Are you dreaming of a luxury wedding full of magical moments and unforgettable experiences?
If so, you know your dream wedding will need more than just an ordinary venue with ordinary décor; you want something luxurious, unique, and special to make it stand out. The problem is, making that dream a reality is more than just a snap of a finger. There are many decisions and choices to be made, which can lead to frustration, a sense of feeling overwhelmed, and anxiousness. Not to mention, the time and money needed can be an added burden.
How do you pull off an exquisite wedding without losing your peace?
Fortunately, there is a way to achieve your fairy-tale wedding. With a few simple steps, you can enjoy an elegant wedding that no one will forget. Here are five ways you can easily add more luxury to your wedding:
Unique Venue
The venue plays a large part in adding more elegance to your wedding. Think outside the box and consider places like outdoor gardens, ballrooms, large buildings, exceptional destinations, among others. For example, sites like art museums can serve as cost-effective locations that add a touch of originality and opulence.
The city of Cincinnati offers a few spectacular options in this department. Most notably, the Taft Museum of Art and the Cincinnati Museum of Art–two of our favorites!
Lindsey Zitzke Photography
Elegant Décor
Décor is one of the most critical elements to consider when planning a high-end wedding. To add a classic elegance to your decorations, opt for items with one color pallet and clean lines.
Draping is another great way to add more romantic touches to your wedding. When placing flowers, think of unique ways to arrange them, such as hanging them from the ceiling or using them as a backdrop.
Attractive lighting
Lighting sets any mood, so use fairy lights or chandeliers to bring in a luxurious feel. Not only is it practical, but the right lighting truly can change an entire room’s look and feel. Consider using a lighting wash over hanging installations or the bar for an extra touch, or pin spot lighting on those beautiful centerpieces. When the lights go down, you don’t want the decor you worked so hard planning to get lost.
Special Elements
It’s the little things that count. Adding a small luxe element to your wedding is a simple way to make the day more extravagant.
For example, consider incorporating a ladies’ lounge into your reception. Decorate a tent complete with furniture to provide a place where you and your female guests can retouch their makeup and take a break from the festivities.
Another unique element from one of my recent weddings–the father of the groom put together a bourbon bar to share his favorite bourbon pours with the evening’s guests.
Lindsey Zitzke Photography
Live music
Music on a track will work for any ordinary wedding, but for a luxurious one, consider bringing in a live band, orchestra, or choir to add more refinement to the atmosphere. There are so many fabulous musicians in the Cincinnati market and we’re happy to help you navigate finding the perfect fit for your event.
If you incorporate these tips into your wedding planning, you’re sure to have a more luxurious wedding experience that feels like you! Ready to get started planning a perfectly tailored wedding day? Reach out now to get started.
Every couple dreams of pulling off a perfectly tailored wedding. However, an epic wedding takes a fair amount of hard work. There are months of planning and countless stressful nights to create a day of memories that will last a lifetime.
Are you making the right choices to ensure your wedding ceremony and reception stand out from the crowd? Or are you quietly fitting in with the rest of the wedding pack?
At Ivory Couture, our team understands the pressure couples face to create a day that stands up to the pressures of social media, families and the culture that currently surrounds wedding planning. Our goal is to eliminate that stress while helping you create a day that represents your love story.
No couple should ever have to worry about whether or not their wedding is unapologetically them or stress out that the day goes off without a hitch. They also shouldn’t be anxious about keeping their guests occupied with “wow” moments.
You have a wedding planner for just that reason!
The Ivory Couture team is here to get to know you, who you are as a couple, all while walking you through a process that organically identifies those unique details. We walk our couples through a process tailored to the current planning climate (say goodbye to outdated planning articles!) and guide them to the finish line.
One of the most effortless conversations to have with your planner is about adding moments of surprise and delight. These moments can help to entertain your guests and give them a long-lasting impression. Whether it’s the bond you share with your fur-baby, or a favorite place in the city, we love incorporating those special elements into your day.
Here are just a few ways that you can start planning “outside the box” and add a bit of surprise and delight into your wedding day:
Dream Up A Memorable Entrance
They say first impressions are everything, so why not make your wedding stand out right from the get-go?
Grand entrances can be an impressive experience for both the couple and their wedding guests. Say you want to entice your guests as they enter the venue space. You can opt to entertain them with live musicians or other performers lining the walkways to their designated tables or seating areas. The newlyweds’ dramatic introduction can happen at either the cocktail hour or the reception (or both if you’re feeling fancy).
Another way to make a memorable entrance is by going over-the-top to introduce the happy couple and their wedding party. Try to recreate elements of your love story. Think of creative and unique ways to highlight how you met, your favorite activities to do together, or anything in-between.
No matter your budget, you can easily elevate the reception space with luxurious decor. Your design elements can be something as simple as throw pillows or fabric-rich tablescapes to more off-the-wall and adventurous endeavors such as hanging installations or over-the-top light shows with accompanying music. These lush elements can help set the mood for the reception and put guests in the right vibe and headspace for the event. One of my personal favorite elements to incorporate? A well thought out lounge area!
Storytelling is a great way to bring your wedding to life. Every couple has a unique journey, whether it’s your family history or your extraordinary love story. Either of these can easily be divided up into stations.
Want to incorporate both partner’s family history and culinary traditions into your wedding menu? Try dividing each cuisine type into a section of the room and scatter in tidbits of family tradition and history throughout the tablescapes. Talk with your caterer about dividing your menu to incorporate each of your favorite dishes.
Another way to break up your reception into stations is by dedicating each station to an era of your love. You can include era-centric favors or photobooth apparel and pair it with a specialty cocktail or appropriate hors d’oeuvre.
With your wedding just a few short months away, don’t hesitate to reach out to your planner and start a conversation that can lead to the “wow factor” your wedding deserves. Still looking to add a planning partner to your team? Click here to reach out and schedule a complimentary consultation. Happy planning!
Here we are, turning the corner on four months of marriage (yes, FOUR – wow!) and if there’s one thing that’s certain for us, we’re so, so happy we didn’t wait to begin this new journey. These truly have been the sweetest days together. Today, I’m taking you through our planning journey – how our original wedding plans turned into a micro wedding, my biggest takeaways and lessons learned, as well as any plans we are fostering moving forward into 2021.
Our original plans
AJ and I got engaged October 23, 2019, so our engagement was just a week shy of 12-months. From the moment we started talking about getting married, we knew our wedding would take place in October. It’s our favorite month and we love everything from the weather to the cozy flavors of pumpkin spice (I know, we’re basic… what can I say?). Flash forward those 51-weeks of engagement and our wedding day certainly didn’t look exactly as we had planned but then again, who had a 2020 wedding that did? After all the time spent dreaming about our perfect day, never in a million years did we think our wedding would take place in the midst of a global pandemic. As stressful, emotional and downright overwhelming as this year felt at times, October 16 was without a doubt such a silver lining!
When we started wedding planning, I had a pretty short list of places where I could envision our wedding taking place. For us both, we always imaged an outdoor wedding with a white tented reception. We considered a few different venues that fit the picture and even considered an at-home wedding on his parents’ beautiful property, before ultimately landing on the Taft Museum of Art.
Things change
Flash-forward
a few months and the pandemic hit. Like
so many couples, we kept hope for as long as we could, making various changes to
our guest list and event along the way. From
the beginning, the most important aspect of our wedding celebration was having
all of our closest friends and family in one space to celebrate, so seeing that
fade away little by little was personally the most difficult part. At the end of the day, we knew the most
important thing to us was getting married and starting this new season of our lives
and relationship. AJ and I had been together
for five and a half years at that point, so waiting even longer, not knowing
when this pandemic would end, just wasn’t something either of us wanted. We considered cutting our losses and changing
our wedding venue all together, but ultimately decided to go in the direction
of a micro wedding, then postpone our large celebration to October 2021.
On October 16, we were married during a small, intimate ceremony at the Taft Museum of Art, followed by an intimate dinner celebration at the Transept. We ended up deciding to only include our parents, bridal party, their dates and the guests who had previously been asked to play a special role in our ceremony (such as readers, ushers and our ring bearers). This was definitely the most difficult part for us. Over the years, we’ve both made close friends through various stages of life, both separately and together, and AJ comes from a very, very large family (to put it into perspective, he has over 50 first cousins!). Our original 200-person celebration already seemed close-knit and the task of reducing our guest count to meet our venue’s 100-person capacity was so overwhelming. Once we were made aware of the newest regulations surrounding virus precautions at the Museum, an intimate celebration on our original date then moving our large celebration to 2021 seemed like the best option for us.
And sometimes, things change again
Alas, the biggest lesson we learned through all of this – nothing goes as planned during a pandemic. A couple months after our intimate wedding, we were informed that we would need to sign the same COVID-19 event standards addendum, the one that pushed us to the decision to postpone, in order to move forward with rescheduling our celebration to October 2021. With AJ working in healthcare and me in events, we decided this just wasn’t something we were comfortable doing at that time. Things were still too unknown; we were yet to know if a vaccine would be approved or how people would respond to receiving it once it was. We didn’t want to be stuck in a new contract, already married, with restrictions that still didn’t fit what we were looking for in an event. After considering the possible outcomes, we came to the very difficult decision to not move forward with holding an event at the Museum this October.
Where we are now and our biggest takeaways
So here we are – and probably the biggest reason why I put off writing this post for as long as I have – still in a pandemic, with no current 2021 celebration plans. But I’ve decided that’s okay. We’re still hoping to plan something to celebrate with all of our loved ones who couldn’t be there for our wedding day, while allowing ourselves a little grace at the same time. Through this journey, we learned so much about ourselves and our resiliency, grew in our relationship and learned how to focus on the more important things in life. October 16, 2020 was the most amazing wedding day and we felt love from so many different places. I got to work with the most amazing couples through this business and we leaned on each other to navigate this wild journey. In some ways being a wedding planner made this experience easier, but at the end of the day I was just another human with real emotions trying to figure out the best decision during an otherwise difficult year. I truly believe that regardless of what our day had looked like, we still would have walk away from our wedding with full hearts and so much happiness. If you find yourself navigating similar situations – First, I feel for you, but also know that there isn’t a wrong decision, just one that makes the most sense for the two of you. I spent so much time worrying about how other people would perceive our decisions or if we would offend someone along the way, but our family and friends were so understanding and supportive through this process. And that’s what it has been – a process. One step at a time, one decision at a time.
Sending you
love and hope for a new year full of celebrations, both big and small.
Enjoy some of my favorite wedding photos, captured by the oh-so-talented Lindsey Zitzke Photography, and check out our full vendor team below.
