ABOUT
UNIQUE Weddings + Events is a design-first Tampa wedding planner and creative director for couples who want a wedding that feels personal, polished, and fully considered from start to finish.
We don’t follow templates or recreate weddings that already exist. Every event is built around your style, your priorities, your guest experience, and how you want the day to feel. Design is not just flowers and pretty linens. It is layout, lighting, movement, timing, hospitality, and making sure the entire experience works without you having to manage it. That’s the part we obsess over...so you don’t have to.
As your planner and creative director, we guide the decisions, shape the design, and handle the logistics so you can actually experience your wedding instead of running it.
Based in Tampa Bay and serving St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and beyond, we create weddings that feel cohesive, immersive, well-executed, and deeply reflective of the people at the center of them.
Design-first planning for weddings that need more than just a pretty room
Tampa Bay wedding planner, wedding designer, creative director, and
the person making sure your wedding doesn’t just look good...it actually works.
Meet the creative director behind unique weddings + events - staci mandikas
🎭 Born & Raised in New Orleans - I grew up around bold celebrations, brass bands, and environments that actually feel like something. That influence shows up in every wedding I design - layered, energetic, and never forgettable.
🎨 Design is Literally My Job (and My Brain) - I’m a Tampa Bay wedding planner and wedding designer with a background in Interior Design, which means I don’t just focus on how your wedding looks - I focus on how it works. Scale, flow, guest experience, and execution are built into every decision from the start.
🔮 I See it Before it Exists - Before anything is ordered or installed, I already know how it’s going to come together. You’re not guessing your way through decisions - you’re guided through them with clarity and confidence.
🗣️ Blunt Honesty? - I’ll tell you what works, what doesn’t, and where your money actually makes an impact. No fluff, no sugarcoating - unless we’re talking cake.
🌅 Morning Person Energy - Fully caffeinated and already three steps ahead before most people have opened their inbox. Timelines, logistics, and details are handled early...not last minute.
🎯 Calm in the Chaos - Packed timelines, room flips, last-minute changes - this is where I thrive. While everything is happening around you, I’m the one making sure it all stays on track.
🖤Design Meets Real Life - I love a strong statement moment, but it still has to function. If it looks incredible but doesn’t work for your guests, it doesn’t make the cut.
✨ Favorite Wedding Moment? - That split second when my couple walks into their reception and says, “Wait… this is ours?” That reaction is the goal every single time.
🤝 Who I Work Best With - Couples who want something different. People who care about design, trust the process, and aren’t afraid to make bold decisions.
🥂 And, Yes... - I will absolutely tear up at your wedding - while still running the entire day like clockwork.
🎨 Design is Literally My Job (and My Brain) - I’m a Tampa Bay wedding planner and wedding designer with a background in Interior Design, which means I don’t just focus on how your wedding looks - I focus on how it works. Scale, flow, guest experience, and execution are built into every decision from the start.
🔮 I See it Before it Exists - Before anything is ordered or installed, I already know how it’s going to come together. You’re not guessing your way through decisions - you’re guided through them with clarity and confidence.
🗣️ Blunt Honesty? - I’ll tell you what works, what doesn’t, and where your money actually makes an impact. No fluff, no sugarcoating - unless we’re talking cake.
🌅 Morning Person Energy - Fully caffeinated and already three steps ahead before most people have opened their inbox. Timelines, logistics, and details are handled early...not last minute.
🎯 Calm in the Chaos - Packed timelines, room flips, last-minute changes - this is where I thrive. While everything is happening around you, I’m the one making sure it all stays on track.
🖤Design Meets Real Life - I love a strong statement moment, but it still has to function. If it looks incredible but doesn’t work for your guests, it doesn’t make the cut.
✨ Favorite Wedding Moment? - That split second when my couple walks into their reception and says, “Wait… this is ours?” That reaction is the goal every single time.
🤝 Who I Work Best With - Couples who want something different. People who care about design, trust the process, and aren’t afraid to make bold decisions.
🥂 And, Yes... - I will absolutely tear up at your wedding - while still running the entire day like clockwork.
What It’s Like to Work With Me...
TAMPA WEDDING PLANNING + DESIGN
WITH EQUAL PARTS CREATIVITY AND EXECUTION
Founded in 2008, UNIQUE Weddings + Events is a Tampa wedding planning and design firm led by creative director and planner Staci Mandikas. With more than 400 weddings planned throughout Tampa Bay and beyond, we help couples create celebrations that feel personal, original, and thoughtfully considered from every angle.
Our approach goes far beyond selecting flowers and linens. Drawing from a formal design background, we consider how every element works together, from layout and guest flow to lighting, atmosphere, hospitality, and the overall experience your guests will have from the moment they arrive until the final song plays. Every decision is evaluated not only for how it looks, but for how it functions and contributes to the bigger picture.
Whether we're designing a multi-day wedding weekend, transforming a blank space, or navigating a packed production schedule, our role is to provide creative direction, operational leadership, and the confidence that comes from having an experienced professional guiding the process. The result is a wedding that feels cohesive, memorable, and unmistakably yours, without you having to carry the pressure of making every decision alone.
What Makes Us...UNIQUE?
- Planned and designed Tampa Bay weddings from $5K backyard vibes to $300K ballroom blowouts - proving style isn’t about the budget, it’s about the vision.
- Created weddings for 8 guests who wanted cozy vows and up to 400 guests who wanted a full-on production. Either way, it looked damn good.
- Only book a limited number of weddings each year so your day gets our full attention, because perfection doesn’t happen when your planner is juggling 27 timelines at once.
- Worked at just about every venue in the Tampa Bay Area and the West Coast Florida, plus turned private residences and estates into total jaw-droppers.
- Licensed, insured, and unapologetically type-A with logistics: timelines, vendor wrangling, backup plans A–Z. Basically, we lose sleep so you don’t have to.
- Recognized as a top Tampa wedding planner and designer by Style Me Pretty, Rock 'n Roll Bride, The Knot, Wedding Wire, Marry Me Tampa Bay, and about 30 other features that still make us do a happy dance.
- Known for design at every level — from large-scale installations to the tiniest details guests actually remember (yes, they secretly notice the napkins).
- Obsessed with creating weddings that are modern, bold, and anything but cookie-cutter. If you want “the same as everyone else,” we’re not it.
- 17+ years in the Tampa Bay wedding scene means we’ve seen it all, from rain delays, power outages, vendor no-shows, and that one aunt who thinks she’s running the show. Spoiler: she’s not.
- Loved by Gen Z and millennial couples who want their wedding to feel like them - fresh, stylish, and a little bit unexpected.
