Recently I came upon to have the exciting and challenging fortune of having a male client. In this women driven industry women tend to forget about their other halves when it comes to weddings and other special events. Although feminine is fun, masculine can be such a stronger and more powerful inspiration when it comes to clean contemporary design.

In keeping with the theme of yesterdays post about the Spoon Rack Seating Chart, I thought it would be fun to share a sneak peak into another event I recently designed. The design was catered to the young dapper dandy that was our client, and in theme, created a vintage dandy meets modern day dandy environment. Here was the clever and stylish way we helped guests find their seats.

Event & Stationery Design by Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations

Photography Jen Lauren Grant

Tired of tented seating cards with little oomph or meaning? Create a fun and appetizing experience out of finding your seat with this fun idea! We hand hand engraved spoons made for each guest and arranged each table on its own row. Once the guests found their spoon and table to dine, they were then invited to find their very own glass to wine!

Order your own custom engraved spoons from Monkeys Always Look, an adorable local San Diego designer featured on Etsy.

Check out this and other fun seating chart ideas in the latest issue of Exquisite Weddings Magazine! You can also see it featured on their brand new blog here.

Photography by Chantelle Photography

During the planning and design process of the St. Barths wedding we posted about last week we were trying to find gorgeous, eco friendly and shippable decor items to bring to the tiny island. Enter Little World Design. Heather (formerly of Krislyn) creates wonder filled creations that seem to be born out of a fairy tale. With a seemingly weightless effect, these whimsical objects float and delight from tabletop to aisle as if they were born and grow where they lay.  By using natural products and ingenious design methods, she creates decor objects that can be used for many moons after the celebration has said adieu, making them eco friendly as well. We must admit that we have ourselves quite the design crush. Whether it be a coral balsa wood bridal bouquet glittering with swarovski crystals, cleverly designed centerpieces with hidden floral tubes or small ‘oddities’ such as crystal seed pods and leaf skeletons, these designs are a must to add that special unique touch to your special day.

Here are a few words about where she pulls her inspiration from:

“We are inspired by the natural beauty that surrounds us: trees, water, flowers, insects, animals and humans. We love to create botanical objects that fuse these natural elements with unique fabrics and textiles; whereby our objects come to life through this transmutation.  Some of our new custom creations include preserved greenery with black crystals dangling from a painted Manzanita branch with black swarovski crystals strewn about, creating a world of miniature objects that is enclosed under a bell jar.  We’re constantly seeking fresh materials that allow us to bring nature inside, that blend reality and dream, creating a setting that’s as surreal as it is comfortable, as beautiful as it is thought provoking, tapping into the natural elements within and around us, and bringing them to life for you.” - Heather Pando, Little World Design


To invite their guests to their special destination wedding in St. Barths, the bride wanted to create a simple yet romantic wedding invitation. We worked with her to create a design that incorporated the softness of the sea, pastels and the romance of Les Amouroux, the lovebirds that inspired the theme for the wedding. After hearing of their romantic tale and the song they were going to walk down the aisle to, we designed the lovebirds holding a ribbon laced with Peter Cetera’s lyrics.

When guests arrived in their rooms they were welcomed with gift baskets full of goodies and a welcome booklet informing them of the fun details they had in store. Vintage French travel posters served as inspiration for the custom illustrated cover. The booklet was printed on linen textured paper and hole punched down the left side and sewed together with twine.

To tempt guests with tasty snacks, we created fun goodie bag tags which played off of the 5 tastes.  Sweet - ‘ Love is Sweet’  Salty - ‘ Life should be taken with a Grain of Salt’  Sour - ‘ Pucker up for a Kiss’

Spicy - ‘Everyone needs a little Spice in their lives’  Umami - ‘That certain je ne sais quoi’

Leaving no detail unattended, we created luggage tags inserted in plastic sleeves that were mailed to the guests after they RSVP’d that they could attend. Instead of a sign-in book at the ceremony, we created St. Barths travel postcards that were in the welcome baskets for the couple’s friends and family to write the couple a note during their trip together.

In lieu of traditional wedding programs, we designed fan tags tied with ombre ribbon that were adorned with teardrop crystals. The back of the tags sang a line of the lyrics they walked down the aisle to.

To help guests find their tables un, deux and trois birds flew in white baroque framed signs to help the few French challenged guests find their seats.

After the guests witnessed the lovebirds say ‘I do!’ on the white sand beach in St. Barths, it was off to the seaside reception for some fun and festivities. For the reception we wanted to bring in the soft and romantic touches that ‘lovebirds’ inspire mixed with the softness of the sea that served as the backdrop. To start with a soft palette to build upon I hand dyed table linens which faded from a soft sea foam green to a warm peach.

Each table number featured un, deux or trois framed lovebirds to welcome guests to their tables. Peach lace, crystal trim and black ribbon were used to create  a garder-belt worthy napkin ring in which a bleached peacock feather was placed.

Crystal Kluge’s talents were called upon to calligraphy the menu which we  incorporated with the couples custom designed monogram and ombre frame, then hand-embellished with black and aurora borealis crystals.

Miriam had even found a designer on Etsy to create an ‘M’ and a ‘S’ for Miriam and Sacha’s chairs. The modern white chairs used helped to maintain a clean and sophisticated look to this chic affair.

We wanted to create a sculptural element to the centerpieces so we called upon Heather Pando of Little World Design (formerly of Krislyn) to create a custom designed piece. We worked with Heather to incorporate the elements that we wanted such as bark, branches, balsa wood flowers and crystal detailing to create the ultimate nest for the lovebirds reception. Since we also wanted to use fresh orchids, but had to ship the centerpieces from Los Angeles to St. Barths,  Heather designed the pieces with built-in floral tubes, making the centerpieces very eco chic and reusable for years to come!

Instead of opting for a seating chart for this intimate reception, we combined the guest’s gifts with a name tag and table number courtesy of Crystal Kluge. We placed the adorned starfish in rustic layered dark wood boxes atop bleached peacock feathers and surrounded by lush blooms and candles.

The modern lounges on the sand were topped with wooden spheres, candles, lush white blooms and balsa wood and aurora borealis embellished seed pods by Krislyn.

The tall tiers of the cake were adorned with clusters of peach and pink blooms and topped with a black bird cage which held a fresh large rose head and peacock feather. Guests danced throughout the evening while antiqued white birdcages holding pastel fragrant blooms floated above their heads.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Next Page →