QUEENS OF MARDI GRAS: Purple, gold and green rules as residents, businesses bring carnival to the Emerald Coast (PHOTOS)

The LoCicero family in Destin is bringing the Big Easy party to the Emerald Coast.

“Lassiez le bon temps rouler at the beach! As former New Orleanians, carnival season, and our ties to it, run deep in our family,” Heidi LoCicero wrote to The Log.

“It was one of the things we missed the most — so we decided to bring it here,” she said.

Heidi goes all out for Mardi Gras, down to the decorations, which she takes very seriously.

“Nothing’s exempt from getting decorated,” she said, and it’s true, down to the dog, Cj, who dresses up in purple, green and gold for his spot in local parades.

According to Mardi Gras Party City manager Glenda McNeel, decorations for Mardi Gras and the carnival season are best-sellers, second to only Halloween décor.

“I can’t say that it’s a growing trend. We’ve been a Mardi Gras store for years,” said McNeel who has worked at the local store in Fort Walton Beach for 15 years.

At The Village of Baytowne Wharf, the trend seems more obvious. The pedestrian village is all decked out for this weekend’s Mardi Gras parade.

“We go all out,” said event planner Lanier Motes. “We start working on Mardi Gras decorations in August.

“There are just so many transplants down here, so people bring their love for Mardi Gras and there is always a lot of purple, gold and green.”

Baytowne gets their Mardi Gras accoutrements right from the source in New Orleans. They purchase their wreaths from local floral shop GG Bloom, which is owned by New Orleans natives Frank and Mary Romair, who moved to the area more than a decade ago.

GG Bloom specializes in purple, green, and gold Mardi Gras wreaths, which are made festive with jesters, bows, crowns, and symbols indicative of carnival season.

“Both Sandestin and Emerald Grand both do really nice Mardi Gras parades,” said Mary.

“It’s gotten bigger over the years, I’ve noticed,” said Mary of the celebrations. But, whereas New Orleans residents celebrate for weeks, here, she noted, they focus on the day of Mardi Gras.

Unsurprisingly, when compared to New Orleans, local decorations aren’t as prevalent, according to both Heidi and Mary.

“In New Orleans, everyone will have a Mardi Gras wreath,” said Heidi.

“It’s like a drop of rain in a water tower,” Mary said.

The LoCicero home here could rival that of its New Orleans counterparts, however.

Taking a whole weekend to put up, the decorations replace the Christmas decorations after The Feast of Epiphany Jan. 6 and stay up until the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday.

The LoCicero family moved to Destin in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, but though they had been taken out of the Big Easy, the Big Easy could not be taken out of them.

The family still makes the four-hour trip to New Orleans, where the family spent this past weekend, to take part in the Carnival festivities.

“It’s so steeped in old New Orleans history,” said Heidi of the Krewes, queens, bead throwing, favor-giving, king cakes, and flambeaux, or torch holders, who originally lighted the way for night parades.

“We had to go back and get our fix,” said Heidi, whose favorite things about the Carnival Season include family and friends, festive floats, and delicious Cajun food.

Heidi, her husband, Brian, and the couple’s children, Peyton, 18, and Andrew, 16, are deeply rooted in the traditions of New Orleans Carnival Season. For generations, the family has been involved in the seasonal revelry, from Heidi’s mother, who was a young lady-in-waiting for a Krewe, of which Heidi was a member, to Peyton and Andrew, who were, respectively, a lady-in-waiting and a page for the Krewe of Orion, of which their father was a member.

Krewes are Carnival Season social clubs made up as royal houses, with kings, queens, ladies-in-waiting, and pages, each special to the various Krewes, of which, in New Orleans, there are around 50.

The Krewes throw their own post-parade balls and create their own floats.

“Being part of the parades is something my mother did, something I did, and something the kids did,” said Heidi.

“They say you never know how many friends you have until you have a beach house,” said Heidi. Likewise, “You never know how many friends you have until you have a house on a parade route.”

Though the parades are decidedly New Orleanian, the number of parades in this area is growing, with almost a half dozen locally.

This year will be the first New Orleans Fat Tuesday the family will miss, as Peyton, who is also Miss Destin, will ride in Sandestin’s parade to be held on the same day, Feb. 21.

“It might be the first (New Orleans) Mardi Gras I miss in 45 years,” said Heidi.

Though, she added, “We love Mardi Gras and Louisiana, but this is home.”