TENNiS APP Launch Party & the Bryan Brothers

Several weeks ago, I attended a party at a gorgeous mansion on Key Biscayne.   Held during the weekend of the Sony Ericsson Open (that’s tennis, by the way, not golf…it’s like they give sporting events purposely ambiguous names to confuse people – like, for example, the John Deere Classic, which is golf – and don’t even get me started on the oxymoronic implications of that title), the party was the launch party for TENNiS APP for iPhones. The guests of honor were the Bryan brothers – that is, Bob and Mike Bryan, who are two of the top doubles tennis players in the U.S., and also have a band, which performed at the party.

To be quite honest with you, I completely forgot I attended this party. It was in the midst of SIF (Social Innovation Fund) madness at work, my trip to visit my sister, and my wracking case of bronchitis – I think that in a haze of sleep deprivation, Tussionex Suspension, and mind-numbing federal documents, I blacked the whole thing out of my mind completely.  The only reason I remembered recently that I went was because I had photographed the event for the host and hostess, Sean and Ana Wolfington, because something had happened to their photographer at the last minute, and their assistant contacted me asking if they could get a CD with the photographs on it.  I thought it would be interesting to put these up to show the contrast between this…and what I usually post. Haha.

The Exterior.

I could do a series of ten posts on the décor alone (they wanted me to take pictures of the party set-up so that they could easily re-create it in the future), but I will spare you pages and pages of drool-worthy design, and just put up my favorites. Above is the view from the back patio.  That pool is actually a waterfall – isn’t it beautiful?

There were white orchids and lilies everywhere, floating suspended in water in these tall vases. I love the underwater flower concept. (Works better if the flowers are plastic…)

Here is the backyard, facing the other way.  Below that upper pool/waterfall is another, larger swimming pool.

Just to prove that I didn’t just steal these pictures off of the Internet! I really was there, I really was…I swear.

Ignore the wrinkles in my dress. Sigh. This was before my dad sent me an iron for my birthday. (Not kidding.)

Beneath the upper pool, the waterfall cascades over a lower deck into the larger pool. On the lawn, they had set up tall tables covered in white linens. Miami is making me have a bit of an obsession with white, I think. Everything is either coastal, beachy, distressed vintage white – all white – or sleek, modern, airy white. I love it all!

This is the back of the house; that is, the part of the house that faces the ocean.  Isn’t it a fabulous?

Once the party started – in the evening – the tall, white-linen-covered tables were transformed into over-sized glowing lampshades (they were lit from inside).

The Interior.

This is the first glimpse of the house you see when you first walk in. There is an open stairway above that far sitting room, but I cropped it out because it looked awkward. Sorry.

All of the pictures on the far right wall are sepia-toned photographs of the family. I really like that.

I also really like the dark wood-white fabric and flowers combo. It gives me ideas for things to do to my own apartment…I figure I should probably get all of my white obsession out of my system before I have kids; my parents installed white carpeting throughout our house when they had an infant and a four year old. Things didn’t turn out so well for the carpet.

And here is the dining room, where they kept the food. And oh, my goodness, the food.

The food! I believe these came from George Stone Crab, who delivers fresh crab worldwide (if any of my mid-West readers want to get some of that for themselves!). These were pre-cracked, and so good! Although, it is difficult to peel fresh crab, hold your plate, and your drink, and your purse, and your camera, all at once. Aren’t those white hydrangeas pretty, too?

Yum….am I making you hungry yet? I love love love fresh cracked crab.  One of the things I miss the most about (currently) having no money is fresh, good seafood. Mmmm.

Look at those claws!

The People.

The party was hosted by Sean and Ana Wolfington (the couple on the far left), Sean’s twin brother Ryan, and his girlfriend Hilliary. The guests of honor, like I said earlier, were the Bryan Brothers.  If you want to know more about them, you can Google them.  Another part of the night was the auctioning off of that painting that you see behind them. The painting is by artist Leonardo Hidalgo, and was auctioned off to benefit VegasTennis.com’s Marty Hennessy Jr. Tennis Foundation. (The foundation works to inspire youth through mentoring, tennis, and education, and is co-founded by Ryan Wolfington.)

Here I am with the twins.

[Note: Again, please ignore my wrinkles. I can just picture you saying, Geez Louise, who is that wrinkly mess?  I was sick, drugged with cough and sinus medication, and had sat in an office all day long! Please don't judge... ]

All my favorite girlies!  Tania, on the left, is a Program Coordinator in my office. She does….just about everything related to our youth. Then, second from the left, is me (and my wrinkles).  Second from the right is Cristal, who used to work in the Governor’s office with Wendy and now does marketing for Miami-area hospitals. Cristal is a total crack-up, partly because she is so honest – she always makes me laugh. She’s so sweet. And I also love her dress. Camille is on the far left. Camille works with me and Tania. She kind of does a little bit of everything, from HR policy to events coordination to picking up cases of wine for our wine-tasting event . (Wonder if they ever count the bottles after she drops them back off, hmm, Camille?) [Just kidding. :) ]

This is Maximillian. We actually met several weeks ago at a St. Jude’s Young Professionals event.  He works for Jeb Bush’s consulting firm.  He’s very smart, and has a dry, droll kind of humor, which makes me a teensy bit uncomfortable because I always feel like I didn’t get the joke. (Which is usually the case.) I don’t exactly recall why we were posing with the palm tree, but it may have had something to do with the raspberry cocktails they were passing around.

Another raspberry cocktail-induced pose, perhaps? (I’m just kidding, by the way. There actually was reasoning behind this pose, believe it or not, I just don’t recall what it was.)

My personal favorite photograph of the night:

Wendy (on the left) helped Sean Wolfington organize this whole shindig.  Part of my “duties” was to photograph random party guests.  This woman (below) was my most favoritest party-goer.  She just looks so darn chic! I loved her outfit, her little red clutch, everything about her, really – and the shoes! The shoes were red and black Chanel spectator ballet flats….ohmigosh. I had to walk away so I didn’t suffer a stroke of severe shoe envy.

The brothers signed the painting before it was auctioned off…

….then I left.

No, I am not joking.  They also performed their song, “Open My Heart,” which is tribute to Andre Agassi (my first impression was: Wait…what?), and Adriana Lucia performed.

But I missed all of that, because I was sicker than sick. I was coughing so hard towards the end of the night that I couldn’t stand up straight. (Luckily, it was outdoors, loud, and dark, so this was less noticable – and disgusting – than it would have been if it was inside.) So I finished taking the posed photos that they requested and blew that joint!

In all seriousness, though, it was a beautiful night – beautiful people, beautiful home, beautiful setting. And that is what I will leave you with:

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