~ Guest Blog from White Button Weddings ~
Halloween has got us thinking about themes and while you may not be styling your wedding around it, here are some wise words of advice from White Button Weddings on just how you get the ball rolling, whatever your theme.
• Take time on working on a theme. Talk with your partner about what it is you want to achieve, what’s important to you and how you want the day to make you and your guests feel. The best weddings are those that reflect the couple getting married, not just a well styled day so think about who you are as a couple rather than just what’s on trend
• Think about things that you like to do together – are you outdoorsy people?, the festival type?, do you really enjoy fine dining and the more formal environment?, do you love travel? This may be a good basis for your theme or at least a starting point to the feel of your day
• Once you have a theme sorted it will make everything easier as you will have a bit of a brief to be able to offer to suppliers such as florists and stylists and it will bring everything together to ‘work’.
• Make sure your venue fits with the look you want to achieve. It’s no good viewing very sophisticated country houses with round tables and white linen if you’re set on wanting a very rustic, informal wedding so plan your venue search according to the look you want to achieve. A blank canvas venue is the perfect spot for creating your own theme because you don’t have a venue to work around. You then have free reign to bring in whatever structure you like whether it’s a formal white marquee or a more relaxed stretch tent or yurt.
• Start gathering pictures together of things you both like, little bits of fabric or ribbon that you see that inspire you, little touches that you see out and about. Put together a moodboard whether it’s cutting out pictures you like and sticking them on a big piece of card, or using something like pinterest. Quite often you will start with a whole heap of mixed ideas and gradually as time goes on you will find you are gathering more of the same, whether it’s a certain colour or a certain look.
• Take into account the season – it’s no good going with a light summery look and feel in the thick of winter. Swap fresh summer cocktails for cosy winter warmers, swap soft linens for velvets and go for something like a nice winter stew rather than something lighter for the meal. If you’re getting married in the UK we are so lucky to have such beautiful seasons so try and work with that where you can. This time of year there are so many stunning colours on the trees so take inspiration from what’s around you and on offer.
• Remember, you don’t need to go mad with a theme. Often just a subtle nod to a theme can work really well, it doesn’t need to be over the top. If you were to plan a Halloween themed wedding you wouldn’t need carved pumpkins everywhere but you could create a pretty centre piece with Autumnal tones and nods to Halloween with mini pumpkins sprayed gold, you could have a nice spiced pumpkin cocktail on arrival or a photo booth incorporating some Halloween props. It’s often the more subtle themes that work well.
• Once your theme is set try to keep it consistent throughout and keep it in mind when making decisions on things like food choices, printed invites and menus, table décor, seating plans, cake, bar set up etc. The theme could be as simple as ‘soft and elegant’ but even though it’s subtle bear it in mind throughout the planning process – you may want to go for a softer textured card with calligraphy style font for the invites rather than a stronger look card and font. You may also want to go with some beautiful soft petalled peonies in your bouquet rather than a harsher flower. It’s these little touches that all work together to reflect your perfect theme.