or reception.
The University of Florida sports many varied reception areas, such as the Touchdown Terrace, Keene Center, J. Wayne Reitz Memorial Union (two ballrooms accommodating 850 people maximum and the more intimate Arredondo Room for up to 125 people). For an eclectic choice of venue for your reception, try the Natural History Museum, the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Fine Art, or the Center for the Performing Arts, each maintains a distinct personality. So many choices.
Your wedding can be spiced with “Gator flavor” even if not held or celebrated on campus. Several couples have designed invitations with a Gator in the motif (some more highly noticeable than others). Many couples opt for a few quick pictures “in the Swamp” (at the football stadium) before or after their nuptials. Though true orange and blue wearers are rare at weddings, cloisonné (enameled) gators as favors, alligator toys or topiaries as table decorations and gator groom’s cakes are quite common. Albert and Alberta Alligator in wedding attire have graced the top of many a wedding cake. Last, but not least, for an amazing Gator spectacle, try an alligator ice carving as a centerpiece for your reception. This is just a taste of that good ol’ Gator flavor. Let your imagination be your guide for your Gator wedding recipe.
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