What Is Wedding Design and Why Do I Need It?
My betrothed friends, a beautiful memorable wedding is first designed, and then planned. From the first guest to arrive at the ceremony, to the last guest to leave the reception, the total package of your wedding day will be remembered by both you and guests for years to come. Obviously you want it to be remembered with happiness, joy, magic, and love. How do you make that, not only happen, but become your unique brand of happiness, joy, magic, and love?
Is it the gorgeous flowers, the fun music, the terrific food, your drunken Aunt Suzette dancing on the table during the reception? All of these elements, except Aunt Suzette perhaps, should be tied together in an overall design for the greatest emotional impact. Wedding design means finding the common threads that will run through your wedding, the essential elements of your personal aesthetic. Think of your special day as a two-act piece of performance art, and design it thusly for maximum audience appeal.
Why Your Wedding Is Like a House
Have you ever walked into (or seen in a magazine or on television) a room that is perfect? Where all the elements go together seamlessly to achieve a strong emotional impact? Think of your home (or dream home). You’ve probably collected images and ideas, from books, magazines, and life, and found a look that feels “right” to you. We’re guessing that since you are visiting our website, your style is not too traditional, and you lean more towards a style that is eclectic. Eclectic style is always a bit harder to pull off, but ultimately, it’s more personal—a style that really represents your true personality in all its wonderful facets.
So, back to the design of your home; upon entering the front door, the guests have a first impression. Will the further unfolding of your rooms be modern and bold, or subtle and elegant? From the entrance, guests begin to see colors, personality, and style. Style affects all the senses. They may smell the comforting aroma of chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven, or feel the texture of draperies, carpets, bare floors. Do they hear music coming from your stereo? Upon entering your home, is the mood somber? Modern? Antique? Playful? All of these elements combine together to set the scene.
Instead of further digression into the wonderful world of interior design, let’s use these examples to translate to wedding design. The entryway into your wedding, your guests’ first inkling and first impression, will be from your invitations, which is why they should embody your personal aethestic. On your wedding day, your guests will get an initial impression when they first enter your wedding location. Will they be excited or bored, amused or awed? Your choice of colors, style and/or theme, music, florals, etc. needs to be coordinated to achieve the overall feeling you want to convey. Moving on after the ceremony, the guests will arrive at your reception—also part of the design package. Remembering the scent of your chocolate chip cookies, don’t forget that food is also part of the total design (think presentation as well as taste). Also, even with a subtle design/color scheme, the reception can be a little more bold, a little more fun. Will your guests prefer cases of champagne with lobster rolls or kegs of beer and a pizza bar? Food, drink and style go together to help set the mood of your reception.
Wedding design is about setting central themes of color, feeling, and style for your wedding to follow, and these central themes will lead you to the specifics.
Match Point
Design isn’t making everything match; it is coordinating elements that will touch all senses. Matching tends to be aesthetically boring. Seldom in professional wedding design do you see a center altar with two candelabras on each side with matching colors and florals, and then the same exact color of bridesmaids dress, and bows on each aisle, etc. At least, not in a ceremony that was thoughtfully designed. There is a rule in design accessorizing—use odd numbers. Believe it or not, this creates a more pleasant balance to the eye. “No way, you have to have two matching candles on the fireplace mantle—it’s the law!!” Try it. Put two objects on a table. Now put three. Our bet is that you will find three much more visually interesting. Offcenter can be more interesting than symmetrical; contrast can be more interesting than continuity. You’ll see that the eye tends to pick up on, and the brain is more likely to remember, contrast.
The contrast can be subtle like using different shades of the same color, or contrast can be using colors that oppose each other on the color wheel. Or putting an elegant, precisely fashioned bride in an industrial welding factory. Whatever you do, don’t make people want to fall asleep. And, don’t forget to inject whimsy and fun to make the design uniquely your own.
Your Head Might Explode With the Possibilities
And we certainly don’t want that! Yes, there are a lot of different elements to pull together for a cohesive wedding design, but if you start with the most broad aspect, and continue to the smallest detail, you will find the process to be personal, fun, and creative, not to mention perfectly unique. Your wedding doesn’t have to break the bank to be well designed. It just has to be personal. Check out our pages on self-expression, themes, color palettes, budget, and imagery, pages meant to assist you with inspiration and ideas for all the different elements in your coordinated wedding design.
Need more help? Whether you want help developing a comprehensive wedding design from the first inkling to the last, perfect detail, or just want to develop a super-imaginative, one-of-a-kind wedding cake, we can help you with your design. Contact us for help; after all, design is what we do best.
