Chloe & Sam's Americana/Vegas themed wedding was a prime example of how I can work with couples to provide a full design vision and delivery. I designed this wedding when I was one half of immersive art/events company Lemonade and Laughing Gas, which I ran with the brilliant Louise Orwin for 6 glorious years.

My aim back then (and now) was to create highly bespoke, original and eclectic wedding details unique the personalities, experiences and passions of the couples we worked with.

wedding help

Sam & Chloe came to us as soon as they were engaged to help us plan and design a very alternative wedding. They were both passionate about all things Americana (think Elvis, Vegas, Westerns, Small town America) so we dreamt up ideas in response, with regular meetings to hone everything and make sure they were happy.

ALTERNATIVE wedding IDEAs

Ahead of their time, the two of them eloped to New York to do the actual legal marriage part, so we were free to create a day and evening of partying, without having to factor in a venue that needed to be licensed. In fact, in place of the ceremony we had a drag Elvis character that led the couple through some declarations of love in front of an Elvis-inspired Little White Chapel wedding arch (made my me).

Another feature I thought was a gorgeous idea by Chloe & Sam was using the Swedish style wedding speech tradition where any guest can make a speech by ringing a bell at any point. We invited the wedding guests to contact us in advance so we had a rough running order (so we could stealthily keep an eye on timings and nudge different guests to grab a mic and go for it!). One guest even sang a duet with our Elvis performer on Ukulele!

Having so many of their friends speak was amazing and created such a lovely atmosphere. I’d definitely recommend to other couples planning their wedding who want something a bit different.

THE DESIGN BRIEF

Taking place at Tanner & Co in Bermondsey (London) the day included lots of immersive performance and audience experiences (courtesy of Lemonade and Laughing Gas) which even included a choreographed bar brawl with our cowboy performer and Sam!

We had limited time the evening before, and morning of, to set up. We couldn't attach anything to the walls and had to use existing fixtures if we wanted to hang anything. These stipulations always inform a design brief. We used a lot of freestanding palm trees and my Jean leg sculptures (see below).

As with all the weddings I design, the objects, props and decorations are made at a studio, then delivered to the venue or couple’s house in advance. In this case, Chloe & Sam had opted for the full design package (Level 4 in today's money) so I brought everything with me to the venue and set it all up so they didn’t have to lift a finger.

ECLECTIC BRIDE STYLe

Chloe wore an incredible black wedding dress and cape with almost a Mexican/Aztec feel and commissioned me to create a bespoke alternative wedding bouquet to go with her outfit.

Taking inspiration from her outfit colour palette, I re-used secondhand antique antlers as the base, these were painted black with different black sequins glued on by hand. I added some turquoise and orange feathers, bead strings and taffeta ribbon. Chloe loved the bouquet so much it was displayed in their home after the wedding, along with a lot of the other bespoke makes.

Some of the other eclectic wedding ideas and makes included:

Freestanding cowboy leg sculptures created by using jeans donated by the couple and cowboy boots sourced online or at carboot sales.

Ponyshoes nameplaces spray-painted different colours. Each name was hand printed and tied onto the shoes using copper wire so they stood up on their own.

I designed and made some Sailor Jerry Tattoo bunting using calico fabric and brown string to keep an authentic, rustic Western feel.

This highly alternative table plan came from a vision of outlaws in an old Western, sitting in a dive bar, playing cards for money. The table plan was made of 3 real green baize card tables at a 90 degree angle with the legs cut off.

I used this as a canvas to create a scene and glued down cards, ashtrays filled with butts and ash, nutshells, shot glasses of whisky and the odd fake snake.

The benefit of being in the creative events industry for 12+ years is building up a contact book of talented creatives - I called on my very talented Signwriter/painter friend Charlotte from Joe and Charlotte, to work her artistic magic with the guest names on the cards and also paint some direction signs for me.

Dinner tables were covered in a mix of denim and bright Mexican-feel table runners; both sourced from one of my favourite fabric shops in Soho.

Table names were a different large Cacti in a handpainted pot, dressed with fake barbed wire. Each name was in a different American-style font on a thick canvas material.

Although I don't claim to know a fraction of what florist's do, Sam & Chloe were happy to let me riff with the floral arrangements. So I visited the New Covent Garden flower market at 5am one day and just selected flowers with interesting textures and colours within a rusty red/orange/burgundy colour palette.

The large Harley Davidson neon sign was hired, and other props dressed the space from our large Lemonade and Laughing Gas prop store including deer head, weird paintings and Route 66 sign.

The benefit of creating such highly bespoke details for a wedding is the re-use element. The bouquet, table plans and signs were all taken home by the couple and are still displayed as pieces of art that remind them of this fabulous day. Ponyshoes were taken by the guests as good luck gifts.

If you'd like to talk to me about a similar service for your wedding, I'd love to hear from you. I bring all my artistic experience to the table, which means you benefit from a myriad of creative ideas and get to cherry pick your faves.

Contact Amy for more information (amy@thejoyeclectic.co.uk) or to book a free initial 15 min Zoom.

All images by Kristine Petersone for Laine Alpine