Throwing a vintage-themed wedding used to be a laborious task that included scouring every antique shop and flea market within driving distance. Today, however, it’s as simple as visiting your favorite online retailer, or walking into a big box craft store.
Vintage is back, and better than ever. Piecing together your own vintage-style wedding will be easy as pie, as long as you keep a few style ideas in mind.
Attire
The attire of the wedding party will set the tone for the entire day. If you are an adventurous bride, consider wearing a cream colored or ecru gown instead of the traditional white for a more antiqued look. If white is your preference, think about your fabric choice. Nothing screams vintage better than lace. Dotted Swiss is another classic vintage choice that will lend authenticity to your bridal attire.
The cut and style of the dress of the bride and bridal party are also important. Halter styles, low backless style, see through materials other than lace, and mermaid styles are all out because of their more modern associations.
Instead think of simple cuts with fitted bodices and full skirts, column dresses, boat necks, sweetheart necklines, and possibly sleeves.
Consider sticking to pastels or muted tones for the bridesmaid’s dresses. Shades of rose, taupe, champagne, and ecru are all lovely choices.
Ceremony Décor
The majority of your ceremony décor will come from the wedding flowers; however, there are a few areas you may want to focus on to rev up the vintage charm.
Use candles as your primary lighting source, try to stick to cream-colored candles, as opposed to bright white, or another color.
Oil lamps are another lighting source that would add a unique glow to your ceremony. Consider placing one oil lamp, filled with clear oil, in each window where the ceremony will be held.
Antique doilies are another vintage touch that you may want to place in strategic locations. If you have pew arrangements, consider using a doily shaped into a rosette in place of the bow. Doilies may also be placed under candlesticks and oil lamps.
Flowers
When meeting with your florist, let her know your desire for a vintage-themed wedding. Your flower selections will be impacted by your theme.
Think of old-fashioned flowers. Tea roses, camellias, orchids, hydrangeas, lilacs, and tulips are all well-known vintage flowers.
Stay away from bright, garish colors like orange, bright yellow, and bright purple, and instead select softer shades like baby pink, ivory, soft yellow, lavender, and a medium green.
For the bridal bouquet, and the bridesmaids’ bouquets, think of a more old-fashioned shape. Instead of a perfect circular bouquet, consider something longer and trailing. Exposed stems also have a vintage feel.
Photography
You may want to consider giving your wedding photographer a heads-up that you are holding a vintage-style wedding, especially if you are interested in having any of the photographs printed in black and white, or sepia-tone once they have been developed.
Your photographer may want to stick to more traditional poses, as opposed to some of the newer styles of posing wedding parties. Try to get at least one photo of the entire wedding party with serious looks on everyone’s face to mimic older photographs.
Reception Décor
A few décor ideas will carry over from your ceremony, which is perfect for design continuity. Vintage doilies and oil lamps should be placed on all of the reception tables, atop vintage tablecloths.
Ebay is a fantastic source for all of the vintage linens you will need, at great prices. It would be terribly difficult to try to find all matching vintage linens, so instead, layer your tablecloths for a shabby chic look that will add interest and texture.
Some of the flowers from the ceremony will come over to the reception, but consider filling mason jars or white milk glass vases with simple flowers like daisies, Queen Anne’s lace, violets, daffodils (in season), and other vintage flowers.
Framed vintage wedding photographs make a lovely decoration at the reception, especially if they are family photographs. Consider asking the future in-laws, and your own parents if they can dig up any family photographs, re-frame them in coordinating frames, and you have a great way to honor past family marriages.
Cake
There are a lot of gorgeous vintage cake ideas swirling around Pinterest. It’s important when you choose your cake style to keep a few things in mind.
1. Fondant is not vintage, if you have your heart set on fondant, choose cream, or a muted pastel instead of bright white, it will look less modern.
2. Buttercream is classically vintage; you will have the best chance of remaining in solid vintage territory if you go with buttercream icing.
3. Buttercream flowers and basket weave style will give you the most authentic vintage look.
If you want to remain in vintage themed, you will need to forget most of the current trends around wedding cake. No cup cake or donut towers, no water-colored or chalk board paint fondant, and no un-iced stacked tier cakes. Stick to the classics.
Throwing a vintage-themed wedding doesn’t have to break the bank, and the result can be classy, unique, and bring to life treasured memories of the past. Enjoy the process of gathering all of your vintage décor and weaving them into your theme.
Leave A Comment