Growing up the daughter of a restaurateur taught Nadia Turner the importance of customer service and accommodating a client’s wishes.

The family’s 5,000-square-foot Ann’s Restaurant in San Juan was a popular spot for local residents and Winter Texans in celebrating birthday parties and anniversaries. Turner has stayed in the hospitality business and branched out recently into a new realm of services. SPI Luxury Beach Picnics By Nadia is a far different setting than a restaurant just off Business 83 in the upper Rio Grande Valley. 

It’s a good fit for Turner, though, as she describes herself as a “beach person.” The same goes for her husband, Louie, a U.S. Army veteran and former sheriff’s deputy who owns a catering business. The couple has brought their varied backgrounds together to host elaborately styled and beautifully adorned beachside events. There are wedding planners and professional photographers who have long used the Island’s coastal imagery for picturesque backgrounds.

Nadia’s beach picnics go beyond simple functions and standard photo shoots to include hours-long affairs that are fully catered with the flourishes of a professional events planner. For Turner, her year-old business is more than just a venture testing an existing market for celebrations and romance on the Island. She has a bigger perspective in mind.

“We want to elevate the tourist experience on the Island,” Turner said. “We want people to talk about the Island like they do about Cancun and Destin.”

Getting Started

Turner’s seaside events began last summer when a friend asked if she could arrange a picnic on the beach.

The concept of doing events on the beach intrigued Turner. She decided to give it a go. Turner and her husband would soon run into a tangle of permitting regulations from the city of South Padre Island. Their recounting of dealing with the local city hall is that regulators said the couple would need multiple permits to cover the services they planned to offer. 

Turning to Cameron County after the local bureaucratic roadblock, the Turners found the county to be much more accommodating and business friendly. Nadia’s friend subsequently got her picnic off Beach Access 3 road on county-managed beachfront. The event went so well that Turner discovered she had a new business on her hands.

“I posted it on Facebook,” Turner said of the inaugural June 2022 picnic. “It hasn’t stopped since.”

‘Higher-End Vibe’

The Turner couple is high energy and enthusiastic in describing their business ventures.

Louie’s TNT Catering keeps them busy region-wide, with Texas State Technical College in Harlingen being a major account. He has a cooking background in addition to his military and law enforcement backgrounds. Louie Turner keeps a commercial kitchen in Port Isabel, where the couple resides with their two young children in addition to having their home base in San Juan.

A third business piece is a concierge service that brings clients to and from the Island from all points in the Valley. The real attention-grabber, though, are the picnics and the variety of events Nadia Turner stages on SPI’s beaches. Her passion and skill for design and décor are evident in looking through Luxury Beach’s Facebook photo gallery. Featuring at times balloons and umbrellas, with flowers adorning many presentations, Nadia’s designs are stylish and can include white tablecloths stirring with the Gulf breeze. 

It’s all a good fit for the romantic-related events that make up a big share of Nadia’s business, be it marriage proposals or wedding ceremonies and celebrations that follow. Complete food and beverage services are provided by Louie Turner’s catering with strict adherence to the county’s no-glass-on-the beach policy. Night events under starry Island skies are especially memorable. Small bonfires and lighting hang from canopy tents and provide striking surfside night imagery.

“People are always looking for romantic things to do,” Louie Turner said. “We’re trying to provide a higher-end vibe and incorporate things that are more luxurious.” 

The Island, in the view of the Turners, is underserved. Attracting more tourism and driving more business to SPI, they said, is “our driving force.”