Tone of the Wedding

So now that I’ve talked about my imaginary wedding, and shared the engagement party invites  that will look nothing like the rest of the wedding stationary, maybe it’s time to discuss our actual wedding. Honestly, it’s a pretty formal, traditional affair, starting with an interfaith religious ceremony and continuing on to a ballroom reception. Here's my inspiration board, the starting point for our wedding designs:

I surveyed some people on one of the Bee boards and got some great descriptors for this board- my favorite being "champagne and romance!" (Suggested, I think, by Sandy Toes Bride.)

Our Color Palette

Hopefully your monitor doesn't make these colors look too strange. I love this color palette, but hate that four months after deciding on it, I’m suddenly seeing it in every wedding magazine out there! I didn’t want to be trendy and I hope it won’t be dated by next year!).

Style Description

Classic:

I want us to look back and still love the details of our wedding years from now. The ivory and gold in our color scheme is very timeless to me. Our wedding is a formal ballroom event with a band, and skips a lot of trends like letterpressed invites, cupcake towers, or candy buffets. Of course, the class factor may be tempered slightly by the fact that we'll be running Weezer's Pinkerton album straight through dinner, and offering up a signature beer, but we need some personality in there!

Elegant:

To me, elegant means tasteful, luxurious, refined- basically knowing when there’s too much going on. I’ll be passing on the chains of dripping crystal and shiny rental linens, or gigantic overstuffed floral arrangements. We'll keep things beautiful but restrained. Like these invites, which are both classic and elegant:

I am so in love with these! Too bad they are WAY out of my budget! Source

Romantic:

This is where the sky blue accent comes into play, adding a dreamy, refreshing, and slightly unexpected touch. Our gilded décor and chairs will be complemented by lush and girly peonies and hydrangeas, as well as warm amber lighting. Something about the image below really captures the refreshing, romantic feel for me:

The original inspiration for our color palette. Source

Opulent:

Our venue is really what brings in the opulence. It’s designed to look like the Palace of Versaille, and it features a beautiful, huge ballroom with 36’ ceilings, a Juliet balcony, and a spiral staircase. Plus, it’s got an over the top feast for a menu- the cocktail hour alone features over 30 passed hors d’ouevres and stations, and a decadent Viennese display for dessert.

I'm loving the opulent gold in this picture of the Palace of Versailles, which our venue was designed after! Source

What words do you want associated with your weddings?

Inspiration Board

I never understood the point of inspiration boards, and never planned on making one. Until I was bored one night and threw one together as a background project while I was G-chatting Mr. B. He was arguing that my dream colors (ivory and gold) would be boring, and I wanted to show him they woudn't be. I wasn't even paying much attention while I did it, just combining some favorite pictures I'd saved. But when it was finished, I was shocked at how much I loved it. I mean, loved. I probably should have figured this, I combined all of my favorite wedding pictures into one big collage- why wouldn't I love it?

But more than that, I was glad I made it. First off, I was surprised to see how many cohesive elements it had. It made me feel like I could trust my judgment, that I gravitated towards certain things because they shared a common style element. What I like/choose is subconscious, but since it all comes from me, it somehow all works together.

Secondly, I learned my colors were a bit different than I'd always envisioned. I was very adamant about "ONLY gold and ivory, absolutely NO color"- well look how much baby blue is in here! (FYI, if asked before this board, I would have told you that baby blue was my least favorite color). I was glad that popped up as an accent color, since a lack of color was a small point of contention between Mr. B and me.

Finally, it's an easy way to show people what I'm thinking. Saying "white and gold with baby blue accents" could mean anything. This clarifies it a lot, and classes it up a bit. So without further ado: the board!

I love this board. I think it is elegant, classic, beautiful, vintage, and vaguely regal, yet retains a refreshing feel. I'm so glad I made this, and recommend everyone else try it out as well. You will be surprised at what you learn!