When a team of some of the best of the best in the industry come together to create wedding magic – the results are truly spectacular! We’re talkin’ Rebecca Yale Photography, Kate Siegel Fine Events, Max Gill Design… the list goes on. Together they created wedding designs inspired by different female artists of the 20th century. We truly can’t stop staring at these gorgeous tablescapes overflowing with sheer creativity and sophistication, every minute finding a new detail to obsess over. These designs are proof that an incredible team of vendors can draw inspiration from just about anything and execute your vision with perfection.
From Kate Siegel Fine Events… I have always believed that events don’t have to be derivative, but can be inspired by color, art, and the vibrant life that moves around us. Often in wedding design, we stick to a traditional classic white color palette, but forget that it can be so inspiring to pull from ancient cultures, the French countryside, the cliffs of Santorini, or a beautiful artistic masterpiece. So when Rebecca Yale approached me to design for her workshop, I was thrilled — especially with her fresh and unique idea to create designs inspired by different artists. Taking this as a cue, I looked toward female artists of the 20th century who have had a unique and diverse impact on modern art: Georgia O’Keeffe, Helen Frankenthaler, and Yayoi Kusama, each of whom are powerhouses in their own right.
Even though all three of these artists have their own established style, all three love the use of color. It was very important that each piece had a unique color palette completely distinct from one another. Georgia was the mother of American Modernism, Helen was a great contributor to American Abstract Expressionist in Post-War America, and Yayoi is such a memorable contributor to Pop Art and Minimalism. In executing this vision, I was so lucky to pull together such an incredibly talented group of vendors to bring it all to life—Cara from Underwood Letterpress, Max Gill from Max Gill Design, La Tavola Linens for table linens, Theoni Collection, Found and Hensley for unique event rentals, Flour & Blooms Cakes for exquisite custom cakes, and Paula LeDuc for delicious specialty cocktails and providing the beautiful property, The Barn at Green Valley. Lang Antiques gave us access to their exquisite collection, and I was able to choose three amazing rings for each design—engagement, and his and her wedding bands. Together, we worked to create something fresh and artistic that will hopefully move people to discover new ideas for where to find inspiration and make bold choices when choosing from a great diversity of color.
Georgia O’Keeffe: Vibrant, Grounded, Intriguing
I opted to pull from one of Georgia’s stunning pieces, Red Canna 1923, that utilizes a classic and vibrant color combination that is frequently found in nature–bright corals, oranges, reds, salmon pink, and violet. It is commonly known that Georgia, living in New Mexico, interpreted her surroundings in her art, and to me, this piece represents the color and movement of a sunset sky—something that we wanted to bring to life in the event design.
With the tabletop, I felt it was important to bring in texture and depth on and off the table with wood and smooth edges. We brought in rustic wooden elements in addition to modern chairs and bright colors—integrating a wooden charger, Found hanging lanterns, wooden menus, and table numbers edged in bright red and hand painted with a palette knife by Cara to add texture and movement. The custom cake had wispy, fluttering edges like the painting and the Icelandic poppies in the bright and playful floral arrangements by Max Gill. For each design, Paula LeDuc also created a specialty cocktail. For Georgia, they created “Light Of Iris” with vodka, chamomile-honey, elderflower, and butterfly flower tea, which was perfectly accented by blooming quince on the bar table.
Helen Frankenthaler: Bold, Abstract, Fresh
For Helen, I loved the bright and totally fresh color palette of Solar Imp, 2001: chartreuse, lime, lemon yellow, and a distinctive line of black. Cara and I spent hours going over different types of textures and materials. We wanted to use both modern and traditional mediums and integrate them in a fresh way. Cara used an encaustic relief process which involves hand-painting with pigmented wax. She then pressed Belgian linen into the wax to reveal a new surface pattern. The linen was bound into a book for the menu.
In my designs, I like to follow the Rule of Three: elements grouped in threes are more interesting and impactful. One such design element was the black line detail from the painting. This detail inspired us to create a black belly-band around the menu, which also worked as a place card. I subsequently selected a green Theoni chair with a black steel frame. Finally, the beeswax table numbers were mounted to wood elements stained black to mimic the black steel of the chairs. For the flowers, I worked with Max to create something verdant and fresh.
I have always thought leaves are beautiful, so we used different variegated leaves within the green color profile of the painting. We integrated mystical Lady Slipper orchids in green, yellow, and brown tones, which accented the natural color of the beeswax table numbers and raw wood table. I loved using this particular Found wooden table. There were imperfections on either side of the table that were perfectly imperfect. Flour and Bloom hand painted the cake, which was similar to the painting in color, with just a hint of black. The specialty cocktail was “A Green Thought”—vodka, cucumber, ginger, and lime, accented by flowering dogwood on the bar table. To finalize the look, as we dressed the table, I offset the Theoni Collection plates and folded the napkin and placed it on a diagonal—just a little bit abstract, like Helen would like it. The final table was framed with the yellow mustard in the background and the wooden walls and ceiling, creating a cohesive design.
Yayoi Kusama: Monochromatic, Minimal, Moving
For Yayoi, I opted to pull inspiration from one of her most notable pieces of art—White Infinity Net. To me, her art is monochromatic and tactful but very fluid and has an intoxicating, oscillating effect. This was a goal for the event design as well–I wanted a sense of movement in the elements, similar to the way you feel when looking at the painting.
With a color palette of gray, white, and black, I wanted it to be effectively minimal, but also have a huge impact with the items that we chose. Cara used folded white paper with black ink and accents of translucent smoke gray acrylic to add to the shadow effect, which was our interpretation of a net. We folded the menus to create dimension and shadow to make it look as though it were two colors: soft gray and white. Cara came up with the inventive idea to cut the paper into a circle, paying homage to the circular holes in the painting.
For the floral design, Max kept it minimal, structural, and impactful by using magnolias, blooming white spiraea branches, and black hellebore. With the Found chairs and acrylic table numbers, we aimed to create a sense of negative space that echoed the painting, and the black plates from Hensley had a textured pattern that also evoked the art. The Flour and Bloom cake was pure black with folded white rice paper, again using shadow to make it feel minimal but so very grand and memorable. Max created a light structure to frame the beautiful cake, accenting it with white plum branches. The specialty cocktail was “Infinity,” with tequila, activated charcoal, and lime. The cool black cocktail was accented with blooming white plum branches to pull it all together—no little detail went unnoticed.
Photography: Rebecca Yale Photography | Event Design and Planning: Kate Siegel Fine Events | Flowers: Max Gill | Cake: Flour and Bloom Cakes | Rings: Lang Antique | Barn : The Barn at Green Valley | Catering and Venue: Paula LeDuc Fine Catering & Events | Linens: BBJ La Tavola | Paper: Underwood Letterpress | Ring Boxes: The Mrs Box | Specialty Rentals: Hensley Event Resources | Specialty Rentals: Theoni Collection | Specialty Rentals: Found Rental Co.
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