South American wedding with Asian-inspired Celebration: Yay or Nay?

[katamari]

We are currently working with an awesome, graphic-designer friend who is making all things stationary for us as a wedding present. I am going absolutely crazy trying to come up with color, fonts and styles I like to give her direction. I am calling for PS help! Some info:

We are getting married in Ecuador. I have looked at a ton of native birds and flowers for inspirations, but FI doesn''t like bright colors unless they are accent colors (and I tend to feel the same). Plus, whenever I see bold colors like that together, it just looks like an elementary-school classroom to me, so we have been leaning away from it. Part of me really wants to be inspired by this, though.

On the other hand, we both love Asian design. I am folding him 1000 paper cranes as part of his wedding present, and my mom and FMIL think it would be cool to include them as decoration in the celebration (like on the cake table, as escort cards, etc.). We are also going to be having paper lanterns, since it is going to be outside in a tent. So this makes us think that a pan-asian them would be very fun and it is something we both like.

The final thing is that there are a lot of homebrewers in FI''s family (and, well, who doesn''t enjoy craft brew), so we are giving homebrew as our favor (or rootbeer for the non-drinkers). This means that there will be 20 bottles on each table (unless we have a favor-table) in tan-ish two-bottle cartons. They will be labeled in cool, colorful labels by our graphic design friend, but that puts a whole lot of brown on every table. I almost feel like it has to be one of our colors. I am okay with that, but I like it best with maroon, tan, and orange and all my canvases end up looking like Thanksgiving dinner tablescape.

Would it be awkward to use Asian design/theme, given that we are getting married in Ecuador? Any suggestions for colors or other decoration. Help me not have an Asian, South American, Thanksgiving wedding mash-up! Please!

ETA: This is largely for decoration and stationary. I don''t have a bridal party.

 

[tlh]

???? something I quickly threw together, with different color points as options....
only the top cake could have like a differnt color instead of black as the sides....

 

[tlh]

sorry, I misunderstood. I don''t know of any cultural faux-pas to answer this question... but if you would like an asian themed wedding, you don''t have to be in asia to accomplish that. There are a lot of color options to avoid it looking like thanksgiving... like golds, reds, blacks, or browns and oranges, or other neutral colors! Best wishes!

 

[kittybean]

In my opinion, it wouldn''t be awkward. I would see your celebration as very cool and global. To me, using tan, black, white and an accent color (red, bright pink, or turquoise come to mind) would look awesome an un-Thanksgiving-y. I like the bright pink Asian-style flower-print fabric that TLH posted above.

 

[katamari]

Date: 2/12/2009 12:26:35 PM
Author: tlh
???? something I quickly threw together, with different color points as options....

only the top cake could have like a differnt color instead of black as the sides....

Oh my gosh, tlh! You are so awesome!

I had not been putting green in the mix and I think that is key for the non-Thanksgiving aspect. I also love the pink canvas, but I am not sure FI would go along with it, unfortunately.

And, I don''t think you were misunderstanding, because I am asking two questions (always seem to do that in my posts somehow. . .). While I certainly would be concerned about cultural insensitivity, I am primarily concerned with the design element. But, if I am misinterpreting it and it is insensitive, I would certainly want to know.

 

[katamari]

Date: 2/12/2009 1:59:38 PM
Author: kittybean
In my opinion, it wouldn''t be awkward. I would see your celebration as very cool and global. To me, using tan, black, white and an accent color (red, bright pink, or turquoise come to mind) would look awesome an un-Thanksgiving-y. I like the bright pink Asian-style flower-print fabric that TLH posted above.

Me, too. I keep wanting to use tan and dark brown because those were my sorority colors. But, I did a swatch using black instead and it does look really nice. I agree that the accent color is key. Thanks, kittybean!

 

[Honey228]

Are you doing the 1000 paper cranes as the wish/good luck thing? I think that you should definitely use them as decoration in the ceremony. I always liked the look of them strung and hanging, but you probably don''t need that since you''ll also be using paper lanterns.

 

[Honey228]

As centerpieces. Looks like it could be economical too!

 

[Honey228]

As place cards/escort cards.

 

[tlh]

gladiolas are BEAUTIFUL stalk flowers that come in green!!!

 

[Honey228]

One thought I had was if there was some way that guests could write on them, then you could use them as your guest book. Afterwards, you could string them up and make a chandelier/curtain for you home. That might be a lot of look so maybe you wouldn''t use all of them, depends on how much you''d like it, hehe. But hey, I''m all for guest books that actually get seen/used again.

 

[Thomperchik]

Katamari - Just wanted to mention that Ecuador has so many gorgeous flowers. I remember one time I saw a bouquet of roses that had three colors. So each rose was red, yellow and blue.

Can''t exactly remember what my point was, but lol I''m sure you''ll find whatever colors you need!!

 

[Honey228]

When I think of Asian colors, I think of red first. I found this inspiration board with reds and oranges. Really, I think that as long as you stick to the theme, then you could use any color combination that you wanted without it seeming too Thanksgiving-y. On the flip side, you could use any color scheme you wanted and you could probably find things that fit your Asian theme.

Asian wedding in Ecuador? Sure why not if that''s what you like? Does your site scream Ecuador or something?

 

[AmberGretchen]

I agree with the others that this is totally do-able. And in fact, I suspect that if you incorporate lots of Asian design elements, it will help to keep the colors from looking Thanksgiving-ish, even with those kinds of colors.

 

[honey22]

I think it sounds fabulous! Doesn''t matter where you are, you can pull it off. The paper cranes sound amazing.

 

[katamari]

Date: 2/13/2009 9:41:01 AM
Author: Honey228
As centerpieces. Looks like it could be economical too!

Oh my gosh I love these centerpieces!

They are amazing! And, everything else looks great, too!

Yes, I am giving them to him as a good luck symbol for our marriage (hopefully not that we will need it) and so that he can make a wish for our life together (Yes, I am a cheeseball). I might have to string some up, because that looks fab, too!

 

[katamari]

Date: 2/13/2009 9:50:39 AM
Author: Honey228
One thought I had was if there was some way that guests could write on them, then you could use them as your guest book. Afterwards, you could string them up and make a chandelier/curtain for you home. That might be a lot of look so maybe you wouldn''t use all of them, depends on how much you''d like it, hehe. But hey, I''m all for guest books that actually get seen/used again.

Honey288, you better be careful or I am going to make you my wedding planner!

This is another great idea. I agree that it probably isn''t something that we would want in our living room, but it could be awesome for an office or rec. room.

 

[katamari]

Thanks for the input everyone! You have calmed all my nerves and I am super excited to go plan our pan-Asian celebration now!

 

[Honey228]

Haha, well unless you plan on having 1000 guests

, you could probably use them in both ideas.

 

[Honey228]

Katamari!

I found these sites:
http://www.lunabazaar.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=226 - paper parasols by color. Seems reasonably priced. Like you can buy a 28 inch for 7.50 each, but it''s 4.75 if you buy 24+.

http://www.hansonellis.com/chinesesandalwoodribbonfans.html?utm_campaign=GoogleBase&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=Gbase
I still have my sandalwood fan, smells yummy. I liked this site because A)they''re on sale for 1.99 and B)you can pick your ribbon color and add a personalized tag for 0.35.

Lol, I have no idea if you have use for these. I don''t know when you''re getting married in Ecuador or what the weather would be like. But I''ve seen weddings where bridesmaids carried either parasols or fans and it was super cute. I thought that the fans would make good favors, but then I realized that guys probably wouldn''t dig them so much.

 

[Honey228]

Oh, and something I wanted for my own wedding... I''m not doing an Asian wedding. I''m not Japanese. But I''m not sure if I''m going to do a traditional veil. And I like how the flowers look.

Kanzashi: