mood board

Wheat Toned Wedding :: The Inspiration

0 · Oct 16, 2017 ·

Every wedding day begins with a plan. I make my plans visual, summing it up on one page in hopes to capture the full picture that is in my mind. I always start with this this summery or mood board. This sets the tone and gives us a grounded place keeping our planning on track, especially in this creative industry when our minds can begin to wonder.

For this wedding, we took cues from the scenery around us. There were fields of wheat and grasses, autumn was showing her true glory and the venue was overflowing with rustic charm. Shelby and Paul wanted a casual, outdoor autumn experience. The palette was to be kept very neutral with touches of oat grass, wheat, cotton, autumn foliage and fruit lining the tables’ cotton table runners.

I put this mood board together before ever having visited the venue. When I arrived for my first site visit, I was in complete awe of how special Misty Farms really was and couldn’t wait to dig deeper into the design plan. The barns were from the 19th century. If nothing else, that would make me week in the knees. Farmers have been living off of and loving this land for decades and it’s beauty is unscathed. Even better, when I got the album back from the Ashley, there were more scenery pictures than I’ve ever seen her present me with before, meaning I wasn’t the only one that saw that wonder of this autumn day and I hope many more eyes will appriciate the charm of this area for generartions to come.

I get butterflies in my stomach just looking at these landscape photos so please excuse me if you think these photos are in excess but I simply cannot help myself. I can practically hear the leaves crunching and the smell the fresh frangrance of earthy autumn. I will share their entire wedding later this week so you can see how our mood board translated into real life, and personal and one of a kind experience designed specifically for Shelby and Paul.

Photography: Ashley Slater Photography | Venue: Misty Farms in Ann Arbor | Wedding & Floral Design: The Day’s Design

More of their gorgeous autumn day coming soon!

Justine & Devin :: The Inspiration

0 · Aug 15, 2017 ·

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared an inspiration board on here. It’s not because I haven’t been creating them, because I certainly have. They’re an amazing tool to help keep your planning on track. Sometimes the process of wedding planning can become so overwhelming and there are so many ideas out there, and directions that decor and styles can take and after a year or more of preparation for your big day, the final results can deviate so much for where you orginally wanted to be – this can be either really good or bad. I like to think of these as modern magazine clippings all compiled onto a one page summary of your day.

Photography: Samantha James Photography

On the other hand, Justine and Devin were engaged in May and wed in August (you can see their super romantic proposal story here). It was quick, and there was very little room for debating all the various design options. So we created a mood board to help set the stage and made sure that everything stayed on track with the initial concept. If something felt out of place with this “summary” their wedding day, then it was vetod and we moved on.

There’s a beautiful ballroom in downtown Flint that would play host to the day. It has thick white trim, orginal early 1900s grey and white tiled floors, marble accents and gold chairs. This was our canvas for creating. The next layer of design was the bride’s desire to add dusty blue touches and glittering sequin bridesmaids gowns. Elegant and glamorous where key discriptive words, and since she’s my sister I know her sense of style pretty well, which meant I also knew we needed to add in some frills and girly charms.

This is the condensed version of our design, as the actual design plan went on for 5 pages detailing every aspect of their glittering wedding day. There was much focus on flowers and end results were too good for words and I’ll be sharing the entire day soon.

Image sources (top to bottom, left to right): Photography: Heather Payne Photography, Bouquet: Philosophy Flowers via Team Flower Instagram | Quicksand Roses | White Majolika Roses | Gold Chiavari Chair | Helga Piaget Roses via Peterkort Roses | Photography: Heather Payne Photography, Floral Design: Philosophy Flowers via Team Flower Instagram | Minted Invitations | Faith Roses | via ModWedding

You can also see an expanded Pinterest board that helped inspire their celebration here. The results of their beautiful wedding are coming soon!

Jarvie & Hank :: The Inspiration

0 · Jan 5, 2017 ·

Greenery, calligraphy, winery. The three key words that best describe the wedding day of Jarvie and Hank – which will be in my journal tomorrow. But before I share the wedding in its entirety, I’d like to give a little behind the scenes of what went into the planning and design of the day.

Lake Leelanau Wedding | The Day's Design | Ashley Slater Photography

Photography: Ashley Slater Photography

Jarvie is very clean and classic. She’s elegant and has a sophisticated yet fun air about her. The couple resides in Chicago, but have Michigan roots as far north as the U.P. Decorative elements that were really important we lots of fresh greenery (she loves garlands), beautiful and soft calligraphy and simplicity.

We wanted it to feel very classic and not too rustic, even though part of the day would take place near Aurora Cellar’s farm house. But the farmhouse itself has a very modern and almost minimalistic feel with amazing lighting inside, so it blended all of the various concepts we had in our head quite well. It gave accommodations for sleeping and getting ready, it was a perfect backdrop for cocktail hour and the entire day could be located on the same property without guests tiring of the same scenery.

Below you’ll find the mood board that we used to start pulling together some of the visuals of the design. You’ll notice when I publish the entire wedding tomorrow, that we didn’t copy any one of these details, but rather used them as a guide and inspiration. This gave us an anchor point and when we started to get a little overwhelmed by options, we could always fall back and see what best fit our original vision.

Working with what the venue already provided was a perfect starting point. Harvest tables, white lawn chairs and bistro lighting were all included in the rental. These are bonus items that made us love the space even more. But Jarvie really wasn’t a fan of extremely long tables in perfect little rows as it doesn’t encourage conversation. So we got creative and came up with a floorplan that ensured that no two tables would be pushed end to end and all of her guests could easily mingle. Simple white plates were topped with textured eggshell napkins to add contrast against the dark tabletops and very subtly layer in another shade of ivory and white.

The main tasting room has a Tuscan feel, and while it wasn’t a direct host of the wedding day, it did host the rehearsal dinner and guests would be passing by it. To tie in both this Tuscan and farmhouse setting, we added white ceramic and terra cotta pots for the centerpieces and cake table. And tried to pull in other touches that would feel like an authentic Italian vineyard with olive branches and grapevine used throughout the design.

And of course flowers are always my favorite part of the décor. June in Northern Michigan means local peony season and one simply can’t go wrong with a big, beautiful peony. But as we were focusing on that vineyard, Tuscan, and even slightly Napa vibe – I wanted to bring in some California grown garden roses. And they were so pretty, multiple heads on one branch, the slightest hints of butter and blush and then a few blossoms in the perfect shade of a ballet slipper. So many textures and ruffles. A few accents of olive branch and bay leaf were added and then we foraged local grapevine (not from the vineyard!) and the rest of our foliage was native to the area.

I mentioned Jarvie’s love of garlands and in a perfect world, she would have loved to see lush greenery lining the entire length of each 8 foot harvest table. However, they also wanted a family style meal. Meal service of this style means that lots of plates need to be placed on the table and your table scape needs to be able to accommodate this. So we opted for 3 smaller floral centerpieces that could easily be moved slightly when platters were placed on the table. We added her greens in other places, on her ceremony arbor, draping on the bars and into the rehearsal dinner décor.

Classic Greenery & Blush Mood Board | The Day's Design

Image Sources (top to bottom, left to right): unknown | Photography: Melanie Duerkopp Photography via Joy Proctor | Photography: Abby Jiu Photography, Cake: The Boutique Bakeshop via Weddings Unveiled Magazine | via Woman Getting Married | via ModWedding | Photography: Pasha Belman Photography, Floral Design: Blossom Events via Southern Weddings | Invitation: Meagan Tidwell

The entire day was very intentional and well thought out. It was beautiful and we could not have asked for dreamier weather. And Jarvie and Hank – they’re such a handsome couple who I wish much happiness for all the years to come.

The Day’s Design Flower Studio :: The Inspiration

0 · Oct 6, 2016 ·

I’m probably a little premature on this post. Perhaps it’s a little bit of a dream yet to think that I might actually have a completed studio space in the near future. But my new flooring came in, so right now I’m going to live on a hopeful note.

I don’t have it all figured out quite yet, other than to say I have a space. The loosely outlined plans are to turn my bland basement into a working studio area. Flowers seem to take over my home, and for once, I would like to prep for a wedding and keep the mess contained to somewhere besides my kitchen.

In my imaginative mind, out basement is sort of shaped like an “S”. it’s a walkout basement, so there’s an entrance off the garage and also a couple of windows which provide some extra light. Now imagine dividing that “S” in half – one side (the half with the entrance) will be a sitting area. I have an antique sofa to reupholster and I’m looking for some other beautiful yet functional pieces to fill the space. The other half, which I like to refer to as the back half of the basement or the bottom of the “S”, will be my flowering area.

Some items for my shopping list there – an old wooden work bench or possibly kitchen island as my main prepping and designing space, shelving shelving and more shelving for storing containers, wheeled carts/shelves for completed centerpieces and a few miscellaneous pieces of furniture for storage and additional counter height creating area.

My timeline for this project is still very much unknown. For anyone who’s ever remodeled a room or house, you know that things just never go as planned. Everything takes twice the expected amount of time. And if you’ve read my blog for any amount of time then you really know how drawn out my projects always are. Throwing two little girls into the hustle with a husband who’s in the height of his busy season is just a recipe for chaos. I’m not even going to pretend that I have a deadline in reachable sight. But my special order flooring has arrived, so that’s a step in the right direction.

I’ll leave you with just a little glimpse of the inspiration behind my space. Again, this is a really loose interpretation, but it’s at least getting me headed in a direction.

Photo Sources (left to right, top to bottom): Hetler Photography | The Beach Studios | Perfectly Imperfect Blog | Wildfield Paper Co Instagram | Greetings of Grace

And if you’d like to see more, check out my Pinterest Board which is keeping me inspired for this project.

Inspiration Board :: Dusty & Rustic

0 · Jan 13, 2016 ·

Dusty and rustic, that sounds like quite the combination, doesn’t it? But I promise it was gorgeous – just like dear Hallie. Hallie and I schemed about all things vintage, wooden and full of charm. She adored dusty blue tones and luscious pops of pink. We aimed for softness, without being too pastel. She loves bows, lace and lots of girly enchantments which contrasted nicely with the rustic vibe of her barn venue.

Before bringing the day to life, we of course plotted and schemed and dreamt up an amazing mood board to help us define exact what their celebration would look like. I know some people find it somewhat pointless, but to me I think it’s an invaluable tool. Hallie (like most brides) had 169 pins on her Pinterest board and while they were all beautiful, there was such a range and plethora of ideas that it really needed to be focused and narrowed. You can read more about why I insist on creating an inspiration board here.

We sought to combine her favorite things, making sure that the design remained balanced between glamorous and aged elements, old and new and fit perfectly with her something blue.

Dusty Blue & Rustic Mood Board | The Day's Design

Image credit (top row left to right): Photography: Paper Antler via Ruffled Blog | Dusty Miller stock image | Photography: Greer G Photography, Floral Design: Kim Starr Wise via Snippet & Ink | Photography: Weddings by Nicola and Glen, Floral Design: Euphoric Flowers

(middle row left to right): Invitation via Wedding Paper Divas | Romantic Antike Garden Rose stock image | Wood boxes via Accent Decor

(bottom row left to right): Photography: Lauren Kinsey, Floral Design: Bloom Floral Design | Queen Anne’s Lace stock image | Linen via La Tavola | White Majolica Spray Rose stock image

I’ve been hording the gorgeous results of Hallie and Eric’s beautiful celebration but will be sure to share them very very soon.

Shelby signature

Creating a Wedding Mood Board

0 · Nov 10, 2015 ·

Refining your wedding vision is often a struggle. There are so many great ideas out there and so many amazing vendors who can help bring those visions into reality. But one of the biggest challenges I find are really clear cutting that vision and then being able to accurately describe what it is that you want to each and every artist who is playing a role in your celebration.

Descriptive terms are awesome. When a brides starts telling me that she’d like her wedding to be simple, elegant, organic and natural a certain scene begins to unfold. Then color gets added into the conversation, pale blush, ivory, champagne and greenery. The picture is officially painted in my mind at this point.

Then I skip on over to her Pinterest board. All hope begins to fade away. Suddenly I’m seeing vibrant hues of peach and green. I’ve seen swatches of white kissed with blush but I’ve also seen a pink that almost leans towards lavender. I heard the words “elegant and classic” but I’m seeing birch bark and wooden boxes which to me say more rustic and woodsy. And that’s just digging through the first 30 pins because after all, you know every girl’s wedding board is easily filled with 100+.

I’m not here to get on my Pinterest soap box because I really think it’s a great tool and I used it repeatedly. Maybe a bouquet was pinned simply because of the shape or style. Maybe the bride loved everything about a certain centerpiece but not the container. Perhaps she loved the votives on a tabletop but not necessarily everything else about the design. One can never be certain why a particular image was saved. So what I’m suggesting you do instead is hone it down for your vendors and share a simple, one page inspiration or mood board.

What is a mood board?

Just like when you’re on a romantic night out you look for a date night activity with the right atmosphere, so should you set the tone for your wedding. Romance in all in the eye of the beholder – some might enjoy a playful get-together at a carnival while others are thinking of candlelight dinners in a fine dining restaurant. Both locations set a different mood.

The key is to gather elements that evoke a certain feeling rather than focusing the exact elements that you want included in your wedding. Sometimes including non-wedding elements is another great option. Your wedding should be a reflection of you, so that includes components from your personal life too.

Isn’t my Pinterest board enough?

The truth is you probably have 5 different place card options pinned. Odds are there are about 10 cakes that you like. The number of bridal bouquets that you love are endless. But having a very simplified board to guide you and anchor you home when you begin to feel overwhelmed will help so much. Your baker probably isn’t going to scroll through your 100+ pins, but they will look at a one page to gather inspiration.

So here’s an example of one that I might put together for one of my brides based on the above description of her event. And then I share it with all of her vendors, as any good wedding planner should.

Image Credit (top row, left to right): Photography: Jose Villa, Boutonnieres: Mindy Rice Floral Design via Once Wed | Photography: Bradley James Photography, Bouquet: The Day’s Design | Cake via These Peas are Hollow

(middle row, left to right): Image via Stylish Walks | Photography: Rylee Hitcher via Once Wed | Image via Lover.ly

(bottom row, left to right): Rug via Joss & Main | Photography: Rylee Hitcher, Invitation: Meagan Tidwell

mood board

Footer

Instagram