Designing WOW weddings

Aug 23

Nothing sparks our fire more than creating a wedding of beauty - a true ‘one-off’. We have the pleasure of working with couples that have such varied taste, hugely different venue styles and of course ranging budgets. This creative challenge inspires us.

Wedding planners, designers, stylists all have their own way of doing this and our signature process has been developed over the years to deliver excellent results that blow our couples away. It’s impossible to pick a favourite moment of the wedding day, but up there for me is when the couple see their dinner table. It’s been described as overwhelming!

In my opinion, you either have an eye for design or you don’t, but I’ve certainly seen in myself that your creative muscle can grow and develop. Strangely lock down has really been a workout for me and my creative muscle is on steroids!

From working at different places, being at so many different weddings and taking inspiration from so many amazing designers, stylists and artists far and wide, you can always grow as a creative and as wedding creators, it’s our duty to do so.

So, how do we do it? I’ll try and break down the things we think about and consider when designing a wedding..

The Venue – The base of any creative project. The venue provides the spaces, the colours and the light. Before consulting any other inspiration or idea, we consider in our minds what would be the perfect colour palette, style of decor and layout for this particular venue.

The Layout – Next we’ve got to consider the flow of the day. How to fit everyone in to the spaces but keep the flow natural and have secrets and surprises up our sleeves to wow the guests. We’ve got to think about how the light will be in those spaces at certain times of the day, and the practicality and supplier costs of using certain layouts. For example, if the kitchen is far from the dining table, this can add a cost from the catering…

Couples Inspiration – Each of our couples provides us with a moodboard for their wedding. Our process takes this steer and adds a tonne of twists, turns and new ideas to present a full Style Guide back to the couple. I have to be honest that there are few better feelings than after presenting something a little wild and not really what the couple had in mind (but best suited to the venue, budget and with their interests and joy at the centre!), having a couple come back just like Emma & Robin did this week and say, “Absolutely love the style guide!! It all looks amazing, love the flowers, the light – EVERYTHING”.

A sneak peak of the overview page in Emma & Robin’s Style Guide. It then takes them through every part of the day and each and every detail of design.

Our Inspiration – It comes from everywhere. You can imagine that we’re pretty immersed in the world of Instagram and always seeing others amazing work, inspires us. I often find that when I’m out in nature on walks with my son, the natural forms of flowers and foliage and the natural colour blends spark ideas. Or I could be shopping and see certain items can spark an idea for a table setting that I’d not had before. For example I was buying something for my home yesterday and I saw these gorgeous little tins that will be perfect additions to a favours table for a wedding next year. Added to basket. That’s the beauty of it.

As we build, we visualise it. We draw, we gather images, textures, we imagine how a photographer would capture the moments and the frames. And finally we consult with key expert suppliers, we use collaboration and creativity to further develop the ideas and the final plan.

From each flower type, to shade of candle, the ribbon on the cutlery, the size and shade of the menu, to the number of grapes I’d bought from the market to sit on the table…everything is considered and imagined.

Underpinning all of this is the budget. While building our style guide, we’re thinking of where best to invest. Which part of the day needs the most styling, the biggest ‘wow’ moment and how to keep budget down in clever ways. Budgets often don’t allow to rent every item from a florist and just hand the project over to them. And actually we like to be much more involved that this.

We gather items from our daily lives, scouring vintage and charity shops, using unknown or less expensive flower types, re-using elements through the day and of course supplier choices from flowers to furniture and lights. We have a handy designer in our team who creates the most beautiful stationery, bespoke to each of our weddings. This approach is certainly more work for us but it’s our passion and it ensures that each wedding is unique and cannot again be replicated…anywhere!