Wedding Design
Anthropology inspired - French Country meets New England Lakes
Anthropology inspired - French Country meets New England Lakes
When my wife and I set out to plan our wedding, we were certain that no one would be able to deal with our particular desires for the amount of money we were working with. Kate, being in love with the store Anthropology, is always seeking inspiration from their creative design team. If you've never been to a store make it a point to if you are interested in creative design using ordinary items. The location of the reception was on her parents business property, Proctors Lakehouse Cottages, right on the Weirs channel in Laconia, NH. It would be outdoors and was a critical factor for our approach to many design considerations. The final result was the culmination of 6 months worth of work designing, sourcing and building the different parts and pieces. I even had the mind to cut 12 10'+ white birch sapplings down in the middle of February and save them so that their use of decorations in June would be leafless. With the help and guidance from some amazing friends, diligent planning, and great design, our wedding has to be one of the most beautiful and unique I've seen to date (Biases aside).
Getting the lanterns and trees installed appropriately took me most of a day.
My Dad and his helper building a custom platform for the head table to deal with an unforeseen issue with grade under the tent.
The main house served as the reception area used for Cocktail hour. The porch is adorned with suspended crystals and miniature antique apothecary bottles with wild flowers. The Just married sign was hand made from an antique cutting board with the letters burned in with a soldering iron.
Unique antique pieces like this porch light made for topics of conversations. Its base of lily pads and stem of cherubs were the subtle details that sparked interest beyond the two tiered display of prisms and gold. As the sun set over the water the crystals offered those who wandered away from the main reception area back to the house with an array of rainbow lights.
The mantle of the main home was decorated in moss and ferns. The inset photos show the thought and detail put into creating a scene and the addition of the live frogs turned out to be a great way to sooth crying children later on that evening.
Fabric was selected to match the Bride's maids dresses for the bottle wrap indicating the table numbers and the hand made napkin rings my mother and mother-in-law made 90% of for the wedding. The Bliss cards carried in each of them a saying about "Bliss" and was used as a means to deliver the information to our guests that we donated in their behalf to Smile Train. Each table had a unique old cotton doily. Various medicine and antique perfume bottles were used to surround the centerpiece of sustainable seasonal flowers in classic mason jars.
Our friends surprised Kate and I with the Fleur de Lis matching chairs custom made from the same fabric we used for the bottles.(back of chair and seat not shown)
Kate and I with the light! No we don't still have it but the people we sold it to made it a point to take their family christmas picture in front of it and send it to us! Kate and my passion for entertaining and events continues to grow and we've been in discussions about starting a business offering healthy cooking/catering services at private residences for small parties.
