Once upon a time we had the coolest couple who wanted us to photograph their wedding. They came equipped with vibrant tattoos, amazing dress, unique hair, and the whole nine. We were salivating just imaging how cool their wedding day would be when paired with our photography style. What happened to those people we initially met? Well, two doppelgangers showed up on their wedding day decked out in traditional formal attire, florals that closely resembled a rustic ho-down, no piercings, tattoos covered, boring hair style, and the whole bag of ordinary to boot. That day came and went like a tumble-weed across the Texas plain.
What in the world happened to such a promising story of these two amazing characters?
They lost their missing piece. STYLE.
Style is rarely talked about, but is a major factor to make your wedding being uniquely you and solicit a vibe that will translate through your photos. True - some people don't have style or know how to display it at an organized event. For those people who don't want to figure it out, there are planners who are also stylists. But if you're interested in creating your own unique wedding day, here are a few tips and examples to get you on your way.
One tip would be for you to think about an overall design. This may include categories like Bohemian, Modern, Retro, or purely Eclectic. And if you don't want to squeeze your concept into an existing category, you can always adapt hints of categories into certain elements on your day. If your idea fits into something out there, then simply take a broad design style that you can subtly weave into your elements such as your bridal party dress colors/apparel cuts, your florals, your reception decorations, your cake, etc. We will probably take a deeper dive into specific style elements and how to achieve those looks in a fresh way, but for now...
Let's take our very own Applehead wedding as hopefully a helpful real-world example. We were technically married at a courthouse on 12/21/12, the day the Mayans predicted the world would end. Thankfully, the world continued spinning, and we decided to have an actual wedding celebration with friends and family around our tenth year anniversary.
Our official wedding took place in December 2022, when the naked winter landscape of the south draws few people in, but for us, it certainly does. Although our ceremony/reception was held inside a former 1920s YMCA space [New Holland Parlor], our concept was to draw on the end of the world theme from our marriage license signing in 2012, meanwhile bringing the outside naked woods inside with us. I guess you could say our wedding was vintage, meets The Huntsman: Winter's War, meets the movie 2012.
Our florals were dried, yet contained pops of color to accent our stark outdoor portrait backgrounds, and hinted at the notion of the end or maybe the beginning. Heather's dress was black with a high collar giving a nod to those powerful ladies in The Huntsman. I, along with all our family, were instructed to wear shades of brown for a slightly vintage feel and photo cohesion.
We sourced naked branches from the woods behind our house to create an indoor woodsy arbor at our ceremony. Our reception table linens were black to allow our tabletop dried florals to pop in the room. Aside from aesthetics, we also created a game guests could play based our journey after our world didn't end in 2012. We wrote an end of the world poem that was recited by Heather's dad in lieu of toasts and before our send off. And last but not least, for our send-off, we sped through a hail of flower petals on a vintage tandem bicycle.
Overall, think about a concept containing the elements you love and determine how you can make them cohesively work together for a beautifully unified look and vibe. It doesn't ultimately matter if any of your guests, wedding party or family members like what you do. As long as you and your partner do, you do you. The sky isn't even the limit on what is possible. People will steer you directions of color schemes, motifs, and all the bells and whistles, potentially leading you down a road that ends at beginning a style cliff. Don't fall off the style cliff. Shut their voices out and let your wedding day not only be a celebration of your love, but also the symbolism of two becoming one, and that includes your two different styles meshing together.
Keep it, Chi-zee!
Philip
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