Indie Wed | Finding Inspiration

I was so excited to be involved in Indie Wed this year (in a sort of round-about way)! Joan of Five Grain Events asked me to put together some paper goods to go with her 1950's elegance themed booth.



We also brainstormed a few ideas for the booth design as well - one of my favorites being the table that looks like a girl's dress complete with a tulle petticoat! Joan said it reminded her of the dress from this movie... I had this song stuck in my head for the rest of the day! We collected some of our ideas and started a board on Pinterest.



Fleur provided the gorgeous, romantic flowers for the booth - the peonies were the perfect touch of pretty pink lovliness!



In addition to the pretty, pink, 1950's theme, another inspiration that I used for the paper goods, was my grandparents. It's always adds so much more meaning to my designs when there is a story or memories that I can draw upon to influence my design decisions.

I remembered that my grandparents (both of whom I love and miss so much - and who are my angels) never really had the big, beautiful wedding they deserved. They were married under extremely tragic circumstances. They had met at the student union on the campus of UW-Madison and fell in love very quickly - they were already talking about getting married after only a few weeks of dating. My grandmother received a phone call not long after that her parents had been in a serious car crash - her father died instantly and her mother was in critical condition - at that time all they could do was stabilize her by placing sand bags all around her and wait to see if she would pull through.

Since it was not considered to "appropriate" to have someone you were dating stay at your home while you were unmarried (my grandmother had to leave school and moved back to Milwaukee - 2 hours away) and since they were already planning their future together, my grandparents decided to marry - two short months after meeting. There were only a handful of people at their wedding - and the reception was held in the hospital room where her mother (my Nana) was recuperating. They never had formal wedding invitations, a fancy wedding dress or even a first dance - but they were married for 52 years! If they had had a big white wedding, I'd like to think it would have looked something like this...











This escort card with grommet detail, swivels to reveal a table number. These were tied to the stem of the wine glasses favors.









A big thanks again to Five Grain Events and Fleur - I'll never tire of my job when I get to work with such warm, funny and talented ladies! Also thanks Indie Wed for another great event!

© 2011 Lily Red Studio