Emily + Stephen Highlight
A wedding is a deeply meaningful and profound event. It is always a huge responsibility and honor to be asked to plan someone’s wedding. It places on the designer, a distinct responsibility to create a concrete, tangible, and living version of a dream. Whether you dream of an intimate and romantic evening or a modern and chic party with vibrant colors, anything is possible.
Over the summer, I was asked to plan a wedding, and for me this wasn’t just another event. This wedding happened to be for a life-long friend of mine, someone I had always considered a sister. I knew this would be a challenge not because of the expectations of the bride or her family, but because of my own. I knew I would do anything to make this day special.
I spent months coming up with budgets, drawings, samples, menus, bouquets, and lighting. The family and I met several times to pour over all the details. We originally decided the feel of her wedding should be a garden party. Using an indoor ceremony and reception space made this difficult, but the venue held special significance as it was the church where the two met and still attend. The high ceilings gave the rooms an airy feel, and the bride’s color choices of blush, cerulean, and light gray brightened up the spaces.
We discussed draping both the ceremony and reception spaces to completely transform the church, but our budget seemed to be better used on other décor. If we wanted a garden, there would have to be lots of flowers. With a guest count of 340 and a very large bridal party, floral definitely proved to be our biggest budget item.
The reception spaces were decorated with a mix of rectangular farm tables, five foot round tables, and cocktail tables. The round tables had beautiful blush linens with decorative petal detailing or gray patterned linens. The farm tables had blush runners.
We used a variety of centerpieces to accent the different tables. Tall silver stands topped with lamp shades and flowering branches were a guest favorite. The other arrangements boasted a combination of blush roses, white roses, white hydrangea, white stock, seeded eucalyptus, spray roses, tulips, and hypericum. All of the beautiful colors and textures came together to create a one of kind event that could have been reminiscent of a garden party.
It’s funny looking back because it felt like we were constantly met with obstacles. It seemed like no matter what decision we made there was something standing in the way of it happening exactly how we wanted it. I got so focused on the details and my own ambition to make the wedding perfect that I almost missed how incredible things really turned out. Sometimes your original plan isn’t the best one. Sometimes any number of things will stand in the way, and it can feel like how you imagined it isn’t attainable. I watched the details unfold, but I was so worried about what the vision was I couldn’t see the big picture. I remember watching Emily walking down the aisle, and taking a deep breath. Even though the whole even lay in front of me, I knew the most important part was over.
This wedding embodies everything I love about my job. Not only did I get to plan and execute a gorgeous event, but I saw how much happiness the whole evening brought to everyone involved. Weddings are a public declaration of a lifetime of love two people hold for one another. I have never taken my responsibility of planning these occasions lightly. I’m not married myself, but I know I want that day to be absolutely perfect. I want it to be a reflection of how I feel for the person I’m pledging to spend my life with. Emily and Stephen’s wedding was all of those things. It was timeless and romantic with subtle nuances of the life they had already begun to build, and that in itself was absolutely perfect.
