If you have arrived on this article, it means that you are starting to fantasize about your wedding, but you don’t really know where to start to choose the right style for you. My first advice is obviously to contact a Wedding Planner and Designer who will certainly be able to study a creative project tailored for you.
But if you have good taste and you would like to find the design of your event by your own, here you will see a simple guide to find the style for your wedding.
These are the main factors to consider:
IL MOOD – Che atmosfera vorrei?
The mood you would like to give to your wedding is the first question to ask, but what is the mood? Translated it means Humor, or the climate, the atmosphere that you want to be perceived during your special day. Some examples: “I would like a relaxed and informal mood”, or “a sophisticated and high-class atmosphere”, or “a fairytale and romantic atmosphere” … these are all possible scenarios to consider before choosing your style.
It would not be coherent to desire a relaxed and informal mood and choose a glamorous 20’s style in a historic building, do you agree? Much better instead is a BohoChic style with bare feet by the lake or a Country Chic style among the Chianti vineyards.
THE LOCATION – Which is my Location’s Style?
If you have already chosen the location, you will surely have to adapt the style (and mood) of your wedding to the type of location you have chosen. My advice is to work on two possible fronts:
- To choose a style in line with the location
- Choose a style in contrast with the location
Surely the first solution is the simplest, while I recommend the second only if you have a really good taste or if you are followed by a Wedding Designer who knows how to direct you to the best.
But here are some examples: Let’s assume that you have chosen an ancient villa as location perhaps in Lucca or Cortona, if you want to choose a style in line with the location, it’s better to opt for a classic or vintage style depending on the historical era of the villa, these are in fact the two styles that best suits a sophisticated, formal and luxurious mood. If instead you want to dare with creativity and play with contrast you can mix a classic style with a contemporary one, using for example plexiglass elements such as the ghost chairs that are so trendy, in this way you would maintain the same mood but with a different style.
Se invece il vostro desiderio è quello di avere un mood rilassato ed informale ma ambientato in una Villa d’epoca, un’opzione potrebbe essere il ricevimento en plain air ovvero un pranzo o una cena, o perché no una colazione all’aria aperta, e se la location lo consente via libera a tavoli imperiali o teli stile pic nic a terra nel grande prato antistante la villa.
THE LANDSCAPE – Where is my Location?
About the location you shouldn’t only consider the type (Historic Villa, Farmhouse, Castle, Art Gallery, etc ..) but also the context in which it is located. It is not necessary to take inspiration from the surrounding environment, (a wedding on the beach does not necessarily have to have a maritime style) but it is advisable not to fall into contradiction. An example? A country wedding cannot have a maritime style.
THE PALETTE – Which colors surround me?
When I start studying for a creative project, the first thing I do is an inspection of the location during which I take a thousand photographs, this to capture all the possible views and capture the perfect color palette. There are two factors to consider:
- INTENSITY: that is, if strong and bright colors with high contrast prevail in the location, or soft and calm colors with low contrast, my advice in this case is to remain COHERENT, for example if a location has walls painted with pastel-colored frescoes, the decorations must be of the same intensity or in a darker shade but always calm and ton sur ton, forbidden high contrast colors such as fire red unless it is perfectly integrated into a scale of colors that can soften it.
- The second factor to take into consideration is TEMPERATURE, that is, if warm or cold colors predominate in the environment, in this case there may be a little more tolerance than the intensity, infact if well balanced, it is possible to mix warm and cold colors, just think about the famous metropolitan red bricks (hot) combined with total white (cold).
The choice of style cannot therefore ignore the color palette, returning to the example of the metropolitan style, this would not be credible in a location with pastel-colored floral frescoes, much better in an industrial loft or in a contemporary location with cold and minimal colors.
FURNITURE – Does my location have furniture to maintain?
Often I set up locations whose furnishings are already beautiful and there isn’t need to hire new furnitures. In this case it’s essential that the style blends perfectly with the furnishings of the location, so we need to consider the color palette as I told in the previous point, but also the historical era of the furnishings. It would be out of place to choose a shabby chic style in a context with contemporary and minimal furnishings. Attention to the Vintage style, it is not true that everything that is old is fine for a vintage style, better to choose a precise historical era and follow that time. To give an example: if you choose a vintage style of the 50s, a jukebox is much better than a gramophone (much more suitable for the 30s)
THE SEASON – In which month will I get married?
Even the season in which you decide to get married can play an important role in determining the perfect style for your wedding. This is from a point of view of the landscape that as you know radically changes, just think of the colors of the sea in winter compared to the summer ones, or the seasonality of the crops, which especially in the famous Tuscan vineyards can greatly influence the landscape. Also important to evaluate the seasonality of the flowers, so be careful to base an entire wedding on some types of flowers, better first check if they are used to bloom in that period.
From colors’ point of view you have great choice, but my advice to not making mistakes is to follow the palette of Armocromia:
- Winter Wedding: Cold Colors with High Intensity and High Contrast
- Spring Wedding: Hot Colors with High Intensity e Medium Contrast
- Summer Wedding: Cold Colors with a Medium Intensity and Low Contrast
- Autumn Wedding: Hot Colors with Low Intensity and Low Contrast
THE THEME – Do I have to choose a theme?
It is not necessary to have a theme for your wedding, you can in fact have a well-defined style, with a well-studied color palette, without having a theme. Are you confused?
Examples of Style: Glamor, Classic, Contemporary, Metropolitan, BohoChic, Country, EcoGreen, Vintage etc…
Theme Examples: Travel, Cinema, Fantasy, Poetry, Reading, Art, Circus, Wine, Chocolate, Aromatic Plants etc…
Sometimes the theme can be useful for choosing the names of the tables/tableau, but before assigning a no sense theme just because you don’t know how to call the tables, I prefer to assign a number to the table that is decidedly more cool and trendy.
However if you feel a strong attachment to a particular theme, then why not!
The themed wedding is always appreciated by guests because it is fun and addictive, as long as it is not the copy of things already seen. Here the help of a good wedding planner can really make a difference, managing to perfectly integrate the personalities and characteristics of the spouses to the chosen theme.
The abused Travel theme, for example, does not have to be depicted with the usual vintage suitcases or old globes, but maybe it can be interpreted as a spiritual journey, or as a journey between the worlds for lovers of the sci-fi genre, or even as a journey over time… you must always think outside the box to create something that has never been done!
