Wedding Decoration help--venue pics included

[misspinky]

Hi everyone! I''m getting married on New Year''s Eve in the evening so I need some ideas for decorating the chapel and the ballroom where our reception is. Our color palette is mainly ivory and black, with touches of pink and light gold.

First, the chapel. The chapel, in my opinion, is very unique. It was designed by architect Eero Saarinen, the same guy who designed the St. Louis arch (in Missouri--sometimes referred to as the Gateway to the West). It''s very minimalistic and provides a "blank slate" for decorating. I like it because it feels like a big "hug" with your guests surrounding you on 3 sides and your wedding party on the other side. It also gives nearly everyone a front row seat.

Here is a pic of the chapel with no decoration:

 

[misspinky]

And here is a pic of it decorated for a summer wedding:

 

[misspinky]

Our reception location is a hotel built in the 1920s. The ballroom has all of the original fixtures including the wood parquet (sp?) floor, tiffany chandeliers, and gilded mirrors. None of the pictures I found do it justice, but here is one decorated for a graduation banquet:

 

[misspinky]

For the reception we''re doing more of a cocktail party as opposed to a sit-down dinner. We aren''t going to have round tables and seats. Instead, we''re having high tables that guests can put their drinks on and couches, lounges, etc. for seating. Mainly we want everyone up dancing and mingling.

Soooo, do you guys have any ideas about how we can dress up either location?


Thank so much!

 

[sap483]

Can you provide us with more detail on the look you envision for both spaces? I.e. for your reception space are you invisioning a sophisticated, swanky cocktail reception perhaps keeping with the era of the hotel or a fun and funky lounge scene, or something really traditional? What are your colors? Do you want to use non-traditional elements or lots and lots of flowers? How much do you want to spend on decor and how do you want to split it between the space? Can anything be brought over from the cermeony site to be re-used?

 

[Hera]

I would keep the wedding site on the more minimal side and just dress up the pews with flowers and decoration. I don''t care for the pink wedding picture of someone''s wedding because it looks a little overdone (sorry). The space is wonderful and anything you put in it should be kept more minimal so it doesn''t compete with or hide the strong architecture. As for the wedding reception, I think you should keep black as an accent color, so maybe sashes or bows on the backs of the chairs and maybe some in with the flowers. So, I see pink flowers, ivory tablecloths and black as an accent.

 

[Gypsy]

I love your locations! I don''t like the pink fabric draping the ceremony site. Depending on your budget and time of your event I think fairy lights (white lights on white wire) with orchids strug on them would be really cool decorating that high wall behind the altar, you know, strings of lights hanging down between the slats. The pink fabric drapes look to me like they are trying to take away from the contemporary/minimalist chapel feel and make it more tradition, which I don''t like. I love that chapel and would work with the minimalist decor.

As for the reception site, again, lovely venue and contemporary. I don''t know what your budget is, but I''d like to see submerged centerpieces with with orchids and blush pink callas. No roses. Maybe tulips if they are in season. Architectural flowers, not fussy ones.

 

[misspinky]

Date: 8/20/2008 1:01:32 AM
Author: Gypsy
I love your locations! I don''t like the pink fabric draping the ceremony site. Depending on your budget and time of your event I think fairy lights (white lights on white wire) with orchids strug on them would be really cool decorating that high wall behind the altar, you know, strings of lights hanging down between the slats. The pink fabric drapes look to me like they are trying to take away from the contemporary/minimalist chapel feel and make it more tradition, which I don''t like. I love that chapel and would work with the minimalist decor.


As for the reception site, again, lovely venue and contemporary. I don''t know what your budget is, but I''d like to see submerged centerpieces with with orchids and blush pink callas. No roses. Maybe tulips if they are in season. Architectural flowers, not fussy ones.

Thank you all so much for your responses! I agree with you all about the pink decorations being a little much--I just wanted to give an example of how someone had decided to decorate it.

We''re getting married at 7 pm on New Year''s Eve. The only idea I had was to use the wall opposite the altar (which is made of bricks that have spaces in between them) and stick tealights in the spaces in the shape of our monogram--basically my initial on one side and his on the other. This is really hard to visualize if you''ve never been in the chapel, but it would be really subtle and add some candlelight. I like the idea of the fairy lights with the orchids on them and will definitely bring that up to my florist.

I also really like the idea of the submerged centerpieces. Since we want more of a "lounge-y" environment for the reception, we won''t have a lot of tables so I think that could definitely work in the budget.

 

[Gypsy]

Hi Pinky, I love the idea of the tealight monogram. Seriously awesome. I think the submerged centerpieces would look amazing with the lounge vibe and the minimalist feel of the reception site. You can do the LED lights under them (doodle is experiementing with these) and I think it would look flat out fabulous. You can do one vase on some tables, and a cluster of two or three on others (again, depending on budget) and top them with floating candles (if you like). Weddingy, but not fussy.


7pm on NYE is gonna be a blast. we went to a NYE wedding last year (oddly enough with the same color scheme you''ve got planned) and it was great. BTW, I highly recommend telling your bartender ''no shots.''