Setting Synergy

Your wedding setting isnt just a place to comfortably seat your guests while you say your I dos–it sets the tone for the entire day and the memories to come. The décor you choose should bring all aspects of your wedding into a unified, personal statement. Even for the most casual wedding, youll want to at least match or complement your colors to create a sense of harmony. Putting together the look shouldnt be daunting. First, consider the following points:

• Type of wedding: Formal mandates elegance and sophistication, while informal can come in the form of your favorite kind of party–picnic, cocktail, winetasting, even bowling.
• Setting: Whether youre surrounded by a sunlit beach or the spiritual splendor of stained-glass windows, you dont want to overshadow the beauty of your backdrop. Add personal touches only if they enhance the scene.
• Time of day: While formal and semiformal weddings can take place at any time of day, generally, informal-to-laid-back weddings are daylight dos. Use natural or artificial light to your best advantage.

Next, peruse these suggestions to get inspiration for your specific style:

• Formal affair? Set the scene in a five-star hotel ballroom or elegant banquet room. Hire an orchestra to perform your music, and cater a sumptuous sit-down dinner. Think silver, china, linen. And be prepared to spend.
• Garden party? Section off the garden into discrete spaces with beribboned walkways, flower-topped arches, or rented pavilions or gazebos. Add some garden art and dress up plants in bloom to serve as floral displays.
• Medieval marriage? Send out pictures of Renaissance garb and contact info for places that provide rentals to make it a costumed event. Turn your reception dinner into a medieval feast: heavy on the roasted meats, and complete with troubadour-style entertainment.
• Hitched, Hawaiian-style? If you cant take the wedding to Hawaii, bring the islands to you. Wear sundresses and Hawaiian shirts, have your attendants drape leis on every guest, and set the mood with slack-key guitar music. Host a luau, serve cocktails and fruit juices with little umbrellas, and offer chocolate-covered macadamia nuts as wedding favors.

There are hundreds of other ways to celebrate your commitment together. Popular or personal, traditional or freeform, whatever you choose, you can make it memorable if your style and your décor achieve synergy.

– Lisa Costantino, Amazon.com Wedding Expert

Tags: Casual Wedding, China, Dresses, Formal Wedding, Garden party, Hawaii, Silver, Wedding, Wedding Favors