When planning your wedding, what inspired you? It’s interesting to reflect on this question after the fact. My friend Linda shared photos she had taken from my wedding in the fall of 2007, and through these photos it’s clear – the place John and I were married, on the shores on Lake Michigan, was the inspiration from which our wedding was built.

Stones on the beach

The beaches we had walked, so many visits prior, provided the foundation – rocks! Both of us love to comb the beach for smooth, layered rocks and through our visits had collected enough to use as natural wedding favors at the place of each of our guests.

Wedding table setting

The warm browns and varied greens of the landscape and porch of the inn where we were married inspired our color scheme, including green striped wedding favor bags for the kids and petit chocolate bars – an edible favor for the adults!

Rocking chairs on the porch

Wedding favor bags

Wood bowls held our flowers on the tables – certainly the wooden inn and all the tall trees surrounding it inspired our natural choice of the wood. Now those bowls serve as our salad bowls, a wonderful way to incorporate that extraordinary day into our everyday life.

Wedding centerpieces

What inspired your big day? How did you play that inspiration through in your wedding invitations, favors, programs, and flowers?

Steps from the beach

— Cindy
PS colors: persimmon & paper bag
Latest fave: 2011 Paper Source Booklet Calendar

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9 Responses

  1. Erin says:

    Our wedding was held 2 weeks before Thanksgiving – our favorite holiday. The Fall has always been our favorite season for the both of us. Cooler weather, “warm” colors, football, etc. Just so happened that, at the time, red and golds seemed to be some of our favorite colors (our house decorations reflected this as well), so we tried incorporating reds/golds throughout the entire theme.
    http://ezwigart.smugmug.com/Weddings/Wedding-Details/13226656_A6SiH#960460390_ygbQP

  2. Kelly H says:

    Our wedding was in the beginning of November because Fall is my favorite season. LOVE LOVE LOVE fall colors so it was perfect for us! So I had a lot of deep oranges, reds, and even a bit of blue and coffee bean in my bouquet. Wish I could post a picture!

  3. Kelly H says:

    And I forgot to add. That we incorporated the theme into the invitations-same color scheme. We brought a lot of ours selves into the wedding. We had little wind-chimes as favors(my husband is a musician) and while people were waiting for the reception to start we had italian sodas and fresh fruit and cheeses waiting for them(my likes). And last but not least we had a red velvet cake-perfect for our fall wedding. All in all we were very happy with our wedding.

  4. Courtney says:

    We met at a Halloween party and love Halloween so much that is was only natural that we have a Halloween wedding. While my husband and I were in traditional tux and gown, we asked all our guests to come in costume. Many did and it was so much fun to see their creativity (and silliness). The flowers and invitations were pumpkin orange and the bridesmaid dresses were simple black. The ceremony and reception were in an old mansion so it gave the feeling of a masquerade ball many years ago. We still have people talking about our wedding and how much fun it was and I still love looking at the photos of everyone in their costumes!

    The bonus is that we use a lot of the decorations every year at Halloween!

  5. Koru Kate says:

    My wedding is coming up in January & the biggest source of inspiration is the season: winter! Our wedding is a winter white wedding with everything in a palette of white, creams & champagnes. I can’t wait!

  6. Kimberly B says:

    The music from Lord of the Rings inspired our wedding. We got married in a redwood forest (to the music of LOTR – the pretty, ethereal parts), and the tables were inspired by that world.
    Here:
    http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/05/18/docuvitae-redwood-forest-wedding-kim-erik/

    Also, the invitations, which I wish I had a picture of, were all paper source inspired. I wrote a silly poem and photo shopped my husband and my faces into a painting of an “enchanted couple” in the forest (which later became the image on magnets for wedding favors), and then sewed that into some handmade paper that I distressed, and sealed it with a wax seal. They were beautiful.

    Courtney, I LOVE people who have costume weddings! I keep waiting to get invited to one!

  7. Jen says:

    We were inspired by a big family BBQ in the Berkshires- we had long tables with burlap runners, a delicious BBQ menu featuring local produce and meats, local beers, wines, and alcohol, a Blues band, and cosmos- a flower you would be likely to see in many Berkshire fields! Our day was pretty casual, with me in a simple dress and the girls in shades of blue and the guys in navy blazers and orange ties…it all came together perfectly!

  8. Tina says:

    Our wedding colors were inspired by photo of a tree that I took on Armitage Avenue in Chicago while watching the Chicago Marathon in 2006. I uploaded the photo to Big Huge Labs to generate the color palette:

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GDh2CsL0Qok/R6ZxBUFlVoI/AAAAAAAAAGI/hRYP1K9mhv0/s1600-h/colorpalette.jpg

    The colors generated incidentally match Paper Source Poppy, Papaya, Antique Gold, and Copper almost to a TEE!. Just by chance, Poppy and Papaya had long been my favorite PS colors!

    I ended up using the colors everywhere: my save-the-dates (sent in Papaya envelopes with ivory and papaya circle stickers), my invitations (http://bp0.blogger.com/_GDh2CsL0Qok/SIawBjSaxZI/AAAAAAAABQM/es_f5RpbrMA/s1600-h/001_1.jpg), my programs (printed on PS circle cards – http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GDh2CsL0Qok/STDKZOqrV1I/AAAAAAAACS4/qdbzlNSfLCA/s1600-h/tina_diy_program_cover.jpg – and papaya text – http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GDh2CsL0Qok/STDHn_sd3zI/AAAAAAAACSg/cgxCKA4BNrU/s1600-h/tina_diy_program_insides.jpg), extra mailings (papaya text and poppy stickers), my shower thank you cards (sent in papaya envelopes), our guest book (oval scallop cards in papaya, poppy, and copper envelopes), luncheon invitations (papaya scallop cards in antique gold envelopes, lined with magazines cut from PS liner templates), coat check tags (poppy, papaya, and gold eyelets), brunch menus and out-of-town bags (more circle cards). I forgot one! We used leaf shape cards and circle labels for our engagement party invitations and thank you cards too! You name it, Paper Source provided it!

  9. linda says:

    It was so great hearing what inspired everyone. Cindy’s wedding (photo’s seen in blog) in person were even more lovely with such a feeling of warmth in all the deep shades of green and in the woodsy surroundings…great people, beautiful weekend!

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