Picturesque Picnics

A picnic along the seawall of Downtown St. Pete. Photos provided by The Picnic Boys

By Gabrielle Reeder

The Picnic Boys Pop-Up

In June, Ryan Winters and Jay Negron, otherwise known as The Picnic Boys, noticed a pop-up picnic trend stemming from the West Coast. The couple decided to bring their own version to the East Coast and serve Tampa Bay. Starting as a small, popup business, The Picnic Boys now cater to weddings, proposals, baby showers and birthday parties.

“It was just a small little idea, and then it kind of blew up. We started in June and were booking two to six, maybe eight people picnics and then September, for some reason, it just, it blew up. I feel like we’re almost a full-blown event company,” Negron said, adding that The Picnic Boys have catered to weddings and around 25 proposals, so far.

With the urge to make the pop-up picnics their own, and combine their individual interests (Negron’s sales background and Winters’ decorating experience), the couple created their business model, separating themselves from the West Coast businesses.

“They were doing like boho, like a boho theme, that’s like really trending now, and we kind of just thought, how could we do this differently, because boho is not necessarily our style. I love decorating and I love a good themed party, so we’re like, why don’t we do themes,” Winters said.

Set up for a two person beach picnic

THE PICNIC BOYS

Including seasonal themes, the Picnic Boys have nine total themes. Christmas, Halloween, Tiki Kiki, Golden Garden, Nautical, Beach Tropical, Golden Woods, Beach Breeze and Cursed Queen,” Winters said, adding that the duo is open to adding more.

A Christmas picnic in a park

“When we first started out, it was kind of like throwing a whole bunch of paint against a wall and trying to figure out what looked good together,” Winters said.

If there is a specific ornamental object Winters is fond of, he designs the theme around it. For example, for the most popular theme among customers, as well as Negron’s favorite, the Golden Garden theme came from Winters’ fondness toward a “gold birdcage tabletop candle holder”.

The Picnic Boys recently hosted their first baby shower tea party, which elevated Winters’ desire for more tea parties. “Now I’m really craving to do a Mad Hatter Tea Party theme, so that’ll probably end up coming out,” Winters said. Negron and Winters set up the picnics briskly. Between the two of them, a two person picnic setup takes about 20 minutes with an even quicker take-down time. For parties up to 25 people, the setups are between an hour and 1.5 hours, according to The Picnic Boys.