Rustic Wedding Inspiration
My little sister has begun planning her June 2010 wedding, and I’m scouring my vast collection of wedding magazines and books for inspiration to begin designing the decor. Designing for a sister is particularly fun for me (I’ve done it once before), because of the freedom I get to really push the envelope.
When my sister Alyssa was married over three years ago, she basically gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted with her flowers. I chose the colors, the flowers, and the design style. But I was still developing my own design style and looking back, I cringe a little bit, because the flowers just weren’t up to my current standards. They were pretty and classic and for the time and the location (Tulsa, OK), really quite nice. But I know so much more about design now and have had my horizons expanded to such an extent, that I feel a little badly that Alyssa got the short end of the stick. Truthfully, hers was the first wedding that I designed utterly and completely on my own, unattached to a shop or another designer. And she loved her flowers, still does to this day- which is what really matters.
{Alyssa’s bridal bouquet}
However, with a few more years under my belt, countless experiences working for crazy-amazing designers, and a lot of confidence in what I do, I think I can say that Olivia is going to get some phenomenal florals for her wedding. Because now, I don’t just think about the flowers, I design the wedding decor. I go for the bigger picture. When I’m working with a wedding planner, it’s such a fun collaborative effort to create a theme and then begin to collect all the little elements and bring them together to create a wedding masterpiece. When I’m working directly with a bride (which is the case with my sister Olivia), I can let my imagination run wild and sometimes that’s when the greatest, most creative work really happens.
In the next weeks and months I’ll probably share a lot of the inspiration I’m drawing for this wedding, which Olivia terms “Anthropolgie-esque,” a mix of glamour and rustic elegance. For now, here’s a spread that I scanned ages ago from a Martha Stewart Wedding magazine. I love everything about this wedding: the faux bois theme (like I said, I scanned this ages ago, long before the recent popularity of faux bois), the wild-flower arrangements, the moss-covered table, the textures and colors, that magnificent tent. Talk about inspiration!
To see the images more clearly, click directly on the photo- you’ll be taken to flickr where you can choose “All Sizes” and then view them “Large.”
