When back-to-back hurricanes threatened to derail Tailor Coan and Drew Savary’s wedding at the newly opened St. Regis Longboat Key, the couple leaned on an expert team — and a bit of blind faith — to keep their celebration on track.
Taylor Coan and Drew Savary didn’t invite anyone named Helene or Milton to their wedding. They crashed it — quite literally — anyway. Six weeks before the couple was set to wed at the brand new St. Regis Longboat Key Resort in Florida, Hurricane Helene made landfall. Thirteen days later, Hurricane Milton followed. Boats washed ashore. Flooding churned sand into the pool area. Restaurants and shops were destroyed. The St. Regis alone, which had only been open for a few weeks, sustained $23 million in damage. “It honestly looked like the rapture,” Taylor says. “I remember my mom and I hugging the dog, stressed out, because we didn’t know what else to do. You can’t control anything.”
Between shifting construction timelines, last-minute staffing, and a one-two punch of devastating storms, self-pro-fessed Type A Taylor learned that letting go is its own form of wedding planning. “I had to rely on a good team,” she says. “I trusted them to bring my vision to life.”
More Than A Venue
When Taylor and Drew, both University of Florida graduates, reconnected years after college at a TPC golf tournament, it was a classic “when you know, you know” situation. Less than a year later — after a whirlwind long-distance courtship and a Santa Barbara proposal — they were engaged, planning a wedding nine months out. There was never a question about where it would be held. For nearly a decade, Taylor had been instrumental in the St. Regis Longboat Key project, working with the developer, Unicorp. The resort was built on the bones of the legendary Colony Beach and Tennis Resort, once a glamorous Gulf Coast landmark with a guest list including Audrey Hepburn and Andre Agassi. The long road from storied ruin to five-star resort included years of litigation and delicate negotiations with the tight-knit Longboat Key community. “I sat in hearing after hearing, town meetings, design meetings,” Taylor says. “It was close to my heart. I knew when I got engaged that it would be where I wanted to get married.”
What she didn’t anticipate was becoming the first bride ever to wed there — or that planning would involve touring a construction site in a hard hat alongside her florist and wedding planner. After the hurricanes, she sat with the same question any bride in that situation would ask: would the wedding even happen?
Taylor was kept off the property until the day before guests arrived, as landscape crews raced against the clock. “They were still laying turf on Wednesday. My wedding was Saturday, and I had guests arriving Thursday,” she says. While the rest of the island was still visibly recovering — downed trees, boats ashore, St. Armands Circle patched and battered — the St. Regis glowed. Hotel employees would later tell Taylor it felt like a grand reopening. In many ways, it was.
A Warm Welcome
For 185 guests, the weekend unfolded as a love letter to travel and old-world glamour. The rehearsal dinner, held in the resort’s Riva restaurant, was reimagined as a Spanish fiesta with paella and churros as a nod to the honeymoon ahead. A Spanish guitarist played as guests, dressed in warm reds and oranges, mingled under the hotel’s amber lighting — originally designed for sea turtle conservation, but perfectly suited to the evening’s palette.
The next day, the ceremony was held on the resort’s sweeping lawn, followed by cocktails on a terrace overlooking the water. Then, guided by musicians in a New Orleansstyle second line, guests were led down a long corridor into the grand ballroom. Taylor had been determined to avoid a generic hotel reception. She envisioned a sophisticated supper club, black-tie in spirit and intimate in feel. Gold banquette booths lined the walls with a black-and-white dance floor in the center. Vintage lamps, sourced last-minute by Taylor, cast a warm glow on the bar and chandeliers anchored a long head table. The effect was less ballroom, more private club.
Jordan Kahn’s live band brought the party to life. Mid-dinner, a vocalist moved through the tables singing Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.”
“Everyone stopped what they were doing and put their food down,” Taylor says. “It was the most goosebumps-down-your-spine moment.”
Fashion and Finishing Touches
Taylor wore a custom gown by Dallas-based designer Nardos, the result of a serendipitous encounter during bridal fashion week in New York. She had wandered into the atelier without an appointment, only to be greeted by the designer herself. “She looked at me and said, ‘You’d be perfect for my gowns — come with me,’” Taylor recalls. Over several fittings in Dallas, Nardos created a silhouette-hugging gown with a sweeping train and a dramatic veil. Taylor completed her look with her mother’s diamond teardrop earrings and a surprise wedding-day gift from Drew: a delicate tennis bracelet. For the reception, Taylor changed into a sparkling second look with a feathered boa.
Not everything unfolded exactly as planned. Due to hurricane damage, the welcome party was relocated from the oceanfront lawn to the rooftop bar. A framed engagement portrait meant to be displayed at the cocktail hour never appeared. The couple didn’t know what their wedding cake looked like until moments before cutting it.
“The things you get so worked up over, they really go unnoticed on the day,” Taylor says. “What people took away was: it was a stunning event, but so much love was felt throughout the whole weekend.”
The Honeymooners
The Spanish rehearsal dinner foreshadowed the couple’s honeymoon — an unhurried exhale after months of uncertain wedding planning. The newlyweds began in Mallorca, where they checked into Cap Rocat, an intimate 15-suite property built into caves within a former military fortress. From there, they traveled into the island’s mountains to La Residencia, a Belmond property surrounded by ancient olive trees and stone villages.
The second half of the honeymoon traded rest for adventure along Sevilla’s vibrant streets and a final stretch in Madrid. “It was the perfect combination of relaxing at the beginning and then exploring cities at the end,” Taylor says. “I wish I could relive it.” As for the wedding itself, Taylor would relive that “a million times over.” The planning, hurricanes and all, she’s content to leave in the past.
Vendors
Planning & Design: Lisa Lyons Events // Venue: The St. Regis Longboat Key // Gown: Nardos // Floral // Designer: The Floral Way // Hair & Makeup: Bronze Glow Beauty // Stationery: Eleven Note // Drapery & // Lighting: Fyer Fly Productions // Rentals: Palacios Events and Gala Rental // Linens: Over the Top Rental Linens // Entertainment: Jordan Kahn
Explore more:
