Claire Pettibone might be one of my favorite wedding dress designers. She always stays true to her romantic and whimsical roots, and I think she’s one of the best designers if you’re looking for a vintage style.
Claire has said that she was inspired by the French countryside for her Fall 2012 collection, and I can definitely see it. Having recently returned from a trip to France, I’m already trying to scheme up ways I can get myself back there. I can picture it now…lounging in Provence…in one of these dresses…tending to my sheep. Ahhh, yes. It will be so!
Below are photos of my favorites from the Claire Pettibone Fall 2012 collection.
"Genevieve", from the Claire Pettibone Fall 2012 collection
"Marcelle," from the Claire Pettibone Fall 2012 collection
"Toile Francais", from the Claire Pettibone Fall 2012 collection
"Toulouse", from the Claire Pettibone Fall 2012 collection
"Pirouette", from the Claire Pettibone Fall 2012 collection
If you’re faced with a lot of blank walls in your ceremony/reception space, a great way to personalize them is with blown-up, old black & white family wedding photos. Ask your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. to lend you their wedding photos, and use them to line either your ceremony walls/altar, or your reception walls. My fave, Country Living magazine, had a great resource on how to do this in the June 2011 issue. They used an old black & white, weatherproof photo as art for an outside living space, below.
Photo by Victoria Pearson for Country Living magazine
Megaprint.com, which Country Living used for the above photo, makes great vinyl banners with grommets punched into the corners for hanging. All you do is upload your prints, and for less than $100 you can have a 40″W x 53″ H image made of weatherproof vinyl. Click here to order.
So what are you supposed to do with all these blown-up prints after the wedding? See if your relatives would be into them! If so, they would make great family keepsakes. Another great idea would be to have your photographer photograph the pictured couples in front of their photo for a great addition to your wedding album.
One of the best ways to impart vintage flair and personality into your wedding is with the table décor. When I was planning my wedding for 125 guests, I really wanted to have vintage linens and plates/glassware, but I couldn’t find a company that specialized in them. I contemplated buying vintage-y place settings from stores like Anthropologie, but it wasn’t realistic. When I recently heard about Jason Murakawa and his antique tableware rental company, Small Masterpiece, I immediately got excited.
Jason, a trained Graphic Designer and Creative Director with over 30 years experience designing CD soundtrack packages for films such as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Magnolia, and Almost Famous, launched Small Masterpiece after a decade of designing private parties. He now has an unparalleled collection of 18th and 19th-century antique table settings for 130-200 guests available for private rental, and also offers creative direction for tabletop décor. We are thrilled that Jason was able to take the time to answer questions from WomanGettingMarried.com about Small Masterpiece, and some of the best ways brides can create a unique table setting for their wedding.
Woman Getting Married: What motivated you to start Small Masterpiece?
Jason: I entertained privately on a regular basis designing at-home parties and non-profit fundraising dinners for 50 people. Being a graphic designer for over 30 years, my eye is trained to appreciate good design. The rentals companies had nothing that suited my taste level, hence, The Small Masterpiece Collection was born and has expanded to over 3,000 pieces of Haviland Limoges porcelain, Sterling Silver flatware and 150 year old Early American Pressed Glass goblets.
How did you start your collection, and where are some of your favorite places to find new pieces at?
I started the collection about a decade ago. It has taken me this amount of time to collect what I have in The Small Masterpiece Collection. I go to estate auctions, garage sales, Ebay, antique stores, and flea markets in the United States and England. I remember I once drove through a very small town in Texas and found a store that had hundreds of Early American Pressed Glass cake stands. They were closed and still, to this day, I regret not spending the night or contacting the owner to open the store for me!
One of the most frustrating things when planning a larger wedding is finding unique table settings in bulk… You can’t just go into Anthropologie and buy place settings for 100 people! For a bride who does not have access to a unique collection such as yours but still wants to have an heirloom feel to her tables, what would you suggest she try to incorporate?
It isn’t easy to do. Small Masterpiece is the only company in the United States that has this one-of-a-kind collection with the quantities a bride would need. I love to mix vintage and modern. It makes for a more interesting and unexpected tabletop. Give yourself the proper lead time to collect whatever it is that will help achieve your vintage tabletop. If you are mixing vintage and modern, your vintage piece could be old black and white photos you use for place cards, old ribbon to tie napkins, pictures from an old book for table number signs, etc. The fleas will provide anything and everything so as long as you are creative and think outside the box! Make your table deliberate and accentuate what is there. Do it with confidence! Go to your local Goodwill or thrift stores and see what is there. Travel! Go to another town if you don’t have the resources locally. You may find a treasure trove just 30 miles outside of where you live! The tabletop is a blank canvas, so be creative, fun, and outgoing.
OK, we are in love with your collection! You are based in Los Angeles…can brides rent your collection outside of California as well? What price ranges would she be looking at?
Yes, The Small Masterpiece Collection does ship throughout the United States. I travel with the collection because of its value. We are on site from start to finish boxing, cleaning and working with the caterer and waitstaff on the proper handling of the inventory. The collection is versatile and a bride may only rent the Haviland Limoges porcelain or the Early American Pressed Glass goblets, etc. It all depends on the budget and what the tabletop design calls for. I am looking into housing half of the collection in New York, making the freight cost much easier for east coast brides. And yes, I am more expensive than your rental companies but you are getting something that is unique and looks like you set the table with your own private collection of tableware!
To find out more about The Small Masterpiece Collection, and to make an inquiry for your wedding, click here
Note: There are no sponsored posts on WomanGettingMarried.com…just real reviews and Q&A’s with vendors I love!
Looking back, I kinda wish we had done something more fun for the groomsmen ties. You can see the one that we ended up going with here. It worked well because the bridesmaids were in such a neutral color (minus the bright necklaces), but it would have also looked great if the groomsmen wore something vintage-y like the ones below. The ties pictured are all from Etsy and most are a great price. It would be great to mix and match brightly colored patterns, especially if you have a bright color scheme to begin with. If your groom is wearing a black bow-tie (like mine was), they’ll pop even more!
To avoid confusion over which tie each groomsmen needs to get, I HIGHLY recommend just buying the ties for them, and they can pay you back or it can be part of your future husband’s gift to them. My hubby had six groomsmen, and it was a bit of a cluster f&$k as to WHICH Macy’s tie they should get. And then of course that particular tie wasn’t available online for close to two weeks due to “technical difficulties,” so the groomsmen had to go into their local Macy’s store in whatever city they lived in and, blah blah. It was way more of a headache then it should have been. On that note, check out these adorable ties!
As a newly engaged writer, I had a hard time finding the practical information I needed to plan my wedding. While the wedding books, magazines, and websites I read had pretty pictures, they seemed to just skim the surface when it came to providing helpful ways for me to create the wedding of my dreams. Now that I'm married, I hope this blog serves as a resource for all you other bride-to-be's, with unique ideas for wedding venues, wedding decorations, wedding dresses, and more!
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