Our Story

How it started.

Welcome to Tiki Blue Creative!  We are a gathering of artists and event experts in the Tampa Bay area.  At the core of our mission and purpose, we believe that we should celebrate more often, we should celebrate with purpose and we should celebrate in new and unique ways.

When I was growing up, my mom had a side-hustle/passion for event planning and execution, specifically weddings.  Naturally, my older siblings and I were a big part of her workforce.  Some of my earliest memories were of threading cheese cubes and olives onto countless toothpicks and fanning them onto huge platters.  I remember spending hours sitting next to my grandma as we stamped out little circles of bread and cucumbers for cucumber finger sandwiches.  I went to sleep most Friday nights to the strong smell of vanilla and sugar and the comforting hum of her KitchenAid mixer furiously churning up buckets of buttercream while massive floral arrangements filled our kitchen and living room.  Our weekends were spent carting boxes, arches, flowers and food into yet another venue.  

When I was originally trying to decide what my major should be in college, I headed off towards a business degree as the most logical option.  It took a few years to realize that I couldn’t escape my desire to create and design.  I switched my major to Fine Arts and specifically focused on oil painting (sorry mom and dad!).  I loved exploring different mediums and learning visual design basics.  I also loved studying art history.  That led me to a life-changing opportunity to spend a semester in Paris studying and creating art and traveling around other parts of Europe to cap off my college education.  After graduation and upon launching off into the world, I was starry-eyed with zest and excitement for how I was going to change the world with my art.  After a few years of random, one-off art shows and gigs, I was ironically also growing in my retail career and found an additional passion and focus with people leadership and project management.  Fast forward almost 20 years and I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have been able to invest deeply in both my corporate career as a people/business leader and project/process manager for a Fortune 100 company while also developing my passion and skills in all things creative.

Over the years while climbing the corporate ladder, I began to re-engage with my creative side.  Randomly a good friend of mine connected me with an event production company in Tampa called M6FX.   I learned airbrush special effects makeup and also got the exciting opportunity to build several full-scale art installations in a local Tampa theme park.  Having several good friends in the wedding industry, I also frequently bugged them to connect me with an awesome florist in Tampa to learn the art of floral design and installation.  Fate brought me to Florist Fire Design House.  

I started an internship with Gayle Zerr, owner and founder of FFDH at the start of the 2017 wedding season.  I quickly found that I loved working with flowers.  In my years with FFDH, I’ve had the unique and humbling opportunity to collaborate on a massive variety of weddings and events. We’ve created almost every look imaginable and executed on simple, beautiful events all the way to full-scale, multi-day celebrations. I’m incredibly grateful for the years of experience and expertise I’ve gained in my continued partnership with Gayle and FFDH!

How it’s going.

So why Tiki Blue… As you can see, from my earliest memories, I and so many of the people closest to me have been deeply focused on helping people celebrate. From weddings, to birthdays, to housewarmings, to promotion parties and even celebrations of life, I’ve been blessed to have a life filled with celebration.  I believe we should celebrate in ways that are new and unique.  I believe we should celebrate ‘just because.’  I believe we should all have the ability to focus on the core-purpose of our celebrations and events while muting as much of the stress around planning/executing as possible.  From my early training and education in fine arts, I also believe we can incorporate design principles and art history as a foundation for building a perfect event both visually and experientially.

With that in mind, Tiki Blue Creative has come along to serve as just that… a ‘creative.’  It is purposely vague.  It is a collection of artists and professionals who can jump in to support your dreams and vision.  We can execute on a tiny slice of your event or we can invest as much as you need and want.  We have vast experience, skill and knowledge to help you think outside the box and create a beautiful, and more importantly, deeply meaningful dream event.  We are here for you.  

Oh and Tiki Blue… weird name.  When I was in college, I frequently dog-sat for my roommate’s older sister’s little chihuahua.  After a while, she kind of just became mine! (For legal reasons, I cannot explain further - totally kidding 😜).  Tiki was a super cool little dog who literally traveled much of the US with me and went pretty much everywhere I went.  When she was turning 16, it seemed only natural that she should have a massive Sweet 16.  And so she did.  Complete with a giant, 3-tiered pink birthday cake my mom created, poster-size photos of her adorning the walls, dog bowls (new and clean!) filled with human snacks on the buffet, a photo booth with giant “16” balloons and of course Tiki, dressed in a pink party dress.  It was ridiculous.  But everyone who cautiously agreed to attend this blessed event left with a smile, (and a goody bag of dog or cat treats for their own pets) on their way out.  That event sparked the idea for Tiki Blue Creative. (The blue part is a secret).  If there is ever a time to think outside the box, to be ridiculous, to truly celebrate someone or something… it is now.  Let us help you do it.