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What’s in a Theme?

While I’m the first one on board for a 1980s Prom Party or a Tacky Christmas Sweater Holiday Fete, thematic weddings were just never my style.  Sure, I’ve seen them gorgeously and creatively executed by other brides, but my ideas for our wedding just didn’t seem to fit into any sort of simply categorized box.

I wanted Elegant… yet Fun and Festive.  I wanted Lively… yet Intimate.  And I wanted Vintage… but not Old-Fashioned or overly Traditional.

To get my bearings, I started with color.  Immediately inspired by this bouquet featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, I set out with an initial color palette of  raspberry and marigold.

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Not wanting anything overly matchy-matchy, I quickly decided to feature an entire range of colors – from buttery yellows, to apricots, to deep pinks, with a smattering of lush green thrown in for depth.  I also knew I wanted to play with texture – be it linens, ribbons or patterned paper goods.  Using these elements I created this initial “Inspiration Board”:

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left to right, beginning with the top: Brides Cafe; Martha Stewart Weddings; Brides CafeSnippet & Ink; The Knot; Snippet & Ink; The Knot; J. Crew; The Knot.

Creating our board was not only fun but also really helped me narrow my focus down to elements that were to be the essence of our wedding.  Suddenly, by piecing together these images, it hit me like a ton of vintage-lace-covered bricks: we had a freakin’ theme! It might not make sense to everyone and it might not be a “typical wedding theme” but it embodied Elegant, Fun, Festive, Lively, Intimate, and Vintage, all wrapped up together with a velvet marigold bow.

Our Wedding Theme = Midnight Garden Party Thrown by Anthropologie.

A mouthful? Yep.  Out of the ordinary?  Probably.  Perfection?  You betcha!

After this epiphany (and after my friends, family and fiance, chuckled at the obviousness of me planning a major life event around one of my favorite shopping locales), I began tweaking my vision for The Big Day – a little more color and funk here, a little less fuss there…

the Final Product:

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left to right, beginning with the top: National Geographic; The Knot; Snippet & InkSnippet & Ink; East Hill PhotoMartha Stewart Weddings; The Knot; J. Crew; The Knot.

Up next… Paper, Paper Everywhere!