Elevate Events | Willow & Stone Photography
Celebrate your day in a unique and personal way with a vintage wedding theme that recalls family traditions and honors both family roots and individual passions.
Vintage conjures up mental images of the best of the past. But there isn’t anything monotonous about a vintage wedding, perfectly orchestrated and planned to capture the interests and honor the family heritage of both bride and groom. In terms of wedding styles, vintage conveys a mood rather than a specific decor.
Creating a Vintage Style Wedding
Vintage inspired weddings don’t all look the same. One might be a comfortable celebration in a family barn, while another is a luxe garden wedding with white tents and a manicured lawn. It’s the way you add treasured family mementos and layer details from the past that bring a vintage wedding to life and assure that historic charm permeates the atmosphere.
Parties, Etc.
Vintage weddings are infinitely satisfying.
Whether you opt for a formal dinner with a full string orchestra and white gloved servers, a late afternoon buffet set in a vineyard, or even an informal hoe-down at a lakeside cottage, use family heirlooms to capture a sense of history and infuse your reception with individual style while reinforcing tradition. It’s this sense of continuity that make vintage weddings so appealing.
Color Palettes for Vintage Weddings
Pinks
Top left photo: Fauxcades – Veronica Ellerman Photography | Top right photo: So Stacey – Bob and Dawn Davis Photography | Bottom photo: Debi Lilly / A Perfect Event
Most little girls love pink. Most little girls have big dreams about their wedding day, so it’s only natural that pink should play a part in the reality of a vintage wedding. Here a sheer overlay with tones of palest pink to deep rose adds a floral dimension to a theme predicated on and abundance of Bashful Blush tones. This is a stunningly beautiful example of how to go vintage in a big way! It’s sophisticated and girlish at the same time.
Top left & right photo: Christine Janda Design& Events – Becky Brown Photography | Bottom photo: Fauxcades – Veronica Ellerman Photography
Neutrals
Top left & bottom photo: LK Events – Avery House | Top right photo: Tami Winn Events – Tracy Autem & Lightly Photography
Just classy cloths in tones of taupe and beige evoke vintage drama and fill the setting with the richness of established family tradition, especially when combined with burnished gold, dusky wood tones, framed photos, extravagant floral displays, candlelight, and monogrammed place cards. This is a vintage look that evokes historic libraries as easily as worn leather and unending Western vistas. For this vintage look, carry the embellishments to chair backs with cascading ties of Gold Bella Sheer over white jackets.
Top photo: Bob and Dawn Davis Photography | Bottom left photo: Tami Winn Events – Tracy Autem & Lightly Photography
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Jewel Tones
Ashley Biess Photography
Honor a vintage sensibility without being overly devoted to the look. Victorian design had a sense of humor and was a bit daring at times. Think of the vibrant color combinations of San Francisco’s “Painted Ladies!” If jewel tones and ornate embellishment define vintage in your view, underscore your table setting with a jacquard cloth, but then elevate the look into the sublime with unending embellishment and unexpected form. The deep purple flowers underscore the personal expression of vintage.
Ashley Biess Photography
Florals and Soft Blues
Photography: The Mamones | Styling: Meggie Francisco Events
Florals and Soft Blues Mixed china patterns, petite florals, white and soft blue tones, engraved invitations and printed menus, etched crystal and a very traditional wedding cake in pristine white — is this the vintage look of your dreams? Bring it to life and assure that it honors the past in a thoroughly contemporary manner with our linens that are transported from the French countryside straight to your heart!
Photography: The Mamones | Styling: Meggie Francisco Events
Metallics
Reva Nathan & Associates | Bob and Dawn David Photography
When you want to speak a slightly different language, add a bit of bling — indulge your love of theatrics, texture, pattern and sparkle. Use vintage rhinestones and create a bow-tied napkin look for a table that looks as if it might have been transported intact from the high-stepping Twenties. A simple display of framed photos lends vintage appeal on a simply draped surface highlighted by metallic tones.
Reva Nathan & Associates | Bob and Dawn David Photography
Cool Colors
Robin Carlson
Vintage is personal, recalling family tradition, heirloom touches, individual style and a sense of history. The vintage wedding can take place in any season, and if winter is your chosen season, why not play it up with moody blues and a huge helping of silver that recalls starry nights and big dreams? There’s something very warm about this lavish expression using Empress Etherealness for a vintage winter wedding reception.
Robin Carlson
Purples
Top photo: Fleur Inc. | Bottom left photo: RI Weddings – Christopher Joseph Photography | Bottom right photo: Robert Evans Studios
Vintage need not be all sweetness and light. Start with an unexpected shade of purple for table cloths and build from that base by adding mismatched chairs, multiple (and different) wedding cakes, and a uniquely crafted table card with some “down to earth” advice for the newlywed couple. Your guests will love the hints of warm red too!
Top left photo: Robert Evans Studios | Top right photo: Debi Lilly – A Perfect Event | Bottom photo: L Photographie
Fabric Textures and Table Linen for a Vintage Look
Creating a memorable wedding scene is as much about the details as it is about the overall theme. When you think about vintage, think about the small things. Scattered rose petals on the table can be the “icing on the cake” just as tiny silk-covered buttons were the crowning glory of Victorian wedding gown or the diamond tie tack was the defining jewel of the groom’s livery. In the texture department, there are a wide array of options, from sheer embroidered organdy overlays to the lavish and sumptuous look and feel of Champagne Cotier. Its rippled effect will provide ripples of excitement for your vintage reception.
Nature-Inspired Linen
Top photo: Kristin Ashley Events – L Photographie | Bottom left photo: Epic Imagery | Bottom right photo: Joseph Leigh Designs
Another versatile BBJ textile that is easily adaptable to vintage wedding themes is also inspired by nature, in particular by the ripples and imperfections of towering oaks and forest landscapes. With a slightly rustic countenance and a soothing, shimmery glow, it combines well with other patterns and colors and can hold its own with metallics, lace, sheers and even homespun linens. It’s a great base on which to build your vintage theme. Keep it all pale, or add some warm and woodsy hues for a fall wedding. Remember, it all about you on this day!
Top photo: Dana’s Floral Design & Wedding – RI Weddings | Bottom left photo: InWhite Photographic Design | Bottom right photo: Dana’s Floral Design & Wedding – MJB Photography
Vintage Wedding Tabletop Décor Ideas
Floral Toppers and More
Top photo: Arden AG Lighting | Bottom left photo: Meggie Francisco Events – Jessica gold Photography | Bottom right photo: Orange 2 Photogrpahy
It’s common to associate fine lace, soft colors and traditional flowers with vintage themes, and there are myriad ways to do just that. Give a nod to the past, but add a delightful update to the look by layering a sheer floral topper like Sarah’s Garden over a colored cloth. Choose your favorite hue, or go all in on pale with a white or soft ivory base.
Hope Weis Consulting | Rick Aguilar Studios
Ornate Elements
Top photo: Elevate Events – Willow & Stone Photography | Bottom left photo: Zev Fisher Photography | Bottom right photo: Entertaining Company – Linda Bergonia Photography
Young girls in past generations worked hard to perfect their “stitches,” turning rough linen and homespun fabrics into works of art with painstaking handwork packed into trousseaus and preserved for the coming generations. What better way to honor that family tradition than by topping a lavish luncheon table with a square linen topper highlighted by ornate cut work borders. Accent the setting with soft colors, fresh roses, and traditional silver and china. Vintage at its best!
Sash & Bow | Shanna Allen Photo
Creating the Perfect Vintage Wedding Décor
While the term vintage is commonly used to refer to wines of excellent quality and/or high price, it can just as easily be used to designate a specific place of origin or to characterize an era. The same is true of vintage decor.
Look to your own family background, or borrow a theme from any historic era you love, whether it’s European Renaissance, the Wild West, classical Greece or Art Deco.
Zev Fisher Photography
There are so many ways to invoke a vintage feel. Think about accessorizing with old leather books, battered travel memoirs, faded family photos, monogrammed crystal and china, even old farm implements and rustic lanterns. Or gather up loads of burnished brass and tarnished silver for a unique take on classic finery.
Strive for a romantic atmosphere that incorporates the sensibilities and passions of both the bride and groom — your vintage wedding should be a unique expression of your love and life.