by Carola Perla

Welcome to my “Wednesday Wisdom” Series - when I’ll be looking back at past picnic events with nostalgia, appreciation, and 20/20 vision, sharing the lessons I learned along the way! :) The first post in this series is inspired by my annual ‘Home & Park Picnics’ promotion, which celebrates the ‘non-beach’ picnic for Miami summers, because, you know, the tropics…so keep reading to find out about the best and worst aspects of a beach picnic, how to stay ahead of our South Florida weather, and our first ever home picnic, which confirmed my suspicions that sometimes, home is the way to go…

The Realities of a Beach Picnic

I want to preface this entry by expressing my profound love for our beaches - the glittering wonder of a sunrise over white surf, the heart-warming glow of impending sunset, the salt air that breathes new energy into one’s step, the natural charm of our dunes, and the hopeful symbol of our sea turtle nests. A picnic on this shore offers a profound connection to the paradise we call home. And it feels like each time I go to the beach and throw myself onto the sand, the importance of other things slips away, my mind clears, and I end the day asking myself, “why again did I wait so long?”

Professionally, I can admit to also having had some pretty glorious moments on the beach while setting up a picnic.

Especially on days that began overcast and uncertain and had me despairing that the event would never come together. I remember a day when my old van broke down on the way, a morning rain had me dragging my loaded folding cart through soggy sand, and I had to spend the majority of my setup time sitting on the flapping tarp covering my unpacked boxes because of yet another passing storm, and another after it.

On those days, when I felt the lowest, when doubt took root because the hour left before my client’s arrival could not suffice to finish my job, and the possibility of ruining a once-in-a-lifetime experience - a marriage proposal or a wedding or the highlight of that Florida vacation they had dreamt of for years - filled me with waves of dread. Exactly then, when it felt like it never would, that’s when somehow it did all unbelievably come together. And, as if to crown the moment, the afternoon sun would break through a purple shroud of clouds in the west and bathe all my effort in that diagonal light of ‘golden hour’.

I’ll tell you, to see my hard work (and also my husband’s, whose years of hockey training supplied my early picnic adventures with super-human strength, stamina, and positivity), along with all the frantically crafted details - from the dried-off melamine plates to the perked pillow corners - suddenly illuminated in that sunset light, buttery and rich in texture, every inch the exquisite luxury a professional picnic should be - was, in those moments, exhilarating. And for all the stress and panic, the final result of a beautiful picnic has made this job worth doing.

Then again, there’ve been exceptions…

For all the happy endings, there have been some not to happy ones, times when even the best-laid plans proved no match for Miami’s mercurial weather. Times when a client’s ardent pleas to go ahead with the scheduled date meant: ruined leather ottomans (one that actually FLEW away in a storm, never to be seen again!); prized vintage furniture falling apart in the rain; HOURS of steam-cleaning soiled and musty wool rugs; plaited grass placemats I had to toss because they wouldn’t dry and molded over; and just in general, the loss of carefully-curated stock and beautiful items (in addition to my sanity on such days) that I never asked reimbursement for, because in the end, I chalked it up to it being the business we’re in. Who asked me to use a rare collectible Mid-Century brass tray table as a prop, anyway?

Be Prepared and Plan Ahead!

At the risk of sounding too complain-y, please know it’s not just me that suffers when untimely gusts and deluges appear. I remember one picnic party nearing the end of their placid evening, when a drop in barometric pressure caused a sudden windstorm that blew twenty feather pillows, two secured umbrellas, and a birthday cake down the beach! Or another party celebrating a 50th birthday that had to be cut short after 45 minutes, because it started raining on a night all the weather apps had predicted a cloudless sky.

That’s to say nothing of the beach proposals and romantic anniversaries that have had to be indefinitely postponed or relocated to dark restaurant corners, because Miami’s sub-tropical reality is that nothing is guaranteed.

I mention all these things, not in order to put the fear into any prospective picnic client - if I have, please don’t run the other way! Maybe forget what you just read?

My concern is only for you (and a little for me, but mostly for you:)

Because, second only to the disappointment of having to cut short a much-anticipated picnic due to bad weather, is the frustration of having to change your plans the day before, when all the wedding guests have already flown in, when you’ve finally gotten your future fiancé to stop being suspicious about that weird number on your caller ID, or when it’s the date of your 25th Silver Anniversary, and you have to cancel outright, because it wouldn’t make any sense to celebrate next week.

It’s for those moments that I recommend having A SECOND LOCATION! I have said it so many times, posted it on my FAQ, highlighted it in my emails and proposals, but it seems to rarely sink in…PLEASE CHOOSE A BACKUP! It will save you so much head- and heartache!

Particularly in those months of the year, when Miami is at its most ‘Miami’ (check my calendar guide for more on this), having a Plan B with rain cover is invaluable. If you are not a local, I am always on hand to help suggest options - from park picnic shelters to hotel partners, and solutions in between. But if you so happen to have an obliging garden, terrace, balcony, or living room with a sliding door available to you, embrace it!

A California Surfer Picnic - in the Banyan Mist of Miami

Which brings me at last to my original purpose of this post, which is to share with you that first instance back in February 2020, when I had to substitute a client’s beach fantasy for a backyard, (yes, just days before the lock-down).

In those before-times, life was still normal, and I was starting to get into the picnic game. It had been a year since I’d presented my picnic company idea to a handful of supportive friends, who would talk me up to anyone who’d listen, and by that January I was slowly getting noticed by the friends of friends with gypset style or a Pinterest addiction.

I mention Pinterest, because in 2020, that would have been the primary source of all things picnic. The expectant young mother who found my name in a Facebook search of local picnic rentals had done exactly that, fallen in love on Pinterest with a California-based baby shower setup from 100layercakelet.com.

California was seemingly the center of the professional picnic by that point. It’s not hard to see why: a rife market of festival-going influencers with millennial rose gold glasses, miles of wide coastline, dry sunny weather, and a Hollywood-honed talent for staging and pastiche. Don’t forget the dry weather (ahem.)

Perhaps for all the reason we are the anti-California here - humidity, tropical storms, infernal heat, fire ants - it wasn’t until social distancing made the curated picnic a valuable service that Miamians at large began to see picnics for something other than a corporate event on a baseball field or a family cookout at Oleta Park.

But my client was ahead of her time, or her city rather, and determined to find someone who could stage her Pinterest-inspired ‘surfer-style’ gender reveal picnic for 45 of her closest family and friends.

I followed the link she supplied to the blog post - the picnic was admittedly fab. It featured: two tea rose and thistle-crested hoop centerpieces, an ombre-style pillow arrangement that flowed from pink to blue, banana-leaf ottomans, Himalayan salt blocks, sequined Moroccan rugs, a 7-foot-tall watercolor canvas backdrop with a leaning wood ladder draped in Shibori-dyed blankets, a hand-painted acrylic welcome sign, and an antique bookcase doubling as a cake table, replete with flower garlands.

And I was meant, not just to capture the spirit of this setup, but to completely recreate it, scene for scene, down to the vintage smoke-grey goblets and onesie-shaped bottle tags. No problem.

Honestly, I relished the challenge, loved the amount of original artwork involved, as well as the amount of Shibori…but something nagged at me.

I kept glancing at the blog images of the cake table vignette and massive backdrop. From previous event productions, I knew anything is possible with a large team of hands and sandbags. But the furniture was just a part of it - what about the catering setup for 50 guests or the seating for elderly relatives? The original setup benefited from a nearby beach cottage as a base camp. But this event here would need to be entirely (and cost-prohibitively) self-sufficient. A permitted event production of that size on our beach, on a WEEKEND!?

Besides, it was one thing to share a beautiful picnic moment with friends and spry coworkers and trend-conscious cousins - people who accepted the Kafkaesque parking experience of South Beach, who didn’t mind the two-block walk to the nearest public restroom, and who possessed the ability to sit cross-legged for over two hours while shielding their prosecco cocktails from passing beach patrols.

Asking one’s 80-year-old abuelita to pop a squat on the sand? Maybe not so much.

It soon became clear to me that the beach was not suitable, in light of all the elements this event demanded. And so, I resolved to have the ‘talk’, that conversation with a client, when you must dash hopes and long-entertained picnic fantasies with alternate suggestions. This beachy surfer-style picnic needed to take place at home.

As it happened, this client lived in a house with a gorgeous garden! Sparkling lap pool and a long stretch of manicured lawn with a lush 12-foot hedge. I was rather taken aback by the footage of it, not being sure what to expect, when she sent me a video - would it do, she wondered? Would it look strange, a beach picnic at home? The same home that had already hosted so many countless family reunions and Super Bowl parties and Thanksgivings. She wanted her shower to be special, to stand apart.

I knew how she felt, could hear the voice of surrounding naysayers who did not get this ‘picnic’ thing…but I also knew how much more disappointing it would be to have one of the infinite variables of a beach setting ruin her day.

I tried to dispel her worries - a home setting would open up so many possibilities! We could create a sweet teepee corner for the kids. She could rent gorgeous sofas for her terrace and a proper farm table for a massive grazing presentation! Plus, there were all the advantages of a kitchen at arms-length, luxurious bathrooms around the corner, and shaded patio for staging that cake table. Not to mention, she could decorate the table with as many mini champagne splits as she liked, without fear of breaking beach rules on glass or alcohol.

In the leadup to her date, I have no doubt that she second-guessed our decision, fears she probably allayed by keeping her mind on custom cookie orders and rental orders and the general busyness of party planning.

But I had zero doubts.

Even less two weeks before her event, when I set up a picnic on one of the windiest, drizzliest days I had ever experienced in Miami. It was just the type of day I described above, not the golden one that fills your soul with accomplishment, but the other one, the frantic one, where not one fork will lay straight, pillows are chased down, and the final product, though adequate in its completion, stings you with all the ways it could have looked better.

Which was not an issue on the day of the gender reveal, despite the high wind advisories. Because this home cradled our picnic in its secure and verdant blanket, and my exhausted drive home that night under the canopy of Coral Gables’ Banyan trees was a fulfilling one of a job well done.

Credits:

Picnic Styling & Decor: Paspalum Designs

Florals: Paspalum Designs

Creative Artwork: Carola Perla

Photography: Roger Arguello Photo, Ellie Perla

Furniture Rentals: Unearthed Rentals

Catering: Over Wood Artisan Platters

Inspiration Setup: Beach boho gender reveal party | Summer party ideas | 100 Layer Cakelet