Happy St. Patrick’s Day, all! We’re about to run off to dye our drinks green and don our finest emerald apparel, but before we do, I wanted to leave you with this inspired shoot from Grit & Gold and Nine Photography. Stylist Lottie Fowler whipped up an intimate dinner with touches of emerald, gold, and some woodland creatures (you might spy a glittery deer or two), and not to mention a beverage station with Guinness and Bailey’s Irish Cream!
From the designer, Lottie of Grit & Gold: We wanted to do a very authentic approach to the tradition of Saint Patrick. With a lush Irish influenced tablescape, the focus was to sophisticate this celebration without the typical overload of shamrocks. We went with a color palette in emerald, gold, and turquoise. Subtle touches of Irish here and there are found throughout from the woodland creatures found in bell jars, homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream and Guinness station, gold painted beer steins, and lucky horseshoes.
This is the kind of wedding that puts love in DIY like no one’s business. The bride and groom collected vintage treasures throughout their engagement, mason jar by mason jar, and left them on the hands of belovely Events to tie these finds together in a gorgeous wedding. And Lindsay and Laura-Chase of Readyluck captured all of these details that are full of meaning and memories beautifully.
From the bride, Amanda: I bought my bridesmaid dresses from H & M for $34 and added custom straps that I made by sewing fabric flowers onto them. From the beginning I knew the light dusty rose was the color for the bridesmaids. I wanted a neutral color to set off the flowers. Everyone told me that I chose a “Spring” color palette, but I think the warm rose color was perfect for early fall.
I fell in love with The Gables at Chadds Ford when I attended my sister in law’s baby shower there in 2010. I knew that I wanted a rustic style barn wedding and The Gables seemed absolutely perfect! It was the right location and the right price. My fiance grew up very close in nearby Media, PA and my family is located just an hour and a half south, right outside of Baltimore. I liked that Chadds Ford offered local attractions such as the Brandywine River Museum, the Brandywine Battlefield, and a nearby winery for my guests to attend on their trip.
I am a very detail-oriented person. My husband and I went to art school together. From the very beginning of my planning, I had an exact vision of what I wanted and I knew that I could create it. The time of year, the atmosphere, the decor, and the amusements were all things that initially captured my attention and inspiration. When I was looking ahead to my wedding day, even though I was completely consumed with color palates and collecting props, I tried to really focus on how the day would feel. I wanted to get married in October because in addition to it being my favorite time of year, my husband and I met at the beginning of the school year around that time. That time of year always brings comforting feelings to me.
When I was planning, I used many resources. First, I tried to make out a clear picture of what I wanted by collecting ideas. I started a binder full of scraps from magazines and even colors and artwork that inspired me. Since I am an oil painter, I tend to collect ideas in a similar fashion when I paint. I started to think of the overall design of my wedding as my biggest project yet! Second, I started a Pinterest board. My Maid of Honor, also an artist, knew that I liked to collect ideas. Pinterest was the perfect vehicle to not only collect ideas, but to share them too.
Looking back on the whole day, my favorite moments were the one’s when I focused on Tom and how happy we both were. In particular, Tom and I loved working with our photographers Lindsay Hite + Laura-Chase McGehee at Readyluck. She made us feel very relaxed. We were able to get away from the crowd for a while and take shots with just the two of us. It was quiet and Lindsay was very natural and allowed us to be ourselves. With everything that happened on our wedding day, I am still only able to recall bits and pieces of the events. Lindsay’s photographs captured everything so clearly. They came out more vivid than my imagination. She collected all of the details that I spent months working so hard on, so that I could see them even though I may have missed them on the big day. It makes me so happy to see my memories and hard work captured on film. Also, for the reception, Tom and I opted for a sweetheart table. This was one of our best decisions. This allowed us to share dinner together as husband and wife and allowed us to focus in on each other despite all of the excitement happening around us.
Being the control freak that I am, it was really hard to let go on the big day. I spent months, nay – years, on planning the wedding. I had collected every mason jar, selected every piece of fabric, every color, each piece of attire and everything on the menu. I had collected so many ideas and so many props to build my perfect set and I didn’t know who was going to help me execute my ideas. Enter: belovely Events. The lovely ladies at belovely Events helped me put everything in place on the big day. I was able to relax when I knew that everything was under control. I trusted them completely. I gave them all of my things and had a walk through with them where we discussed all of my plans and concerns. Hands down, one of the best decisions of the event. Without them my theme and decor would have fell apart, not to mention the coordination of everything! They listened to what I said and completely understood my approach and vision. They even made last minute decisions that made things look even better than I imagined.
Do you have any advice for couples planning their wedding? My advice would be to do what is right for you for your wedding. Try not to let too many people influence key decisions. Really make everything all about you and your fiance because you will be the two that hold the memories most dear. Try not to obsess too much over every detail because in the end, not all of your guests will even notice. While planning my wedding one friend told me that for your guests to really notice anything it must be repeated three times. Whether it is your printing, the colors, or your theme, if it is important to you – make sure everyone knows it! For instance I had a thing for the color teal. I had teal shoes, a teal door that was our seating chart, and succulents in my bouquet and the guys’ boutonnieres. That follows the three rule…..and I did that for everything. Our save the dates were strip photos from a photo booth and at the wedding we had a photo booth for fun and gave the strip photos as gifts. Three rule. I liked it. It made me realize if I was emphasizing something enough for people to notice, or too much and allowing things to get tacky. Subtle, but effective.
St. Patrick’s Day is creeping closer and closer, so we thought it would be the perfect time to share some Pantone inspiration! Emerald and the Irish tradition go hand in hand, and Sugar Branch Events filled this styled shoot to the brim with glitter, champagne, Irish coffees, and sequins! Thanks to CHARD Photographer for sharing your images with us!
From the stylists, Lindsay and Britt of Sugar Branch Events: Every year, we get extremely giddy about the release of the Pantone color of the year! We anxiously await to see what chosen color is going to dictate the wedding and fashion industry trends for the year ahead AND because it means we get to create a styled shoot based on the inspiration of that color (it’s our little tradition). 2013′s Pantone color of the year did not disappoint. We kept it mild, adding pops of emerald here and there, while blending it with lush golds, blushes, ivories and a hint of tangerine to keep it on the classy and sophisticated side. And glitter. We love glitter!
We wanted to make “Emerald” something that brides could really see incorporating into their wedding details. We didn’t go over-the-top “Emerald City” with this shoot because we didn’t feel that realistically many brides would actually want to have a completely Emerald green wedding. That’s why, by adding pops of Emerald such as the ombre Emerald paper goods, invitation suite, napkins, a sparkly bridesmaid dress and ribbon backdrop, we could feature the color in a soft and modern way. Blushes, golds, and ivory are really popular colors now, so why not soften the bold emerald with some always classic and sophisticated tones.
We added a secret board on Pinterest and invited all our vendors to be a part of the board! This was a great way for all of us to highlight our inspiration and develop ideas! We wanted brides with all different budgets to take away some inspiration from the shoot. We incorporated a few DIY projects for the crafty brides like the gold and glitter dipped wine and champagne glasses, ribbon backdrop, and latte bar. We also kept a beautiful level of sophistication with the table scape, sequin table runner, chargers, floating candles and floral centerpieces for the more discerning bride.
