First, I wanted to start with a theme. Since the zoo is home to many beautiful exotic birds, I decided to go with a birdcage theme. Cheree Berry assisted me in designing an invitation with a gold leaf birdcage and envelope liner with the skyline of Manhattan. We only had about five months to plan this, so we had to get these done quickly.
Since the wedding was black tie, I ordered some white linen cocktail napkins and had a friend embroider them with the same logo at the top of our invitation. I wanted to use blue and white for the main colors of our decor. So, the napkins were embroidered with blue.
Then, I rented beautiful blue cut glass wine glasses from Classic Party Rentals for our signature drink at cocktail hour.
While I was shopping at Scotts Market in Atlanta with my mother, I found these great antique orange and lemon prints. We decided to incorporate a little citrus flavor into the wedding since it is summer, and have my mother (the artist) replicate these prints into paintings! A great way to brighten up the space and fill the void spaces around a solid white tent.
With the bird theme and the blue white linens and citrus tones...we continued this program in other accessories for the guests.
I handpainted these simple white chinese fans with blue designs that you can purchase from this website. Get out your paint and be creative!
On such a hot summer day, I was glad that I had bought these rattan fans to keep everyone cool. I wrapped a blue silk ribbon around the handles and a small tag with our bird logo.
We purchased tons of lemons, limes, and oranges to fill extra large vases on the bar to bring the citrus theme around...also a great way not to run out of lemons and limes for drinks!
My calligrapher created fun drinks signs with cut out birds in the corner from simple white linen card stock. We had a Love Bird, Monkey Do, Lazy Lion, and Grizzly Bear for the Zoo!
The Bride's cake is one of my favorite rituals at weddings. I met with Cheryl Klienman to design a cake in tune with our theme. While Cheryl has the ability to design a fabulous bird's nest cake with unique birds and eggs...I opted for the lighter fare of a lemon buttercream with marzipan kumquats and lemons. It was delicious and I look forward to thawing out the top this weekend for good luck!!
A custom ritual in the South is to have a Grooms cake along with the Bride's cake at weddings. Being a southerner, I hated to break this rule, so I had a fun candy and cakes table that related to the theme (and a few of my husbands favorite desserts) on the table with little boxes "to go" at the end of the night.
I was so thrilled with my florist, Amy from Seaport Flowers, who did a great job tying together flowers that worked so well with all of the blue and white colors and bright orange and lemon paintings. It was not an easy task to hold me back and balance this theme!
I found the batik patterned tablecloths and had them cut and sewn to the correct size, then used the remaining fabric for pillows on the entrance banquettes and seats around the tent.
Since the wedding was held at the zoo, the bathrooms were simply commercial and I jazzed them up with custom signs for the Ladies and Men. We made small baskets with stone concrete birds full of all the necessities in a bathroom and custom designed handtowels from Caspari.
Handtowels from Caspari
The lanterns were a great touch with the rosemary branches tied on top, the heat that radiated from the candles on the tin tops wafted the smell of rosemary as the guests entered the tent at nightfall.
A guest dressed well for the color theme and event!
Many of our guest travelled from near and afar to be with us on our wedding weekend, so my graphic designer friend Remy Steiner designed these booklets for them to know where to go and what to do while visiting the Big Apple!
A few great wedding resources:
Capriccio Ensemble
Class Act Band
Velvet Touch Trucking
Foliage Garden - Trees
