Real wedding: Amanda + Matt

A few months ago I showed you Amanda and Matt’s bridal portraits taken in Brooklyn, and now that they are finally hitched, Amanda sent me some of the amazing photos Jessica Johnson took.

All of our decisions were based on our venue – our colors, orange and gold, matched the elaborate ceiling tiles and the theme, “bohemian Art Deco”, came naturally. I DIYed everything except for the flowers!

Bridal attire – I went for a very glamorous look, with a vintage up do and a birdcage veil. My makeup was little heavier on the eyes to resemble a classic 1930′s look. The earrings had an Art Deco pattern that subtly tied with our theme. My bouquet consisted of orange and peach roses, orange ranunculus and peach sweet peas, that were tied to an antique gold satin ribbon with a burnt orange bow. The shoes – were dyed in peach/orange. I bought a pair of vintage clip on earrings to add a bling and also doubled as my something old!

Both ceremony and reception were held at the Guardian Building, in Detroit.

Ceremony – Tissue paper pomanders were hanged from chairs to decorate the aisle. I made the pomanders using tissue paper flowers a la Martha Stewart, and glued them onto a styrofoam ball – about 50-60 flowers were used to each pomander that my husband and I made while watching tv in the evening over the course of a month. Our programs were telegrams, with an Detroit “stamp” on each envelope (the image is blurry but even the date of the stamp matched our wedding date, all done on Photoshop).

Reception – We hanged our escort tags on manzanita branches, with white pebbles in a clear vases to contrast with the black marble of where they were placed. We had candles on the tables, lots of them! The entire room was glowing when the lights went down for dinner. The table linens matched the ceiling and the color flowed with the venue despite the heavy and bold look to it. Our place cards carried the Art Deco elements from our invitations.
The cake design was clean, white on white, with a simple Art Deco pattern. The vintage cake topper is from the 1930′s. Our vintage cake knife (not shown in the pics) was a Depression glass cake knife (all found on Ebay).

The photobooth was a fun project. My husband is a photographer, so he had most of the equipment necessary (check out his page, www.matthewnistor.com – he’s now starting in the wedding business too). We sent 4×6 prints to each guest along with our thank you notes, with directions to where the photos are being hosted.
Pics from the photobooth : www.matthewnistor.com/photobooth

[images by Jessica Johnson]

Real wedding: Vanessa + Matt

I love the palette, the patterns, the details, pretty much EVERYTHING about this wedding! Vanessa and Matt have done a great job with all the personal touches….right down to the kiddie bags and table numbers [another easy trick, pictures of your hands holding up the number!]

[images from The Knot]

Real wedding: Amy + Scott

I am a floral and interior stylist. I do mostly home and event styling and styling for photo shoots. I am also an artist and designed our entire wardrobe of wedding stationary. The wedding was held at the St. Regis Hotel in Midtown. The venue called for Old New York style – our personality as a couple was far less stodgy. As a result I wanted to convey in the invitations be a party full of joy and celebration.

What is better than a burst of color and the joy of a wedding celebration to bring up spirits in the darkest gray stretch of winter?

The Guests:

Our guests were from all over the world, my husband works for a London based firm and a majority came in from Detroit, Michigan and Knoxville, Tennessee. We had a destination wedding of sorts as almost all of our guests came in from different places. I started the wedding suite with an invitation to NYC with Lady Liberty on it.

Inspiration and Decoration:

Inspired by the first signs of spring my inspiration started with bright yellow flowers of the forsythia branch. Orange and all shades into red became accent colors. Hurricane containers lined the aisle and a floral arch of forsythia was at the alter. The tables were all named after places Scott and I had traveled to in the time we were dating. Our sweetheart table was named Antigua after where we got engaged. The glass containers had sliced oranges lemons kumquats and cran-apples floating in them.

Another cool thing we did was frame a photo of our parents, grandparents and siblings on their wedding day. We displayed them near the entrance of the cocktail party. We also took Polaroid photos of our guests as they came in to the party. We had them sign in on individual sheets with their well wishes. Now we have a beautiful fabric box full of their kind words (that looks great on the cocktail table) as a memento!

Vendors:

I wore Monique Lhuillier, and Red Jimmy Choo shoes. The Cake was Sylvia Weinstock, the band was Hank Lane Orchestra (heavily laden with Motown sounds for my Detroit guests!), video by Milk and Honey, photos by Brian Dorsey Studios, and Magician J.B. Benn for entertainment. Cory Davenport did the floral work for me – I could not face doing it myself… way too stressful!

I did the design on all the paper goods sent throughout the engagement and wedding … the accolades came rolling in on our suite of wedding stationary. I am working on a new part of my design business called papercupp. (homage to my maiden name of Cupp) I hope to help other brides set the tone for their wedding day celebration with bespoke stationary.

[images from Amy, by Brian Dorsey Studios]

Real wedding: Kathy + Shane

I love the homemade feeling of Kathy and Shane’s wedding….Kathy sewed the invitations and ring pillow herself, and all the colors and pattern tied in with the inspirational vintage cloth. Love it!

[images from Inside Weddings Fall 2007/Winter 2008]

Color Inspiration

Decor8 recently announced the winners of its Amy Butler inspiration board contest….1st place winner Starlee Matz came up with a great concept that would make not only a killer room but a killer color palette for a wedding. If I hadn’t already set my heart on green and white for my own wedding, then this would have been my second choice. Doing boards like these, (or in this case, a folder) can really help solidify a color palette and overall feel for your event…make it portable enough and you can even bring it along to vendor meetings to get your point across.

[image from decor8]