Creative wedding catering at one of downtown St. Petersburg’s most distinctive event venues.
The Floridian Social isn’t a ballroom.
And that was precisely the point.
With a stage at one end of the room, a checkerboard dance floor and the unmistakable energy of a live music venue, The Floridian Social already knows how to throw a party. For this wedding, Botanica Design Studio and its creative partners leaned into that personality with dramatic florals, rich reds, black and gold details and a design that felt right at home under the stage lights.
Originally built in 1924 as the Alexander National Bank and later known to generations of St. Pete locals as the State Theatre, The Floridian Social has been reimagined as a private event venue while keeping much of the theatrical personality that makes the building so interesting. Today, the historic space combines an Art Deco-inspired interior with a full stage, built-in production capabilities, bars and an upstairs mezzanine overlooking the main room.
For Ezra and Clayton’s December wedding reception, we didn’t want dinner to interrupt any of that energy.
We wanted the food to become part of it.
A Wedding Menu Designed Around the Party
Traditional wedding receptions tend to have a pretty recognizable rhythm. Cocktail hour ends, guests find their seats, dinner begins, speeches, dinner ends. Then the party starts.
But a venue like The Floridian Social gave us an opportunity to think about things a little differently.
Rather than asking guests to repeatedly leave the party to find the food, we could bring more of the food to them. And instead of treating the entire menu as one meal served at one particular moment, we could allow it to change as the evening changed.
The result was a menu that moved through the night right along with the guests.
It started with caviar.
Starting the Night with Caviar
There are certain foods that immediately tell guests they’re in for something a little different.
Caviar is one of them.
Our Caviar Bar featured Salmon Caviar and Golden Whitefish Caviar accompanied by buttered toast points, potato chips, blinis, crème fraîche, chopped red onion, diced egg, capers, snipped chives and lemon wedges.
But the ingredients were only part of what made the station work. The real fun was in the interaction.
Guests could watch as individual bites were assembled, choose their accompaniments and experience something that felt more like stopping at a great restaurant bar than walking through a traditional wedding buffet.
And that idea, food as part of the entertainment rather than an interruption from it, continued throughout the evening.
Bringing Sushi Into the Party
Sushi gave us another opportunity to blur the line between dinner and entertainment.
With a large guest count and space constraints, we figured the best way to serve sushi was to have it travel. To the guest.
Using one of our illuminated hawker trays, we brought sushi directly through the reception, allowing guests to grab a bite without abandoning a conversation, their cocktail, or eventually, the dance floor.
It’s a small change in how food is served, but it can completely change the way guests interact with it. It was quite possibly the biggest hit of the evening.
The same philosophy carried over to passed pasta plates. Rather than requiring every guest to queue at another station, individual portions could make their way into the room.
That’s one of our favorite things about station-style and interactive menus. Done well, they don’t have to feel like a collection of food displays. They can create movement, conversation and little moments of discovery throughout the night.
At The Floridian Social, that style felt particularly at home.
When Dinner Gives Way to the Dance Floor
Eventually, every great wedding reaches a point when dinner isn’t really dinner anymore. The lights change, the band is going full tilt, the dance floor fills up, jackets start coming off.
And nobody wants to stop the party because they’re hungry again. That’s when the menu should change too.
For this wedding, that meant transitioning away from the more refined flavors and presentations of earlier in the evening and toward food that was warm, familiar, easy to eat and, most importantly, fun.
A late-night pretzel station brought out warm soft pretzels with beer cheese and traditional yellow mustard.
Crispy Parmesan tater tots, tossed with parsley and cracked black pepper, followed.
Neither needed an elaborate explanation; guests knew exactly what to do. Eat one. Grab another. Get back to the party.
From Caviar to Swedish Fish
And then there was dessert.
We love a beautiful wedding cake as much as anyone. But we also believe dessert can be another opportunity to surprise people.
Hand-carved ice cream sandwiches brought another interactive element into the room, giving guests something playful late in the evening.
And then came perhaps the least sophisticated, and arguably most delightful, part of the entire menu, requested and inspired by the mother of the groom:
Movie-theater candy.
Swedish Fish. Skittles. Sno-Caps. The kinds of things that require absolutely no culinary explanation whatsoever.
When you look at the entire evening, there is something wonderfully appropriate about a wedding menu that begins with caviar and ends with Swedish Fish.
Because those two things weren’t competing ideas. They were serving two completely different moments of the same party.
And that’s the point.
Designing Food Around How Guests Actually Celebrate
One of the things we’ve learned after years of catering weddings is that menu planning isn’t simply about choosing great dishes.
It’s about thinking through when, where and how people are going to eat them.
What will the room feel like at 8:00?
Where will guests naturally gather?
What happens once the band starts?
Will people leave the dance floor to visit another food station, or would it be more fun to bring something to them?
And what are they going to want after a few hours of dancing?
Those questions can be just as important as what’s actually on the menu. It’s also one of the reasons we enjoy working in distinctive Tampa Bay venues and with top notch event and wedding planners. Every building creates different opportunities.
The Floridian Social’s theatrical layout, built-in stage and nightlife personality invite a very different kind of reception than a traditional ballroom. The venue itself describes the property as a historic private-events space with a stage, production capabilities and an upstairs mezzanine overlooking the main theater.
Rather than trying to make the venue fit a conventional wedding format, we think it’s much more interesting to ask:
What kind of party does this room want to become?
Then we build the food around that.
A Wedding at The Floridian Social in St. Petersburg
By the end of the evening, guests had experienced everything from caviar and sushi to passed pasta, soft pretzels, Parmesan tater tots, hand-carved ice cream sandwiches and movie-theater candy.
But hopefully they weren’t thinking about the menu as a list of dishes. They were simply having a really great night. And that’s ultimately what we want.
Because the best catering doesn’t make guests feel as though the party has stopped so everyone can eat. The food becomes part of the party.
At The Floridian Social, with Jordan Kahn Orchestra onstage, dramatic lighting overhead and a room full of guests moving between cocktails, food and the dance floor, that philosophy made perfect sense.
It was less traditional wedding dinner and more really great night out in St. Pete.
Which, at The Floridian Social, felt exactly right.
The Creative Team
A wedding like this is the work of a talented group of event professionals. The celebration was planned by Tracie Domino Events at The Floridian Social, with event design, floral and décor by Botanica Design Studio and its creative partners. Jordan Kahn Orchestra kept the stage, and eventually the dance floor, busy throughout the night, while Hands on Sweets created the wedding cake and desserts.
Planner: Tracie Domino Events
Venue: The Floridian Social
Wedding Photography: Ryan Joseph Weddings
Event Design, Floral + Décor: Botanica Design Studio
Creative Partners: The Production Crew · Swag Decor · Nuage Designs · Elements & Accents · Artistic Spaces
Band: Jordan Kahn Orchestra
Dessert: Hands on Sweets
Catering: Good Food Events + Catering
Photography featured in this article: Kevin Lacassin / Good Food Events + Catering
Planning a Wedding at The Floridian Social?
Good Food Events + Catering creates custom, chef-driven wedding menus throughout Tampa Bay, including downtown St. Petersburg and The Floridian Social.
From interactive culinary stations and chef-attended experiences to plated dinners, late-night snacks and full-service event execution, our team designs the food and service around the way you want your celebration to feel.
Planning your wedding at The Floridian Social? Let’s talk about what we can create for your guests.
