Happy Memorial Day! We celebrated the long weekend in St. Pete Beach in Florida. We attended the wedding of our dear friends, Stephanie and John, at the beautiful Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. We are excited to share this Yaeger wedding with you.
The wedding took place in St. Petersburg, but we stayed in St. Pete Beach. St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach are both 30 minutes from the Tampa airport. St. Petersburg is located Florida’s gulf coast and is the second largest city in the Tampa Bay area, after Tampa. St. Pete is a lovely island west of St. Petersburg. St. Pete averages 361 days of sun and an average temperature of 73 degrees. This city also holds the Guinness World Record for the largest number of consecutive days of sun of 768 days.
We stayed at the remarkable Don CeSar hotel in St. Pete Beach. This legendary pink palace was developed by Thomas Rowe in 1928 and designed by architect, Henry Dupont. The Don CeSar is a Historic Hotel with a fascinating history. From the Jazz Age to today, celebrities, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Al Capone, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lou Gehrig, Elton John, Justin Timberlake have all been spotted at the hotel. The hotel has 277 rooms and suites.
The Don CeSar left Twinspirational a special surprise in our room. We loved the champs, chocolate truffles and chocolate peanut butter mousse.
On Friday evening, Stephanie and John organized a causal barbecue on Friday night at the Miramar Hotel. We ate burgers and hot dogs and sipped on wine all night long. We also watched the sunset along the beach.
There are several dining options at the Don Cesar: Sea Porch Cafe, Maritana Grille, The Rowe Bar, The Beachcomber Bar & Grill and the Lobby Bar. We enjoyed our first brunch at Sea Porch restaurant. We started with the skillet cornbread with orange blossom honey butter. The Don’s Benedict was a must-have. We ordered it with crab cakes and a side of fruit.
After brunch, we explored downtown St. Petersburg. We headed to The Birchwood because the view from their rooftop is fantastic. However the weather didn’t cooperate, so we headed over to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). It was the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon. The MFA was founded by Margaret Acheson Stuart, an art collector and philanthropist. The MFA’s comprehensive collection includes more than 20,000 works of art from French painters, as well as ancient Greek and Roman, Egyptian, Asian, African, pre-Columbian, Native American art and objects.
After the museum, we grabbed a late lunch at Ceviche. Ceviche is a tapas style restaurant, and the food is perfect for sharing. Our favorite dish was the Queso de Cabra with baked spiced goat cheese, piquant tomato sauce and grilled flat bread. We recommend about one and a half to two tapas per person for lunch (maybe two per person for dinner).
John and Stephanie originally planned a Saturday night rooftop cocktail party. Unfortunately the rain didn’t subside, and the Don CeSar staff came to their rescue. The Sea Porch accommodated our last minute large party. We ate dinner while watching the sunset. The cheesy chicken quesadilla and the turkey club were delicious and easy to share.
On Sunday morning, we brunched at The Mill in St. Petersburg. We started with the apple fritters and watermelon bruschetta. We enjoyed their special chicken and waffles, which was the perfect bite of sweet and savory. We also tried to be healthy with an egg white scramble with a biscuit.
After brunch we walked through town, spotting various picturesque murals.
While we were gallivanting in St. Petersburg, the bridal party took some fabulous shots with Sunny Norton. The bridesmaids looked beautiful, while the gentlemen looked quite dapper in their tuxedos.
Photo by Sunny Norton
The wedding took place at The Dalí Museum, an art museum in St. Petersburg that is dedicated to the works of Salvador Dalí. It was the perfect spot for the Yaeger wedding. The bridal party along with baby Hudson walked down the spiral staircase. Then the couple looked at their guests from the top of the stairs and said their vows. The wedding included a 2-hour tour through the museum followed by an outdoor reception.
We spent Memorial Day relaxing by the pool. The hotel has two large pools and a jacuzzi. Guests can sip cocktails by the pool. The Don CeSar is a beachfront hotel and guests can rent beach chairs, umbrellas, beach beds and cabanas for a small fee.
Congrats again to Stephanie and John. A wedding and a new baby and it’s only May. We can’t wait to see what else 2018 holds for you.
Photo by Sunny Norton
“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it” – Salvador Dali
Love all these photos!! Such a great post!
Gorgeous! Lovely blog.
It sounds like you had an incredible Memorial Day! I absolutely love all of the beautiful pictures that you captured during your time on holidays!
Love your beautiful photos and those of Sunny Norton! Such a lovely couple of newly weds. They chose the most stunning place to have their wedding! The Don Cesar Hotel in St. Pete Beach sounds awesome. I Spent many summers between St. Pete Beach, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Tampa Bay in my youth ans teen years, loved it!
O wow… such a beautiful wedding and wedding party. I think it is amazing that they accommodated the party due to the the rain. Thanks for sharing this awesome moment with us!
How fun to take the opportunity to turn a wedding into fun travels. Congrats to the couple, and I’m glad you had such a great time – in style, too! 🙂
What a lovely time you had! Everything looks absolutely gorgeous and I think this would be a wonderful place to visit someday!
It looks like you had such a lovely time. I love how you captured so many great moments during your time there celebrating a wedding!
looks like you had an amazing experience celebrating this wedding 🙂 what a wonderful place to visit someday!
Sounds like a great experience all around (well except for the rain not subsiding). I love that you got so many lovely pics into the post!! Very nice!
Looks like ya’ll had a wonderful time enjoying St. Petersburg and celebrating your friends’ wedding! Everyone looked so beautiful! <3
Gloria Ferrer is one of my favorite go to Sparkling Wines, so happy to see that you had some to celebrate the weekend.
The Dali museum sounds super interesting, if I am ever in this part of Florida I am 100% going to go check it out!
Oh wow what fun and what a gorgeous wedding. Also such a great way to spend quality time with friends, super stylish as well
Laura x
The Don Cesar Hotel in St. Pete Beach sounds awesome and the photo is so nice. I spent many summers between St. Pete Beach, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Tampa Bay 2 years ago and i do love that place. thank you
for sharing this, iam looking forward to your more blogs.
Such lovely pics. The food also looks delish!!!
yes please, love the patriotic colors and a drink to share.