1950s Peacock-Inspired Wedding

This New York City wedding reads as an expert’s guide to how to properly integrate pops of color into your wedding day. The bride, Bethany, used a gorgeous and rich teal motif throughout all details of her big day, right down to her very own wedding gown! If you’re a big fan of peacock feathers (and even if you’re not!), be sure to check out all the images from Joyeuse Photography.

From the bride, Bethany: We love all things vintage & handmade, so we wanted our wedding to reflect that. (especially 1950s & 1960s era!) We love that both vintage & handmade goods are more sustainable than buying things new and it is one of our values to be as sustainable and socially responsible as possible in terms how we shop, or decorate our home, or plan our wedding. Plus, we love the aesthetic. We also have an incredibly talented & close knit community and we wanted our wedding to be a reflection of our community as well. Almost every detail of our wedding was covered in the fingerprints of our friends & family, and that made it feel so much more special.

I love the deep rich colors in peacock feathers so we decided to use a peacock feather as our color inspiration. In terms of DIY projects, we tried to hand make as many elements as we could. Jerod drew our cameos and used them to design our save the dates & programs. He and I also handmade our invitations from tiny glass bottles we collected on a magical beach in Brooklyn. (We also used bottles that we found there as the vessels for the flower arrangements at the reception). As everyone came into the church for the ceremony, they received a tiny flag to wave which had been stamped with “b & j” or “love”, which friends and I made using letters from an antique printing press and a mix of vintage fabrics and scrap fabrics in peacock colors. We used the same fabrics to make the bunting, strung throughout the reception space. The garlands of crocheted yarn, strung from the ceiling of the reception space, were made by my aunt, my brother-in-law, one of my bridesmaids, and me.

As one of my bridesmaid gifts, I made 12 different hair pieces for each of the girls to wear (with help from my mom!). For the guestbook, we had the ribbon on my grandma’s antique typewriter replaced, and the hand-typed notes that we came home with were so special! The incredible boutonnieres for the groomsmen were made by my dear friend, bridesmaid and crafter, Kylie Fife. It was truly a community affair, which made it such an emotional and incredible experience to walk into the reception site for the first time and see all the beauty.

Jerod and I designed the “message in a bottle” invitations and made them using 200 tiny antique bottles we scavenged on a Brooklyn beach. We printed the paper invitation component ourselves on quarter sheets of teal paper, and tied and bottle neck with twine. We attempted to hand deliver as many as we could, but the ones that were mailed even managed to make it to South Africa intact!

Any advice for brides planning their weddings now? Accept help! Sometimes this can be difficult to ask for or accept, but once I began delegating and letting people help me, the load felt so much lighter, he the outcome so much more beautiful. Secondly, the wedding is so important, but ultimately, the wedding is a precursor to the marriage, so don’t lose sight of prioritizing that! Throughout our engagement, Jerod and I had at least 1 night a week in which we did not talk about the wedding planning at all, which was really refreshing and important for us.

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And everyone says this, but try to really be present on the day of. So many people had told me that their wedding day felt like a blur and it was my desire to really be present, relish in it, and take it all in, especially because we had so many friends in from all over the world that we rarely get to see. After all, when again will you have all the people that you most treasure and love in the same room? I feel like we were really able to do this and it made the memories of the day so sweet and priceless.

View all photos from this wedding

Wedding Songs:
Processional: “Sigh No More,” Mumford & Sons
Recessional: “Forever Young,” Bob Dylan
First dance: “When It Don’t Come Easy,” Patty Griffin

Wedding vendors (New York City, NY):

Ceremony venue: St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn / Reception venue: 320 Studios / Wedding photographer: Tahni of Joyeuse Photography / Wedding flowers: Leeanne Rickey / Wedding dress: designed by bride, made by Heather Anderson / Makeup: Stephanie Wise / Wedding hair: Felicia Nelson / Groom’s suit: Calvin Klein / Wedding music: Jake Armerding, Gregory Essington, Laura Rogers, and Brian Miller / Wedding cake: Laura Huss / Wedding invitations: bride and groom