monicamtabora
- Nov 25, 2022
- 5 min read

Natalie and Stephen's 10 Year Anniversary

Natalie and Stephen got married on their 10 year anniversary. November 17, 2021. TEN YEARS!! These love birds met in high school when Stephen tutored Natalie for Algebra II during their sophomore year. He was attending a public school at the time while Natalie was going to a private Catholic school. Natalie ironically ended up switching schools to Stephen’s school in her junior year of high school and the rest is history. They both knew that within the first year of dating in high school that they wanted to get married. There was no particular “moment”, they just felt it. Years later on the morning of their 6 year anniversary, during a trip to New Orleans, (privately because Stephen knew Natalie wouldn’t want a public proposal) Stephen pulled out a music box that he had built from scratch with all of their favorite songs. When he opened up the music box there was a wedding ring that he had also created from scratch with sterling silver.

With Natalie’s love of romantic, dark, moody, vintage themes and Stephen’s love of space (Natalie says he’s a “big nerd”) they chose a black and burgundy palette with touches of gold. Instead of table numbers, each table was named after a planet and with gold stars hanging above the guest tables and the moon arch THAT STEPHEN BUILT HIMSELF, their celestial theme was on point! Natalie says she turned to Pinterest for a lot of her inspiration. We love Pinterest too, Natalie!

Blak and Tammy Photography

Blak and Tammy Photography

Blak and Tammy Photography

If you’ve never been to The Acre, Orlando before you should definitely check it out. It’s a unique space with photo opps galore!! Literally, every corner you turn has a different backdrop opportunity and multiple structures for you to utilize however your heart desires. Natalie and Stephen loved the indoor/outdoor spaces that The Acre had to offer. There was plenty of space for people to spread out and walk around.

Natalie: “ They have a barn/speakeasy bar type area that I absolutely love that has gold trims and a mirror, a firepit to make s’mores, an open grassy area for games, a beautiful outdoor dance area, a small chapel for photo opps, an indoor area for buffet-style dinner, and a gorgeous ivy wall that we had our ceremony in front of. It felt casual, yet classy, and that’s exactly how we wanted our wedding day to feel like.”

Blak and Tammy Photography

Natalie also told us what her wedding day must haves were. Her lipstick for retouches…

Natalie: “My lipstick was a deep burgundy to match the theme and it would smear off after a while so it was important to keep handy”

and… Milani Make It Last Setting Spray.

Natalie “It helped keep our makeup on all night through sweating, dancing, and eating!”

HOT TIP: Take note ladies! If you’re planning on wearing lipstick, make sure you buy one of your own to keep on you (or hand to your coordinator) for the rest of the day. Your hair and makeup artists will be long gone once ceremony starts and you’ll want to retouch throughout the night as you kiss and eat and sweat! And as for setting spray, most makeup artists keep this handy but if you’re a sweaty kid like me, it doesn’t hurt to request an extra layer!

Blak and Tammy Photography

Blak and Tammy Photography

Natalie and Stephen came up with a brilliant idea to bring the stars to each guest via their beverage. They ordered champagne glitter bombs to be available at the bar for their guests to throw in their drinks for an extra fun, special surprise. The only thing they would have done differently, is to do a test run…

Natalie: “...they kind of exploded all over everyone’s tables. It made for a good laugh and it was fun, but I wish I would have done a test run before hand.”

Looking for champagne glitter bombs? Click here! Such a fun addition to your regular-ol’ cocktail and what a fun activity for your guests to participate in!

Natalie and Stephen came to us during COVID so unfortunately they didn’t really meet with any of their vendors until their wedding date got closer. But that didn’t stop Natalie from working with us. She saw all the great reviews on The Knot and Google and decided to choose to go with Seas Your Day Events!

Natalie: “I got so incredibly lucky with Seas Your Day. Monica and Chelsea were absolutely phenomenal and I immediately felt like I could trust them the moment I met them.”

Blak and Tammy Photography

Besides the actual getting married part, we asked Natalie and Stephen what their favorite part of the day was. They aren’t dancers so they didn’t have a formal “first dance” but something magical happened towards the end of the night. They were slow dancing and everyone instinctively cleared the dance floor to watch them and started cheering and clapping. Wow, how special is that! Core memory alert!!

Natalie: “It was definitely a memory we will always remember!”

A lot of times brides can, understandably, become fixated on one thing or another that in the end, they realize, they shouldn’t have been stressing about. For Natalie it was the cake and the look of it. She says it ended up taking a huge backseat to all of the other phenomenal events and elements of the wedding. She says,

“While the cake is important to have, not everyone will remember how it looked because they will be preoccupied making memories through conversations, dancing, and having fun.”

Blak and Tammy Photography

While every element of a wedding takes some planning and decision making, we advise brides not to sweat the small stuff, like chairs or the look of the cake. In the end those are little details that your guests won’t necessarily remember. Consider not adding any unnecessary stress where there doesn’t need to be if it can be avoided.

And finally, as usual, we asked Natalie and Stephen what they would recommend to future couples getting married:

Natalie: “Learn to go with the flow! Not absolutely everything is going to come out 100% perfect as you dreamt of it in your mind, but the overall experience and day will be something you, your friends and family, will cherish.”

Thank you for letting us be part of your epic celestial celebration!! We loved the theme and honestly, still love looking at your photos. Your family and friends so clearly had a blast and so did we!