A LOVE WORTH CELEBRATING AGAIN: ZHANAE + WILL’S VOW RENEWAL AT ARIA LAS VEGAS
Some weddings celebrate the beginning of a marriage. Others celebrate everything that came after.
For Zhanae and Will, this was never simply about saying “I do” again. They had already built a life together, creating a family, raising three beautiful children, and growning their businesses to iconic proportions. That kind of history that cannot be manufactured for a wedding day. For this couple, their love story began when they were high school sweethearts, long before the vows, the rings, the children, or success. After all of that life and love, they decided to celebrate again with what we affectionately called their “I Do Re-Do.”
And we did not do it quietly.
This was a luxury vow renewal designed to feel romantic, immersive, glamorous, and unapologetically over the top. Whether I am planning a wedding or a vow renewal, I am always thinking about three versions of the couple: who they were, who they are, and who they are becoming. For Zhanae especially, that meant fashion and femininity, dazzling diamonds, candles, crystals, and a little bit of drama.
Okay, a lot of drama.
The goal was to create something that felt almost impossible: a never before, never again environment that could only belong to them.
Designing Softness on a Massive Scale
From the beginning, I knew the design needed to accomplish two things that can sometimes feel contradictory: it needed to be incredibly soft and romantic while also feeling enormous in scale.
We worked within a deliberately restrained palette of ivory, white, cream, champagne, and warm neutrals. Instead of relying on color to create drama, we used texture, architecture, lighting, and scale. That allowed the room to feel incredibly luxe without becoming visually chaotic.
And, of course, there were the flowers. So. Many. Flowers.
By the time everything arrived, we had approximately five semi-trucks filled with flowers, production elements, and the pieces required to build this world. I use the word “build” intentionally, because there is a tremendous difference between decorating a ballroom and transforming one. I was not interested in simply placing beautiful centerpieces around an existing space and calling it a day. I wanted the architecture, walls, and ceiling to disappear. I wanted guests to walk through the doors and, for just a moment, have absolutely no idea where they were.
This is one of my favorite things about event design. We have the ability to bend the world to our will for one night and create a place that has never existed before and will never exist in quite the same way again.
A Ceremony Built in Layers
The ceremony began with a sweeping aisle surrounded by masses of ivory and champagne florals. Roses, orchids, hydrangea, and flowering branches were layered organically so that they appeared to grow from the floor rather than sit neatly upon it. I wanted abundance. I wanted the flowers to spill, climb, cascade, and move through the space in a way that felt natural, even though there was absolutely nothing accidental about their placement.
Hundreds of candles were enclosed in glass and arranged at varying heights. That variation in elevation became one of the most important design languages throughout both the ceremony and reception. We created multiple levels within the room, including ceremony seating at different heights, which gave guests better sightlines and made the experience feel far more dimensional.
We also introduced the lighting concept during the ceremony itself. Custom projection moved across the aisle in soft blue-white patterns, creating the illusion of light dancing over water. As Zhanae made her way toward Will, the aisle shimmered beneath her feet. It was romantic, surreal, and just dramatic enough, while also creating a visual language we would later bring back on the dance floor.
At the end of the aisle, we created a towering stage that allowed Zhanae and Will to exchange vows approximately six feet above the rest of the room. Architectural arches framed the space and were softened with draping, flowers, and crystal candelabras. Clear ghost chairs almost disappeared into the design, preserving the sightlines and keeping the focus on the florals, the light, and, ultimately, the couple.
Designing From the Ceiling Down
One of the biggest mistakes I see in large-scale event design is focusing entirely on what exists at eye level. If you want to create a truly immersive environment, you have to design the entire volume of the room. That means looking up.
For this celebration, the ceiling became one of the most important parts of the design. We created an enormous installation filled with thousands upon thousands of cascading white blooms. Flowers seemed to pour from above, visually lowering the ceiling and making a very large ballroom feel unexpectedly intimate.
Suspended within the flowers were crystal chandeliers, with additional crystal elements woven throughout the installation. As the lighting changed throughout the evening, the crystals caught it and sent it dancing through the room.
I loved the tension between the softness of the florals and the sharp brilliance of the crystal. It was romantic without being overly sweet, feminine without being fragile, ethereal but still glamorous. The ceiling became a floating garden of flowers, light, and crystal that completely transformed the proportions of the room.
Growing a Forest Inside a Ballroom
One of my favorite parts of the transformation was the forest of enormous flowering trees surrounding the dance floor. These were not decorative trees placed politely around the perimeter. They were architecture.
Dark trunks emerged from a nearly all-white landscape and exploded into clouds of white blossoms. Flowers surrounded the bases, crystal chandeliers appeared between the branches, and strands of crystal caught the light overhead.
Then we did something a little crazy.
Instead of placing the DJ behind a traditional booth, we built the DJ booth into the trees approximately 15 feet above the dance floor. I wanted the entertainment to become part of the architecture rather than feel like equipment we had to find a place for. Once the party began, music came from above while chandeliers sparkled through the trees and the entire room shifted into a completely different energy.
The Dance Floor That Looked Like Moving Water
The lighting language we introduced during the ceremony returned in a more dramatic way on the dance floor. Through custom projection, blue-white patterns moved continuously across the surface, creating the illusion of moonlight dancing across water.
Against the warm ivory, champagne, and candlelit room, that cool, fluid movement was incredibly striking. The floor shimmered and shifted beneath guests’ feet, and from certain angles it genuinely looked as though moving water had appeared in the middle of the ballroom.
This is where lighting becomes so much more than a production necessity. Lighting is design. It changes how we experience color, texture, architecture, and movement. During dinner, we wanted the room to glow. As the evening progressed, we deepened the atmosphere and intensified the dance floor without physically changing the décor.
Above you were flowers, chandeliers, and crystal. Around you were trees and candlelight. Beneath you was moving water. Every plane of the room was working together.
A Reception That Unfolded in Levels
That concept of elevation continued into the reception. I did not want every table and every chair sitting on exactly the same plane, so we built custom platforms throughout the room and seated guests at different heights.
The multiple elevations improved sightlines, created intimacy within a very large space, and kept the reception from becoming a sea of tables and chairs. They also gave us opportunities to layer florals, candles, and décor vertically.
We mixed long tables with rounded and curved configurations, surrounded them with plush ivory chairs, and allowed the flowers to spill beyond the tabletop. Candlelight appeared everywhere: on tables, around platforms, beneath florals, and along the dance floor.
There was a tremendous amount of décor, but maximalism only works when it is controlled. More is not automatically better. The goal is to give the eye somewhere to travel, somewhere to rest, and then somewhere new to discover.
And Then There Was That Cake
The cake deserved far more than a standard linen-covered table in the corner of the room. With a celebration of this scale, it needed to become its own installation.
We created an architectural moment beneath a massive floral arch, surrounding the cake with flowers, candlelight, crystal, and draped champagne fabric. Tier after tier rose from a base engulfed in florals, with white roses incorporated directly into the design so that the cake felt part confection and part sculpture.
Crystal chandeliers surrounded it, reflecting light from every direction, while the floral arch framed the cake almost like a piece of art. It became another destination within the ballroom.
That is an important part of experiential design for me. I do not want guests to walk into a room, stand in one place, and understand everything immediately. I want the room to reveal itself over time. The cake was one of those discoveries.
Diamonds and Crystals For a Bride Who Loves to Sparkle
You cannot design for Zhanae without understanding her love of sparkle. She loves diamonds, crystals, fashion, and glamour, and she is not afraid of any of it.
Her incredible canary yellow engagement ring by Sky Diamons almost became a miniature representation of the celebration itself: bold, brilliant, glamorous, and impossible to overlook. We translated that same language throughout the event with crystal chandeliers, hanging crystal strands, reflective surfaces, metallic details, and candlelight.
Fun Fact: A year ago I showcased this diamond named “The Lady” on my TikTok and Instagram, only to find it on my bride’s finger during wedding planning! Watch the clip HERE.
That sparkle began long before guests arrived. The invitation suite gave them their first glimpse into what was coming. White and gold established the palette, while the showpiece was a custom mirrored-gold invitation, intricately cut and engraved with the couple’s monogram and celebration details. It was not simply stationery. It was a keepsake and an introduction to the level of intention behind the event.
I believe a luxury wedding begins long before guests arrive at the venue. The invitation is the first promise you make about the experience. Then, as designers and planners, we have to keep that promise.
Three Dresses, Three Different Moments
Fashion was always going to be a major part of this celebration, and Zhanae had three custom looks designed and handmade by celebrity fashion designer Walter Mendez.
I loved the idea that her fashion could evolve along with the evening. Each look gave us a different version of her while remaining completely true to her style, and we staged a first look for each dress except the ceremony gown. That we saved for when she walked down the aisle.
The ceremony gown was sensational: handcrafted and asymmetrical, with a flesh-toned foundation covered in hand-cut crystals and dramatic ivory draping wrapped around her figure. Her reception look shifted the energy completely, pairing a lace mini dress with a long, luxe bow cascading down the back. For her final look which she wore to the afterparty, she returned to sculptural draping with a bodice closely matched to her skin tone and embellished with pearls.
Each dress was designed to make an entrance, but more importantly, each one felt like Zhanae.
Will wore a classic black tuxedo, the perfect counterpoint to the scale of the room and the drama of Zhanae’s fashion. This iconic look allowed him to stay in one tuxedo for the duration of the night, allowing her fashion to take center stage.
Throughout the evening, all of the elements came together to tell one story. The flowers are beautiful. The fashion is fabulous. The setting is extraordinary.
But what you remember is the way he looks at her.
Bringing the Ballerinas Back
One of the things that Zhanae and Will really cared about was not erasing their original wedding day, but celebrating their marriage in a new way. We wanted to pull the thread between the then and the now, and the best way to do that was by reintroducing elements from their original wedding day into the vow renewal.
The couple had ballerinas at their original wedding, and that entertainment was woven into their personal story. Ballerinas moved through the ceremony dressed in white, emerging through the candlelight and flowers as though they were another living element of the design.
That is the difference between entertainment that is simply impressive and entertainment that is personal. The ballerinas were beautiful to watch, but they also represented a memory that they had come to cherish. The ballerinas reminded us that this evening was not about replacing the original wedding, but honoring everything that they have shared since.
Now that the foundation of entertainment was set, we elevated what was done at the first wedding by bringing in celebrity DJ Kloi, and adding atmosphere models dressed in mirrored costumes. Some looked like bunnies, others were on stilts. Not only were they exciting living elements of design, but they interacted with the guests on the dance floor and kept the party going all night long.
A Love Story Worth Celebrating Again
There is something very different about designing a vow renewal. A wedding is filled with anticipation. Couples are standing at the beginning of something, imagining the life they are going to build together. A vow renewal has the benefit of history.
Zhanae and Will did not have to imagine what marriage would look like. They were already living it. They understand that love is not simply about the moment you make the promise. It is about everything you do afterward to keep it - that you choose one another on your wedding day, and you need to continue to choose one another every day for the rest of your lives.
So yes, we brought in five semi-trucks’ worth of flowers, décor, and production. We built custom staging and seating at multiple elevations. We covered the ceiling in flowers, suspended crystal chandeliers through cascading blooms, built a forest inside a ballroom, placed the DJ 15 feet above the dance floor, made the aisle and dance floor look like moving water, created an extraordinary cake installation, designed custom mirrored-gold invitations, dressed Zhanae in three handmade Walter Mendez looks, and brought back the ballerinas from their original wedding.
All of those things created the spectacle, but Zhanae and Will were the Why.
That distinction is everything to me. Luxury wedding design should never be reduced to filling a room with expensive things simply because you can. The very best weddings are deeply personal, and every extraordinary choice should somehow lead us back to the people we are celebrating.
This room was opulent because their love is exuberant. It sparkled because Zhanae sparkles. It was romantic because, after all these years and everything they have built together, they still are obsessed with one another.
Beneath the flowers, chandeliers, diamonds, couture, and thousands of flickering candles was something beautifully simple: two high school sweethearts, three children, one extraordinary life, and another promise to keep choosing each other.
That is luxury on purpose. And that is what it means to celebrate life, luxury, and, above all else, love.
Always…Andrea
Check out the Full Gallery of Images Below.
VISIT OUR CREATIVE PARTNERS ON INSTAGRAM:
Wedding Planner @andreaeppolito
Venue @mgmsignatureevents
Floral + Production @flowersbyedgar
Photography @mesus.studios
Videography @andonigarciafilms
Fashion @waltercollection
Atmosphere Models @show_talent_productions
