OCCASIONS: Just Married - Phil Brooks & Lisa Intagliata

Bride’s Parents
Paul and Elizabeth Intagliata

Groom’s Parents
Dulce Annella Brooks and the late Robert Johnson Brooks

Background: Lisa is going on her 11th year as director of philanthropic projects and events at Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation. Phil, who goes by his last name of Brooks, has worked with Royal Caribbean cruise line for the last 20 years, in the food and-beverage industry. The couple will start their new life “on land” in their new house in Venice.

How they met: Brooks and Lisa met through friends while on board Royal Caribbean’s Nordic Empress cruise ship. After just being friends, Brooks finally won Lisa over with “his smile, charm, patient listening and those beautiful paper roses.”

The proposal: June 27, 2012
After Brooks gave Lisa several hints last summer that she would be surprised with something big soon, Brooks finally popped the question while he and Lisa were cruising on the Oasis of the Seas in June. He waited until halfway through the cruise and then took Lisa for an intimate Italian dinner at Giovanni’s Table, a small Italian specialty restaurant onboard. After looking at his watch many times, he was finally relieved when several of his fellow crewmembers and the ship’s florist all arrived to stand by his side while he got down on one knee and proposed.

The wedding: Lisa Intagliata and Phil Brooks were married Saturday, Feb. 16, in Fort Lauderdale after an eight-month engagement. The ceremony took place at The Church By The Sea in Fort Lauderdale and was co-officiated by the bride’s cousin, Stephen Intagliata, who is the campus minister at Bluffton University in Ohio. Stephen wanted to leave Lisa and Brooks with a simple way of remembering the kind of love that can hold a marriage together and keep it growing strong, so he used an acronym of a word that both of them are familiar with: “CRUISE.” “C” stands for compassion; “R” stands for respect; “U” stands for understanding; “I” stands for small i (to put the other first); “S” stands for sacrifice; and “E” stands for encourage.

The reception: Cocktails and a sit-down dinner, at the Lauderdale Yacht Club, followed the ceremony. Guests were greeted with purple signature “Love Boat” drinks and tropical steel drum music. Upon entering the reception outdoors, under the open-air pavilion facing the intercoastal waterway, guests were given small cruise ship place cards with their table name and number — tables were named after all of the cruise ships the couple has sailed on over the years.

The wedding colors were eggplant, black, white and silver, and the theme of the wedding was “Anchored by Love,” a nod to the couple meeting aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship several years ago.

Tablescapes featured grape fortuny tablecloths with many decorative votives and large crystal chandelier centerpieces with large round deep-purple pomiander balls floating on the chandeliers, as if suspended in air.

The weather turned a bit colder than expected that day, so guests kept warm with specialty coffees, pashminas provided by the couple and dancing to music by Mark Zauss and the Z Street Band, from Orlando — the same band Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation booked for its Corinthian Gala last year.

Guests: More than 125 people were in attendance, including many friends and family who made the trip from Sarasota, such as Sally Schule, Susan Jones, Brent Greeno, Allen Tyre, Arnaldo Pernala, Alex Quarles, Adrian Gadd, Leigh Wilcox, Robert Brown, Arjun and Bethany Bhatia, David and Karen Rule, Richard and Jackie Keller, Jim and Mary Beth Bos, Erin Barker and Doug Christie. Other relatives came from California, Connecticut, New York and Honduras.

Bride and groom’s first dance: The bride and groom danced their first dance to the song that Elvis made famous, “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.” They choose that song because Brooks sang that song to Lisa in front of crowds of people on the Nordic Empress cruise ship when they were first dating.

Honeymoon: The newlyweds honeymooned in Las Vegas, where they saw many shows, including Jubilee and Tony & Tina’s Wedding. They dined at the famous Top of the World restaurant located 800 feet above the Las Vegas Strip at the top of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino and also enjoyed catching up on their sleep after many months of wedding planning.

Fun facts: Lisa’s father baked more than 450 homemade Italian biscotti (a nod to their Italian heritage) and had them in decorative glass jars for guests to enjoy along with their specialty coffee.

In place of a traditional guest book, guests were asked to sign a white life ring decorated with “bling” and the words “Just Married.” Guests also left with a silver cruise ship luggage tag to remember the couple’s special day.