Decor Dilemma

Originally, Ryan and I were hoping to incorporate some sort of "theme" for the wedding. Nothing too drastic (no steam punk or or Elvis for us), but at least some idea to link all of our decor around. We toyed around with tons of ideas and finally came up with a few we liked.

Beautiful Rustic Barn Wedding 

We started with taking cues from the location. The setting of Stewart Creek is quite rustic and natural. Both the interior and exterior of the building looks crafted to sit perfectly in the mountains. True, starting off with thoughts of a rustic styled wedding doesn't really seem to far-fetched. However, it wasn't really enough to just stop there. The scenery and location are beautiful on it's own, but this is a wedding after all. We need more than that.

After flipping through countless magazines and scouring the internet for ideas, I started to assemble thoughts on how to add to our basic "theme". We settled on calling it: Rustic Romance. Kind of sounds run-of-the-mill, but we'll make it our own. Pinterest, although very irritating and/or addicting at times, can be a great resource for picking colours, themes and basically anything wedding related. I started boards for different aspects of the wedding: cake, decor, gifts, dresses, and so on; and pinned pretty much anything that fit within my vision of "romantic" or "rustic".

Rustic Bouquet

My definition of our theme will likely vary from others. For me, it's all about combining opposites. I really like the way wrought iron looks with soft white peonies, roses and hydrangeas. Or the way streamlined glass looks with a natural looking bouquet of flowers up top. Basically, it's the best of both worlds. I like the chaos of boatloads natural looking flowers and things not being so uptight, but adding soft elements like lace, and airy light colours.

My Mom loved all of the ideas that I gathered and added to them. We soon after realized; Ryan and I were missing from the wedding. There wasn't anything distinctly us about any of our ideas so far. It became all too obvious about how much our ideas wren't reflecting our personalities or relationship. I continued to mull this fact over for a few days, and decided to make a few changes which lead us to our now final theme.

Tall, Statement Centerpieces

We stuck with our "rustic romance", but decided to add our favourite couples in from various films, literature, video games, comics etc. This way, we now can mix in some of us into this otherwise, generic theme. I decided to use this idea as our escort table cards, decor and centerpieces. Items will correspond to a couple we like and represent their story/ relationship and will be on both the Escort table and the matching centerpiece.

I'm think that adding this personal touch is making  mundane items or endless inquring phone calls less tedious. Just this past weekend, we visited a used book store looking for some vintage style books to put on the table. I spent probably more time and money than I should have, but I was thrilled to get three books that fit perfectly. We also sourced out the perfect mask for our "Phantom of the Opera" couple. I can't tell you how exciting it is to finally be purchasing things for the wedding.

Lastly, we're finalizing our centerpieces. I know I want them really tall (32in or higher) with a large, rustic floral arrangement at the top. I really wanted wrought iron candelabras, however those seem to be impossible to find in the quantity and height we want. I could probably get them hand made, though the cost for them alone would be astronomical. Glass seems to be the cheapest option while still maintaining the look we're searching for. My hope for the next coming months, would be to have most of the decor sorted out and move on to the next items on my list. 

If you like this look, check out my Pinterest for more ideas!