Photos by Kristyn Hogan

The Cedarwood Weddings Design team loves composing detailed event styling to represent the personalities and love story for every bride and groom. Many of you know about (or have attended) a Cedarwood Weddings annual style show where we showcase design inspiration for upcoming couples.  At our 2014 show, we took the request of a ‘real couple’ – a Texas groom from a cattle ranching family and a Tennessee bride who loves southern tradition, classic styling and gold –  to demonstrate the process for a personally styled reception design. You can see the beautiful result in these photos by Kristyn Hogan, but let’s deconstruct elements to share our process. Fun, right?

Starting with paper goods, we asked the talented Designs in Paper to create a monogram with characteristics of a livestock brand (read details below), while retaining a classically elegant look.   A custom save-the-date card with state motifs introduces the Texas-Tennessee connection. With paper goods setting the tone and color palette, we then pulled details and elements together to represent the heritage and personal tastes of our bride and groom. Gold chivari chairs, candelabras and formal place settings create the bride’s classic look while Magnolia leaf garlands pay tribute to the south. Longhorn cattle figurines stand as tabletop favors, and florals infused with yellow roses denote the iconic “Yellow Rose of Texas,” a folk song about legendary love.  The gold garlanded Bison represents masculine and feminine; rustic and refined. Choosing a reception menu, wines and even desserts, top the list of popular ways to share regional flavors with guests.

We hope you enjoy our Tennessee-Texas style inspiration as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Kudos to Designs in Paper for your always amazing work. We love our creative collaborations, and appreciate the complexity involved in custom designed paper goods. Donette shares details behind those featured on this post, “One of the coolest things we get to be a part of each year is the Cedarwood Style Show. There’s so much opportunity to do amazingly awesome paper goods to add to their showcase of designs annually. One of the cool tablescapes this year was a Black and Gold inspiration for a Texas-Tennessee couple getting married this year. Linda, of Cedarwood, asked if we could create a logo that resembled a cattle brand along with the accompanying paper goods. From that, we created a cool logo and complete save the date and invitation suite using black thermography. We also did a pattern background for black-on-black texture look resembling an embossed leather look for the mat. We added a program, menu and placecards to complete the paper suite and we think you’ll agree, it’s awesome! “

And thanks Kristyn Hogan, for your impeccable photography!

Linda and the Cedarwood Design Team