How I style weddings

Hello there, I’m back blogging today on this side of the website after so many months of exciting weddings, because I would like to share with you an inside look at how I style weddings. In truth, the styling process is not a solitary path, as every wedding project is born with the client couple and my role is that of assisting you in defining your vision and turning it into reality.

It all starts with a thorough questionnaire that I submit to you as soon as we meet, then after you’ve picked a venue we revise your answers together, trying to match your vision with the setting in which your wedding will actually take place. Generally speaking, I find that this order makes the process easier, while trying to find a venue that matches a certain pre-defined style can be more expensive as well as deeply frustrating. Not the best way to begin a wedding planning journey!

Getting to know you, discussing what your likes and dislikes are, provides me a number of useful information to deploy in your wedding design (colours you like, wedding pet peeves, etc.), but it also allows me an inside look into who you are, what you feel, what your story is. It is with this understanding in mind that I get to work on your wedding project, making sure every detail, hue, atmosphere is there for a reason, carrying a chapter of your story. Anything can work as a running thread, one of last year weddings were built on the concept of multicultural living and travelling, another on colour used as an explosion of joy and celebration, yet another one on a modern/romantic combination of lace and grey…

Once the main design concept is in place, the projet itself unfolds pretty straightforwardly. Through Pinterest I start assembling a general moodboard where anything goes, and all the possible developments are explored. It’s from this rough cut that I select the elements that will represent the project itself in the design moodboards I will use to present it to you. I usually build three: one for the ceremony, one for the party, one for all the details (stationery, favors, gifts…). During the presentation I collect your feedback to fine tune (or completely change) the project itself and take an opportunity to make sure what I put together is the right fit for you. The design concept and the moodboards together represent your wedding style ID, from which I will later start designing sketches for the vendors. That’s it, a wedding style is born!

If you’re wondering how all this actually unfolds, the pictures in this blog post illustrate it pretty accurately. In fact I approach editorial shootings with the same design process that I apply to weddings. Whenever I’m not the one coming up with the original idea, I work on all the team members contributions, mixing and exploring them in order to come up with a single style that will match each specialty and make our respective work shine. For example, the idea of this moroccan shooting came from Sofia and Erica, who wanted to try out an exotic atmosphere. I suggested we went beyond the obvious, exploring a different palette from the usual purple/orange combo.

Then, knowing that Valentina has a penchant for minimal and clean design, I suggested we could introduce geometrical patterns in the project, particularly triangles, which we could apply in different variations to setup and stationery.

Once we identified the perfect venue, I started selecting materials that could reinforce two elements usually typical in exotic settings, wild nature and luxe. Luxurious vegetation was already present in the glorious deck garden at Shambala, so I simply added a rough linen tablecloth and I suggested we’d use cord string to braid napkin rings.

I then reinforced the luxe feel by choosing gilded plates and cutlery, and applying a gold foil to some of the square wooden vases Sofia used for her flower arranegements.

While on set we decided to use pebbles a little recently, because they helpef elevate the composition. Just like it happens on location at a wedding, were last minute adjustments might be necessary to perfect a project. And that’s the end result!

What do you think about this? Would you like to have me on board for your wedding design project? I’m sure I could conceive the perfect style for your wedding in Italy!