Planning a Vintage Wedding
An introduction to creating your perfect vintage wedding
One of the best ways to make your wedding reception have that lovely vintage look is to use vintage china, glass, silver and linen for your tables. It is so decorative in itself you hardly need anything else. Each table is slightly different from the next, and if you were to display your table centrepiece flowers in pretty old glass vases placed on top of glass cake stands this can be breathtakingly beautiful. Silver candelabra can complete this look with flickering candlelight reflected in the glistening glass to create a very romantic vintage atmosphere. It’s not a good idea of course to place tea lights under or near the glass cake stands as they will crack.
How to plan your vintage wedding – mood boards etc
It’s always exciting to start planning your incredibly important wedding day, and it’s useful to jot down notes and stick scraps of fabric, photos and magazine clippings in a purpose made book. You can then go through this at your leisure and take out what you really don’t want, fine tuning your ideas as the months and weeks go by to leave you with what you really, really do want. It is essential to create yourself a mood board using all your chosen colours, styles and individual items you need to source.
Aspects of a vintage wedding - The wedding venue, decorations, catering and music
When organising your vintage wedding you will want your wedding venue to provide the right surroundings. For instance, a grand stately home will have all the right furnishings and paintings on the wall to compliment your decorations, and a marquee on a lawn can be just as pretty, with lashings of bunting to jolly it up or strings of Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling to give a lovely effect.
The catering can also be very vintage in its presentation. You could have an afternoon tea party for your wedding breakfast, with lots of pretty little teatime treats served on dainty cake stands and beautiful china plates, and tea served in delicate cups and saucers; all your girly friends will love you for this. It is such fun to spot the cups you used to have as a child or the exact same tea set your granny had.
You can then go on to have a hog roast or BBQ during the evening when the party kicks off and more guests arrive. This works really well, and a hog roast is a very economical way of feeding lots of people. I love and highly recommend Crackle and Hog for all spit roast cooking. These guys are a jolly bunch and can roast a delicious selection of meats, all beautifully reared and naturally fed farm animals, from pork, beef, chicken and lamb, and what’s more they travel anywhere.
The music you choose will add that extra dimension and give your reception a multi sensory experience, so you may like to have some real old swinging jazz from the 30’s and 40’s playing while you’re having tea. I love the swing, jazz trio Bartoune, who play really funky tunes which compliment the teatime vibe. They are from Bristol but gig all over The South.
Article by Amanda Baird of The Utterly Sexy Café
Images Courtesy of –
Flowers – The Vintage Flower House
Vintage Tea Party – The Utterly Sexy Café
Vintage China - Paul Viant
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