Chic has many different meanings, especially when it comes to wedding ideas and decor. What’s your vision of chic? Traditional formal weddings are elegant and romantic, with themes that range from low-key to trendy and color palettes just as diverse. But chic can also go great distances in different directions: country or rustic, western or vintage, shabby or exotic! They are the new face of chic!
What Chic Weddings Have in Common
Haley Sheffield | Ooh! Events
Weddings are personal expressions. Chic can mean exchanging vows in front of a roaring fire at a mountaintop ski chalet or repeating the traditional words in front of crashing waves. Chic also means weaving together two religious or ethnic traditions so that the result is an individualized expression of love and commitment.
Truly chic wedding themes rely on mood rather than color, however, and use restraint to create that mood. For an outdoor ceremony in a breathtakingly beautiful clearing, little is needed other than simple seating, an aisle of greenery and a canopy draped in filmy white sheers.
Haley Sheffield | Ooh! Events
Position a comfortable gathering spot amid the banquet tables — it serves as a counterpoint to classically formal surroundings and offers a perfect place for family photos. How chic!
It’s never required that all table settings be the same. In fact, the magic is often in the mix: Long natural wood tables adorned only with candles set atop flowing runners coordinate beautifully with fully draped tables topped by colorful floral centerpieces.
Haley Sheffield | Ooh! Events
Throw away the preconceived ideas of what a wedding should be; instead, embrace what the day can be and how it will express the wishes of the bride and groom. Think unique, think special, and think personal. The chic wedding is all about fun! Make the celebration memorable!
Country Chic Wedding
Alexis June Weddings | Kimberly Watt | JLM Couture | Elisabeth Young | Cydney Sariah Bynum
There are so many variations that country chic wedding decor is hard to categorize! It can mean anything from a barn to a tent in the midst of waving wheat fields, but country can also bring to mind images of a colorful apple orchard or an elegant “picnic reception” on the lawn.
It can also mean letting the majesty of a Yellowstone geyser set the tone for an ethereal bridal photoshoot, or a sunset in the high country dictate the direction of country chic decor. In short, a country chic wedding can be colorful or subdued, fancy or fanciful, elegant or playful.
Alexis June Weddings | Kimberly Watt | JLM Couture | Elisabeth Young | Cydney Sariah Bynum
We love the look of loosely gathered flowers and muted field greens played against the well-worn wood of simple tables and chairs. We also adore the juxtaposition of earthy geodes and burnished metals with ribbons, lace, and pale pastels.
Set a table with linen the color of well-used rawhide; then pick napkins in a radiant shade of sky blue, knowing that your wedding table reflects not only the beauty of the outdoor scene but also the majesty of the day.
Alexis June Weddings | Kimberly Watt | JLM Couture | Elisabeth Young | Cydney Sariah Bynum
Emphasize country spirit by posing delicate wedding jewelry and pale field blooms alongside a sturdy wooden box and just-picked greens. Embrace tradition and celebrate the moment with a ceremony and reception under a canopy of sky.
Here, a lakeside setting with a backdrop of towering mountains is breathtaking. A rippling stream would have the same effect, but country chic can focus on any natural element with equal success.
Alexis June Weddings | Kimberly Watt | JLM Couture | Elisabeth Young | Cydney Sariah Bynum
There are so many ways to incorporate country chic style into a wedding celebration that we can’t begin to list them all. For starters, BBJ has linen for down-home flavor; but we also have dazzling sequined bar tops, glittering chair ties, floral linen, and napkins in harmonious solid colors and neutral homespun.
What’s your definition of country chic wedding decor? We’ll help lift any country theme from ordinary to elegant in a snap!
Vineyard Chic
Charla Storey Photography | Something Pretty Floral | The Grille at the Harbor
Much like any outdoor celebration, a vineyard chic wedding theme is apt to combine rustic elements and natural greenery. A striking way to do that is to keep table settings elegantly simple and mostly white, relying on the beauty of nature to carry the theme.
Set white-clothed tables amid spreading tree boughs, surrounded by lightweight gold-toned bamboo chairs, and enhanced by the subtle patterns of a tiered stone patio. It’s so chic.
Charla Storey Photography | Something Pretty Floral | The Grille at the Harbor
In keeping with the updated natural chic of this vineyard-theme, a lightweight shelf attached to a tree encourages guests to send out Instagram pics with a specific hashtag. It’s a “with it” sensibility!
For this celebration, the address of “Blue Jay Lane,” a harborside venue on Possum Kingdom Lake, serves as inspiration for multi-toned blue accents. The reception invitation features a whimsical map and reinforces the playful, natural theme.
Charla Storey Photography | Something Pretty Floral | The Grille at the Harbor
Both the bridal bouquet and table centerpieces feature pale pink and white roses, as fresh as blush wine, and other table accessories for this chic wedding are purposely minimal.
As an alternative, and perhaps less formal vision, capture a country aesthetic for a chic vineyard wedding dinner amid oaken barrels in the aging room. Just don’t forget to toast the bridal couple with vintage champagne!
Charla Storey Photography | Something Pretty Floral | The Grille at the Harbor
Southern Chic
Think sunny days, peachy tones, and delicate peach blossoms: That’s the essence of Southern chic. Embody the old South with antebellum elegance, or go totally modern with bright tones and graphic patterns.
Kandi Daniel Studios | Design Studio South | A To Zinnias
Southern chic is certain to be unique, putting guests at ease and keeping the focus where it should be — on the wedding couple!
Layer a wedding table with fine linen, contrasting colors, a mix of fruit and flowers, and abundant textures and you’re likely to achieve a setting as perfectly delicious as this multi-tiered wedding cake that illustrates how it all comes together.
Kandi Daniel Studios | Design Studio South | A To Zinnias
The graphic yellow and white pattern of the table linen serves as a base for classic white china, but the surprise of charcoal tapers lifts the chic setting to new heights and adds not only charm but drama.
Kandi Daniel Studios | Design Studio South | A To Zinnias
Just glance at the cascading upside-down blooms hanging over the table — it’s impossible not to burst into a smile of appreciation for the artistry of the designer, and it takes wedding chic to new heights!
Rustic Chic Wedding Ideas
It has often been said that too much of a good thing is just too much! That’s why the most successful wedding themes today do not rely strictly on just one era or expression. The mix is in, and rustic chic wedding ideas illustrate that concept.
There is something innately satisfying about taking familiar objects and giving them new life and expression in different surroundings. That’s what rustic chic means: mix canning jars with vintage gold-rimmed crystal, intersperse elegant silver serving pieces with bamboo-handled flatware, accent a burlap-topped table with handmade lace.
Rustic White Photography
For a rustic chic wedding theme, informality is often important. Vintage might hold sway with romantic touches everywhere: grandma’s hanky or grandpa’s pocket watch; pictures of generations of family brides and grooms.
Rustic White Photography
However, there’s no requirement for rustic to dig deep into the past. It can also mean paying attention to the individual interests of bride and groom, or to the locale, whether it’s low country Carolina, Rocky Mountain high, desert Southwest or scenic New England.
Rustic White Photography
Rustic chic wedding ideas run the range from a variety of food serving stations, each featuring a sampling of different tastes, to a do-it-yourself dessert bar with cake pops and cupcakes rather than a traditional tiered wedding cake. It’s the surprise touches that characterize rustic at its best!
Rustic White Photography
Vintage Chic
There is little as satisfying as the elegance of fine china, flatware and crystal brought together in a table setting that speaks eloquently of tradition and love. Vintage chic table settings are the epitome of an enviable lifestyle, and a wedding is the perfect time to embrace that vision.
Christine Janda Design & Events | Brittany Bekas Photography
A place setting of elegantly banded china with a delicate pattern sets the tone for a table that also features ornate gold-toned flatware and a mix of both etched and faceted stemware.
Christine Janda Design & Events | Brittany Bekas Photography
The table’s central floral “carpet” is an exuberant expression of Victorian-era excess, but it works beautifully in this instance, reinforcing the softly colorful theme, and adding elegance to an otherwise austere table with natural linen that fades into the background.
Christine Janda Design & Events | Brittany Bekas Photography
Simple linen panels take center stage, however, as a backdrop for bartops with floor-length covers. Draped with embellished golden streamers, these panels prove that memorable wears many faces.
Christine Janda Design & Events | Brittany Bekas Photography
Vintage chic wedding celebrations are always memorable.
Decoding Chic Wedding Ideas
Fortunately, there is no manual yet written about chic wedding ideas. That’s the beauty of it all. A chic wedding can — and should — be as romantic and special as possible, meaningful for the wedding couple and memorable for all those who attend the ceremony and celebration. It is, after all, a joining of two lives and should represent a blend that is personal and special to both, as well as to their families and friends.
Camarie McBride Photography | Tre Fiori Floral Studio | Briar Rose Winery
At BBJ, we never lose sight of the goal — Any wedding should be chic!
There are, however, many expressions of chic. But at the heart of any chic wedding theme is the idea that it’s a celebration of love and personal expression of the commitment between two individuals. That’s why there’s no “Book of Weddings.” But there are lots of ideas to draw from for your chic wedding decor. And BBJ has a number of idea books!
Alexis June Weddings | Kimberly Watt | JLM Couture | Elisabeth Young | Cydney Sariah Bynum
We hope you enjoy our sampling of romantic and vintage themes, our gallery of trendy weddings, and our portfolio of rustic chic wedding ideas, shabby chic wedding decor, and country chic wedding ideas.
Chic, as we said, comes in many flavors!
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