Details That Take Your Wedding to the Next Level
When I plan and design a wedding, it’s all about the details. I believe it’s the details that truly set weddings apart. It’s so easy for brides to recreate something they’ve seen before, but my job is to create something that is unique to them as a couple. This is where the importance of details comes into play.
Today I want to walk you through my most recent wedding and show you all the work, time, and attention we put into the details that truly made this southern wedding one of a kind!
1. The invitation is the very first impression your wedding guests receive and we all know how important first impressions are. Think about it: as terrible as this sounds, if you get two invitations in the mail for the same date and one is really thoughtfully done and the other is just a piece of paper someone printed on their home printer, which event would you be more excited to attend? (Yeah, the truth hurts!) The very first thing the guest sees is the envelope so we begin setting the tone right away with the calligraphy on the front and the custom seal on the back. With this wedding, I hired Abany Bauer of Brown Linen Design. We had a long meeting where I discussed with her my client’s vision and everything I wanted her to do in order to bring that vision to life through the paper details. Boy did she deliver! To begin, she combined the bride and groom’s initials within a floral crest that would serve as their logo, spread throughout not only the invitation suite (including those stunning wax seals), but also was incorporated into their wedding day as you’ll see in the next detail.
2. The first thing the guests get their hands on at the actual wedding is the sign-in book. I will always encourage my clients to go with a clean and simple sign-in book they can keep forever rather than something trendy. We used the logo once again on the cover of the guest sign-in book, greeting guests as they arrived to the ceremony. This keepsake will be one that the bride and groom can cherish for years to come. The rusty ink color was a very important aspect to these details in order to bring the all-wood venue the sophistication a wedding day deserves. The ceremony and reception were encompassed with warm wood tones, so to compliment that palette, I incorporated neutral, natural colored paper with rust, peach, and brown ink tones throughout the wedding. All the colors were inspired by the warmth of the wood venue. You’ll see the continuation of these colors in the next detail.
3. One of the most unique and personalized details of the wedding day was located in the centerfold of the ceremony program. Lining up the couple’s “timeline of love” for their guests was an important aspect they wanted to share. Our wonderful paper goods vendor, Abany took the couple’s timeline of love to the next level with these amazing original sketches, representing each moment.
4. If I had only incorporated those rusty and neutral tones, the entire wedding would have fallen flat in color. Instead, I brought in a multitude of pink hues to complete the palette in the fabrics of the wedding. This included a variety of dusty pinks for the bridesmaids dresses and their bouquet ribbon, a vibrant mauve for the mother of the bride’s gown (custom made by Laine Berry Couture), and even the groom and groomsmen wore subtle pink ties to bring it all together.
5. I believe it is super important for each wedding to have reserved seating for the families of the bride and groom. The last thing the mother of the bride wants to do when she finally gets a chance to sit down at the reception is to be wandering around trying to find an empty seat. This wedding was no different. I designated two of the guest tables for the families, one for the bride’s and one for the groom’s. In order to set these tables apart from the rest of the tables (the guest tables did not have assigned seating), they were fully adorned with simple yet modern white dinnerware, the most gorgeous copper flatware you’ve ever seen, and stemless glassware. Of course to add an even more personalized touch, each place setting was topped with a custom menu listing out the reception food, which was adorned with a peachy silk ribbon, and a place card of hand written calligraphy bound with twine to a marble tile. Even though the food was buffet style, I think having the detail of a menu is a nice touch. Those were not the only details we had on these gorgeous tables though. Look on to the next one to find out how we brought these tables into a unified look.
6. While the family tables are important, I like to put even more focus on the head table, where the bride and groom sit with their bridal party. In addition to all the details we included on the family tables (full place settings, custom menus, hand calligraphy place cards), the head table was surrounded by plush, high-back chairs covered in a natural linen fabric. Even further, the bride and groom were seated in a tufted wood and linen settee. To offset the deep mauve color of the velvet table linens, we included a variety of votive candle holders, from ceramic peach, white milk-glass, and tiny gold cups to hold these small candles, bringing an added warmth and extra lighting.
7. The custom paper goods didn’t stop at the reception tables though. I continued them into the three bars so all guests could enjoy a custom aspect of the wedding. Starting with the bar menus, which were printed on handmade peachy paper, the variety of options for the wedding guests were listed out so there was no question as to what was available to drink that evening. One beverage that was deeply desired by the bride from the start of the wedding planning process was Moscow mules served in copper mugs. After months (truly, this is not an exaggeration) of researching where to rent these copper mugs in our local area without having to purchase them, I was finally able to fulfill the bride’s wishes of having these gorgeous copper mugs to serve to the guests. They tied in perfectly with the rusts, pinks, and neutrals. Another stunning bar detail was the custom cocktail napkins. One style of the napkins was embellished with a variation of the couple’s logo, a simplified version of their initials in lowercase and without the floral crest. This small detail continued to tie the entire wedding together. The other style of cocktail napkin at each bar was a sketch of the reception venue with the wedding date beneath it. Wedding guests were sure not to forget these beautiful details as they partied the night away.
8. Not only did the cocktail napkins have the venue sketched on them, but the wedding favors did, too. The bride and groom wanted a small token for the guests to take home with them and remember their big day by, so we came up with a custom drink koozie that we would have at all the bars. On one side of the neutral, linen colored koozie, the couple’s names within a crest and the wedding details were printed in a white ink. On the other side included the sketch of the venue and where the wedding was located. If you ordered a beer at the bar, it was served to you in this koozie.
9. One of the most important parts of the wedding for the bride was having a stand-out bridal cake. Patticakes Bakery exceeded our expectations with a towering, almost seven feet high buttercream covered cake. To continue the complimentary color scheme we had the baker create a custom peach color for the cake. Topping it all off, we draped the cake in vines and greenery, bringing in a natural element to this towering dessert.
10. Speaking of dessert, we did not want to leave the groom out of all the customized, fun sweets. Throughout the reception, we allocated three separate tables to hold mini jars of layered desserts. Each table had a different flavor (oreo, snickerdoodle, and gluten-free chocolate) as well as a different napkin. Each of the napkins represented one of the groom’s favorite things: his chocolate lab, Jenny; duck hunting; and deer hunting. The final detail that set these dessert tables even more apart is the custom stands we had built to hold the dessert jars by Luckas Strack of Strack Studio Furniture. As you can see in the above picture, the wedding logo was laser engraved into the wood, one of my favorite details of the entire day. After the wedding, I had Lucas cut out the logo from the stand and I gave it to my clients to use in their new home. I can just see it beautifully propped on a bookshelf.
11. Our final (and most memorable) detail was the custom wood photo wall (also built by Strack Studio Furniture) that was used as a photo backdrop for guests. We wanted to make this a statement piece, not only with the sprawling floral surrounding the wall, but incorporating a variation on the rust-colored floral crest from the logo once more. Abany of Brown Linen Design sketched this design and we had it created into a decal to put on the wall.
I truly believe it was all the little thoughtful details that truly made this wedding one of a kind for our clients and even caught the eye of Martha Stewart Weddings. Click here to see how they featured this wedding!
So let me know in the comments below, which one is your favorite detail? I would love to hear from you!
All details were captured beautifully by Heather Payne Photography.