Indian/ Italian Wedding at the Endicott Estate

This is long over due but it gets crazy busy and then I turn around and months have gone by since I did an entry. I apologize, once again but happy to bring you a fun and colorful wedding we did at the Endicott Estate in Dedham, Mass.

The couple was multicultural as the title suggests. He an Italian/American and her Indian/American. Both have grown up here but still very much rooted in their cultures so our goal was to design a wedding that recognized all three cultures while still reflecting their laid back and fun colorful personalities. The bride wanted lots of color, the groom wanted the same and only cared that we have blues included. The bride being Indian was all about color all over and since that is what we do best, I took to it like you wouldn't believe!

They chose to have a hindu ceremony, so the ceremony was traditional, but the reception design included both Indian and Italian reflections as well as American. Since the couple was also on a budget we had to find ways to give them something beautiful without compromising their budget. One of the ways we worked around that was to use flower petals instead of flowers. These were put in containers that we decoupaged with various images of Italy like the colosseum, venice, and masquerade ball masks. This was an easy way to make sure that Italy didn't get lost in India as that could very easily happen :)!

Each table had variations of similar items with an equal representation of both cultures. Of course as you may have guessed it was not difficult to represent India since it has one of the richest cultures in the world! The rich colors, the fabrics, the petals, the lanterns and candle holders were all representative of India's rich culture! What a joy it was to design this wedding! Now I will let the pictures tell you their story and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Decorative Items for the Hindu ceremony and the space leading up to it.

The Mandap for the Hindu Ceremony

The Aisle doubled as the cocktail space for the guests after the ceremony since it was inside, so we flanked it with the cocktail tables to create a colorful Aisle for the couple. It was also lined with colored jars with candles in them to add ambiance and color to the whole space. The cocktail tables had more colored jars with candles as well as colorful petals at the bases of the jars.

Some items for the ceremony brought in by the minister.

Each guest got one of these necklaces as they entered the ceremony space where they found little glasses of rice awaiting them at their seats to shower the couple with.

There were various decorative items all around the space that represented the three different cultures that the couple share from India, Italy and America.

Image of The Colosseum on one of the containers!

Image of The Colosseum on one side and an image of a masked masquerade ball attendee in Venice!

A number of the containers used to hold the petals were decoupaged with various images of places and things in Italy!

The centerpieces were a combination of various items, Lanterns, Flower petals, candles, and flowers.

The place settings were a mix of varying colors right from the chargers to the napkins. We included reds, oranges, greens and purples as the goal was to infuse the whole place with color - no exceptions!

The tablescapes were as colorful as can be, with richness in culture as well as texture and depth! I hope you enjoyed taking a look at these as much as I enjoyed sharing them. As always it is helpful to hear your thoughts, comments or any feedback you may have. Otherwise please subscribe and stay tuned for our next blog update which will be posted soon!
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Credits
Location: The Endicott Estate
Reception Design and Decor:Creative Wedding Solutions
Centerpiece design and creation: Creative Wedding Solutions
Event Rentals: Rentals Unlimited
Ceremony Decor: Prasang Decorators
Draping: Creative Wedding Solutions
Photography: Seastage Productions

Zombies in an engagement shoot? YES!

Hi Everyone,
It has been a while since I blogged and as usual, there has been too much going on so something had to give :)! Sorry about that but I am back and have some fun things to share with you so I hope that makes up for the absence :)!

Yes, you read it right, the title says something about zombies in a photo shoot and I am sure you are wondering how and why anyone would want to do that :)! Well I will be honest, even I who is all about people doing whatever they want to celebrate their unique personalities wondered the same thing for a bit so I understand the raised eyebrows and the rolling of the eyes :)! That said when I saw the pictures I was surprised by my thoughts. Was it creepy? Yes :)! I mean there was a zombie in the shoot, they are creepy :)! But while I looked through them I couldn't help but still find myself fascinated. First of all they were great photos, the couple looks pretty great and clearly had a great time doing it, so I figured that had to count for something. But still I wanted to figure out what it was that made me feel that there was something cool about this shoot, so I thought about it and here is what I found.

The coolest thing for me about the shoot is the symbolism of the zombie. I have often wondered why horror movies are appealing to people and I have tried to understand it from an artistic perspective in an effort to understand what they symbolize to us as humans whether it is obvious or not. I am not sure if I read this somewhere or heard it from someone but since it sounds really wise, I have to consider that I didn't come up with it all by myself, but I guess the point was that zombies and ghosts and spooky things represent our many, many fears or our struggles from both within and without. If that is the case, then this shoot is one of the more clever and yet meaningful ones I have seen in a while as it would appear to represent all the fears that we have when we are in an intimate relationship. But it also occurred to me that given the difficulties that we face in this day and age just trying to get through life and especially trying to have a successful marriage, the zombie seems to be an appropriate representation of all those things and I love that the couple is determined to clobber it to death. It seems to say something about how they approach their lives and specifically their relationship together. So my advice to any crazy 'zombies' looking to get in the way of this couple, is 'stay the hell away or you will be clobbered and I can't say I will feel bad for you :) You have been warned!' I would love to hear your thoughts on the couple and the idea of this shoot. Is it too weird or do you get it :)? Really curious to hear your thoughts! So let me know!

The photos were sent to me by the beautiful Laura Grier who is a fantastic photographer and I am so glad she did! You can see more of her work on her website at Beautiful day photography.
Enjoy and as always I thank you for stopping by!
Cheers!

Credits

Photography by Laura Grier of Beautiful day photography

Offbeat Wedding at Fuller Craft Museum

Hi Everyone!
It has been a while since I blogged, but I am happy to be back and to share one of the funnest weddings we did this past season!

The setting: The Fuller Craft Museum is one of my favorite contemporary museums. Definitely check it out when you have a chance . It is a hidden gem in Boston and one of my favorite offbeat locations to have a funky wedding. We recommended it for the couple and they fell in love!

What they said they wanted: Funky, non traditional, laid back, festive, colorful party.

What we gave them: Take a look! Hope you enjoy it!

Ceremony

We had to go with the rain plan since it threatened to rain the entire day! The result was a fun backdrop we put together along with the bookshelves we used to house their books and some button embellished branches to create their sacred space!

Colorful Ceremony Backdrop

We lined the aisle with painted jars to give the bride a colorful aisle to walk down.

Colorful Jars Lining the Aisle


They shared their love for baseball with their guests by tying the knot on a home plate!

Baseball Home Plate for the Couple to Exchange Vows


The bride chose to wear a burnt orange gown in lieu of a traditional white gown. The gorgeous gown was from Momo Soho a funky dress store in New york, totally worth checking out! There was a road trip involved!

The Gorgeous Gown from Momo Soho



Reception

The centerpieces were a collection of items that were inspired by Mary and Carl in one way or another. All the bottles were from Mary and Carl's at home bar, all the books belonged to Mary and Carl as they are avid readers, the table clothe embellishments were inspired in various ways by little facts about them like their plan to honeymoon in France, their love for travel, their road trip to New York for Mary's dress and of course their love for color. Each table setting was different with unique details to say something about them. Mary and Carl also expressed a desire for a fall theme to be included in the decor, so in lieu of floral centerpieces, we used twigs that we embellished with colorful buttons to keep the rich colorful feeling going. The yarn balls were added to bring texture to the table settings and as an ode to Mary and Carl's love for crafts.

The Funky Centerpieces

Photographs by Allan Sinclair


Other cool tidbits

The couple used a Harry Potter book as their ring box instead of a ring pillow. They looove Harry Potter!

The Harry Potter Ring Book

Favors

These were made by Mary and Carl for each of their guests! The packaging was done by the bride's sister! Very cool!

Cake

Okay, seriously the best cake I have ever had. I found myself dreaming about it weeks after the wedding, no joke! That said, the best part is that on top of it being amazing it was made by the groom's amazing Dad! Still hoping I can talk him into doing that more regularly! Just writing about it makes me wish for a piece all over again!

The groom's sister, played guitar and sang a special song for them, it was very sweet!

All in all it was a fantastic party!

Photographs by Belfield and Nack


This was definitely one of our favorite weddings of the season, so we hope you enjoy it as well. Congratulations again to Mary and Carl! We wish them every happiness! Feel free to leave comments, we appreciate them! Cheers!

Credit
Location: The Fuller Craft Museum
Design and Decor: Creative Wedding Solutions
Custom Centerpieces: Creative Wedding Solutions
Wedding Gown: Momo Soho
Photography: Allan Sinclair and Belfield and Nack