NOVA 535 Unique Event Space, is a world-class wedding and event venue, located in beautiful Downtown St. Pete, Florida, aka DTSP. Over the years, we have hosted so many fun, exciting and creative public events, ever since we opened in 2008. Who am I? The St. Pete born and raised Entrepreneur who had a vision, and a lot of help, support and good luck, to create such an unique space. A space perfect for Art and Fashion Shows, for our annual NOVAWEEN adults only halloween party, for live music
NOVA 535 Unique Event Space, located in beautiful Downtown St. Pete, Florida, is a perfect location for any kind of shoot; web series, infomercials, tv film photo shoots…for so many reasons. Why? For starts our location is private, secure and easily accessed from Tampa, Sarasota and the Beaches, right off the interstate.
Gathering here at my historic venue NOVA 535, for our 30th high school reunion, Boca Ciega Class of 1986, the excitement and anticipation was palatable. Gathering in beautiful Downtown St. Pete, Florida, on a weekend already full of Pride; St. Pete Pride. Gathering one and all, black, white, brown, tan, blue, peach and green and rainbow (we hired the amazing Hoola Monsters to perform) gay, straight, undecided, “it’s none of your business”, tall, short, thick and thin, bald to bushy. Humans. Gathering. To Celebrate. The gathering core comprised of our friendships; friendly, caring and kind to each other. How Humanity should be treating each other. With love, respect and kindness, instead of fear, ignorance and hatred. By 4am, as the last few of us ubered our ways home (Uber Marcie it’s UBER!), after all our laughter, stories, jokes, memories, photos, drinks and smokes, we framed the solution, for our species.
Tonight daughter Erin Griffin brought together friends, family and fellow educators to celebrate the amazing educational career of her mother, during what we’ve titled the Ann Griffin Retirement Party…although Ann really doesn’t want to retire. She LOVES teaching others. Ann has dedicated 30+ years of her life helping educate…which takes an enormous amount of patience and fortitude….so a BIG congratulations (and much more) is due you Ann, bravo!!
Thursday May 19, 2016 we enhanced our weekly social club at NOVA 535 for business owners and Entrepreneurs, the Entrepreneur Social Club (the ESC), by inviting in our pal Ryan Tarrant, owner of Cinema Squatch, for a movie night and tech smash. See Ryan’s company provides huge screens and the big-boy projectors to give your home, office or in this case, a world-class wedding and event venue, a real deal movie experience. So we all teamed up with superstar DJ FRESH, the Sunscreen Film Festival and several other local businesses to make this a truly Smashing Event!
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Mia Rivero returned once again to downtown St. Pete’s favorite historic venue NOVA 535 to showcase and celebrate her business savvy spirit. See Mia is a renaissance woman: A mom, business owner (Pure Romance by Mia), Stetson Law graduate (where my father graduated from, takes a lot of hard work and smarts for sure!) she’s also a motivator and live broadcaster! Well tonight she shared all of these talents and more with the enthusiastic 250-ish ladies assembled to hear more about her Pure Romance business.
Dimmitt Automotive Group needed a private, world-class location, to showcase it’s soon to be released Aston Martin DB11, for an exclusive, invite-only event. On a bight and cheery Saturday spring morning here in beautiful Downtown St. Pete aka DTSP, the jaw-dropping DB11 was carefully driven into the front entry of historic wedding and event venue NOVA 535. Just a few hours later, 20 lucky, high-rollers were granted an exclusive, first crack at investing $250 LARGE for one of the very few DB11s available anywhere on earth.
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A Moulin Rouge inspired 50th Birthday Celebration was held on October 28, 2015 here at modernized historic venue NOVA 535 in beautiful downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. My long-time friend from the University of South Florida MBA program Olivier was approaching the big 50 and something proper needed to be done about it. He spends several months a year here in sunny St. Pete, “getting away” from his amazing home in the south of France. Olivier is a warm, friendly, worldly guy, traveling all over the globe, enjoying new people, places and experiences, always with a big smile on his face. Well for his 50th, we wanted to ensure that he was smiling from ear to ear, especially as Olivier made some pretty specific “suggestions’ as to how he wanted the night to go.
When Mother Nature is playing nice, it’s wonderful to spend time outdoors, enjoying just about anything. And it’s the dream of many a bride (and groom!) to hold outdoor ceremonies for their wedding. Whether it’s an intimate wedding with their closest 50 friends or if all 300 invited said “Heck YES we’re coming to Florida for a much needed vacation, err your wedding”, then having an ceremony outdoors is delightfully tempting. But the looming question of concern is always – What if it rains??
Beautiful courtyard ceremonies at NOVA 535. OPTIONAL Bamboo Archway shown. Photo by Molliner PhotographyI’ve always enjoyed game shows: the Price is Right, Hollywood Squares, $100,000 Pyramid, Jeopardy, Who’s Line is It Anyways? and so on. And I’ve always dreamed of creating my own. So after opening NOVA 535, I was enjoying some conversations with my amigo “Skeie”; we were reliving the glory of the old Gong Show. Fast forward a bit. I was lucky enough to meet Daniel “Motown Pride” Jefferson, founder of the Best of the Bay Improve Troupe Got Jokes?. So what does this have to do with my friend Chuck and Sofia’s wedding? Hang tight, we’ll be right back after these commercial messages!
Who doesn’t love climbing into a nicely decorated photobooth at a party? You’ve selected several crazy props and along with your partner / friends / kids / family / fellow drunkie you’ve just met, and it’s time for silly faces and spontaneous kisses and so much more! Well Mark and Shelli enjoyed this so much they created their own successful photo booth company, Get The Picture FL, around that joyus experience of making memories that you (usually) cherish forever. But this story isn’t just about the business of making photobooth memories, it’s about making a deep personal lifetime commitment to someone you love and cannot live without. Well, 20 years later, Mark and Shelli still Get the Picture!
When the delightful Melissa Cancio and her fabulous hubby Michael, owners of My Memories that Matter, (their local Event planning and Multimedia Design company) swung by downtown St. Pete venue NOVA 535 to say hello, little did I know it’d end up in a fabulous event featuring pink martinis and a fashion show. They were visiting NOVA to introduce me to the lovely Gina Kravitz, the Executive Director of Susan G. Komen Florida Suncoast. We talked and toured NOVA and agreed to all work together, each of us adding our value and skills towards helping ladies with and survivors of breast cancer. Fast forward several weeks to Tuesday November 10, 2015 and welcome to our Pink Martini Fashion Show….and here come the ladies now….Celebrating Survival Fashionably Downtown St. Pete!
It’s a tradition now that Mark and Shelli Olsen, owners of Get the Picture Photo Booth, bring their wonderfully decorated photo booth in for our annual Halloween party Novaween each year. Friday, October 30, 2015, Novaween 9 Disco Inferno was no exception. Everyone loves the photo booth, and the combination of drinking, being together with fellow fiends and / or random disco zombies, the dark enclosed space, the silliness of it all, relaxing and enjoying the moment before FLASH!! is something that brings out that delightful childish joy in all of us.
When searching for the name for our 9th consecutive Halloween party aka Novaween 9, here at downtown St. Pete venue NOVA 535, our thinking went something like this:
Nine. Hmm. Dante’s Inferno, 9 Levels of Hell. Hell = Hot. Hot = Inferno. Disco Inferno. Yes DISCO INFERNO!! And St. Pete’s Favorite Halloween Party Novaween 9 was so named.
Saturday August 22, 2015 we enjoyed the Florida Unsullied Film Premier Party with Filmmaker Simeon Rice right here in gorgeous downtown St. Petersburg, Florida at the meticulously renovated historic venue NOVA 535 Unique Event Space. Simeon is famous for his sacks, multiple Pro Bowl appearances and helping lead our Tampa Bay Buccaneers to our Superbowl Ring, yet that wasn’t enough for him. So he went to NY Film Academy and became a real deal filmmaker. Show off!
