Anna and Anthony LaRock’s spring wedding in Islamorada was three days of organized chaos wrapped in peonies, rattan, and sunset colors at the Islander Resort. Hand-painted oyster shells at every seat, CO2 cannons on the dance floor, and a bride who did not leave a single detail to chance. Shanell Bark captured it all, switching between digital for the reception chaos and film for the quiet golden-hour portraits on the pier, two completely different moods from the same day.
Location: Islamorada, FL, USA
Style: Tropical, Colorful, DIY
Time of planning: 10 months
Number of guests: 111
Setting: Beach Resort
Season: Spring
Anna and Anthony met in 2019 at a summer job at The Island Grill in Fair Haven, Michigan, a Florida Keys-inspired outdoor tiki bar at Mayea Marina. They bonded over water, travel, and boats, and the rest, as they say, became an entire lifestyle. Fast forward to their wedding, and they got married in the actual Florida Keys. The real version of the place where they first met. Full circle does not even begin to cover it.
The proposal happened in Aruba in March 2024. Anthony planned the whole thing under the cover of a family vacation with 17 people. His sister kept Anna busy getting ready while he set up Eagle Beach with rose petals, a path leading to him, and light-up “Marry Me” letters between two palm trees. All 17 people rushed out from hiding. She said yes on one of the highest-rated beaches in the world, surrounded by both families.
Welcome Day
The entire guest list of 111 people arrived at the Islander Resort by Wednesday. The wedding was on Friday. That means two full days of pool hangs, cocktails, and zero obligations before a single vow was spoken.
Wednesday and Thursday were pure resort mode: palm trees, turquoise water, everyone getting to know each other or catching up, and by the time the actual wedding happened, there were no strangers in the room. That is an underrated flex. Most couples scramble to squeeze in 30-second conversations with every guest during a five-hour reception. Anna and Anthony gave themselves three days and let the social math work itself out naturally.
Bride's Morning & Fashion
Anna knew from the start she wanted a simple satin dress without lace, beading, or noise. She found it at Beloved Bridal, and it came from KYHA Studios, an Australian bridal house. The style is the Salacea: strapless, fitted, satin triacetate that does its job through fabric weight and cut alone.
The jewelry was where the real story lived. Her grandmother’s pearl necklace. Crystal pearl drop earrings from Anthropologie. A NADRI Blair pearl tennis bracelet. Wedding rings on the left hand, and on her right hand, her grandmother’s wedding band. Two generations of women on her hands and neck, mixed with accessible high-street pieces that cost a fraction of the heirlooms.
Her perfume was Burberry “Her London Dream,” which is a warm, fruity-floral that reads slightly unexpected for a tropical beach setting. Makeup was a natural, glowy, bronzed look by Ashley MacPherson of The Shampagne Room.
The bouquet was built by Floral Fantasy and it was a garden-style arrangement of coral peonies, her favorite flower, in season for spring, chamomile, light blue tweedia, peach and light yellow ranunculus, apple blossom snapdragon, light peach poppy, variegated pittosporum, and ruscus, wrapped in off-white. That color range, pinks through oranges through pale yellows with a hit of blue, was designed to look like a Florida Keys sunset held together with stems. And it did.
Groom’s Fashion
Anthony wore a tan suit from SuitShop with Allen Edmonds shoes. The personal touches are where the groom showed up. His cufflinks were shaped like deep sea fishing reels, a nod to their shared obsession with fishing in the Keys. His socks were Tommy Bahama palm trees. And his boutonniere was a single yellow ranunculus, which pulled directly from the bride’s bouquet palette without competing with it.
Ceremony
The ceremony took place on Coral Pointe at the Islander, directly on the beach. They kept it short, modern, and straight to the point, which in the Islamorada heat is both a stylistic choice and an act of mercy toward guests in formal wear standing on sand.
They both wrote their own vows and read them aloud. Anthony’s father held the rings to “warm them up” and Anna’s father held the vow books. Guadalupe De Lafuente of Little Miss Planner Key West set up the entire ceremony and reception so that no friends or family had to lift a finger. Which meant that when guests walked into the reception space for the first time, it was a genuine reveal.
The ceremony arch was simple: draped fabric with tropical greenery, the ocean behind it doing the rest of the work. The chairs were arranged in a curved formation on the beach, white with those rattan touches Anna threaded through the entire design. The bridesmaids wore mismatched dresses in a peach and cream tone. Mother of the bride wore pink to match the peonies. The mother of the groom wore light blue to match the accent flowers.
Cocktail Hour
Cocktail hour happened under the palms on the resort grounds while Anna and Anthony got a moment nobody planned but everyone should steal. Someone put them in a private room right after the ceremony with appetizers and drinks, just the two of them. They talked, they ate, they processed the fact that they just got married.
Meanwhile the guests were choosing between two signature drinks. His: “The Captain,” a Captain and Coke. Hers: “The First Mate,” a Key Lime Margarita, which is basically the official drink of the Florida Keys and the kind of thing you order without looking at the menu when you are down there.
Moments Together
The couple portraits on the Islander’s dock are where this gallery shifts gears. Shanell Bark switched to film for these, and you can feel it before you even think about why. The grain is there, the colors go warmer, the contrast softens.
Everything about the digital shots from the ceremony and the reception is sharp and immediate, and everything about the dock portraits is the opposite: slower, quieter, like someone turned the volume down on the whole day. The weathered wooden posts, the turquoise water, a single lantern between them.
Reception
The reception took place across two spaces at the Islander: “Great Lawn” and “Palm Terrace,” connected by a light-strung tent. The floral design from Floral Fantasy carried over from the bouquet into the table arrangements: rattan vases each holding a single type from the bridal bouquet, flanked by one peach and one pink tapered candle in hurricane vases. The whole thing was a texture exercise in natural materials that grounded the tropical palette in something tactile and warm instead of letting it tip into resort event space.
The seating chart was handmade by Anna using oyster shells, and each guest’s seat had a personalized oyster shell painted by the bride with their name on it, doubling as both a place card and a take-home favor. Three hundred shells, hand-painted by one person.
First dance was to I’m Gonna Love You by Cody Johnson and Carrie Underwood. Four bridal party speeches. Both dads spoke and gave a dinner blessing. Then Anna did something that does not happen enough: she dedicated her bouquet to her mother, publicly, because moms don’t get enough recognition for their daughters on their wedding day. That is a sentence that should be printed and handed out at every bridal expo.
The daddy-daughter dance started with Forever Now by Michael Bublé, which is a solid if expected choice. Then the DJ stopped the song. What followed: Anna’s dad, who grew up in a band and has records of his own, had written and recorded an original song for her. They danced to it while the room processed what was happening. Some dads give speeches.
First dance was to “I’m Gonna Love You” by Cody Johnson and Carrie Underwood. Four bridal party speeches. Both dads spoke and gave a dinner blessing. Then Anna did something that does not happen enough: she dedicated her bouquet to her mother, publicly, because “moms don’t get enough recognition for their daughters on her wedding day.” That is a sentence that should be printed and handed out at every bridal expo.
Anna and Anthony are not cake people and they did not pretend to be. Instead, they brought in late-night pizza from Old Tavernier, their favorite pizza spot in Islamorada. That is the kind of choice that makes a vendor list interesting: not what they added, but what they subtracted and what they replaced it with.
The photobooth was inside a vintage VW bus from Good Times Roll Bus, which they drove directly to the venue. Irina has always had a thing for old school VW buses, so this was not a fun add-on. It was a personal reference that happened to also be a crowd-pleaser.
Advice from the couple:
• Breath. Such simple advice right? I feel like couples stress so hard when it comes to the day of the wedding. Just know that all those months of planning have come down to this moment and its all going to pay off.
• Focus on you and your significant other and know that things are going to happen the way they are meant to be. It will all work itself out so dont stress, just breath.
• Also, if you can afford the planner get the planner. I wasnt planning on it being that im such a “do it yourself” person but they truly do everything for you. She set up the entire wedding so friends and family didnt have to that way everyone was surprised when they saw it. She took care of all the details and running around.
PHOTOGRAPHER Shanell Photography | PLANNER Little Miss Planner Key West | VENUE Islander Resort | FLORALS Floral Fantasy | MUAH The Shampagne Room / Ashley MacPherson | BRIDAL SHOP Beloved Bridal | DRESS KYHA Studios (Salacea) | RINGS Tacori | JEWELER Lucido Fine Jewelry | PHOTOBOOTH Good Times Roll Bus | TABLE + CHAIR RENTALS Keys Audio | PALM RENTALS LMAE Events | DJ Curate Entertainment / DJ Promo
