When I received this stunning black & gold, contemporary art deco influenced wedding in my inbox, my insides did a little happy dance. Gorgeous bride Natalie and her equally gorgeous husband planned the perfect, modern vintage wedding taking the influences of the bold art deco period and giving it a fabulous contemporary feel. I am so excited to share their wedding day with you, get ready to do some SERIOUS swooning!
Words by Natalie.
David and I both love the glamour and bold style of the Art Deco era. We planned our wedding to have an Art Deco vibe without being costumey and carried the vintage theme into our clothing, music, décor, and wedding favours.
We wanted our wedding to be a fun, intimate and glamorous evening with great food, wine and lots of dancing and kept two important goals in mind while planning: throwing a fabulous party for our family and friends and making sure the day was true to us by abandoning any wedding traditions we didn’t like.
In the end this included having no wedding cake (we served cheesecake and sorbet instead), no bouquet or garter toss, getting married at our dinner venue instead of a church, and doing our photos before the ceremony so we could spend more time with our guests. We also wanted the event to reflect our personal style and our passion for art, design, music and film, deciding on an Art Deco inspired vintage theme that we had a lot of fun with.
As a graphic designer and art director by profession, I was in my element planning our wedding, enjoying every detail from choosing the perfect mercury glass tea light holders to selecting an Art Deco inspired typeface for the wedding stationery.
David, who works in the film industry as a talent agent, also really embraced the planning process, helping me finalize the design of the invites and hunting down the perfect vintage items to use as decor. Initially our colour scheme was black and gold but we also introduced grey, bronze and soft pink as the planning process went on.
Our decor came from a range of places including antique shops, Ikea, West Elm, craft stores and even a garden store where we found a geometric wrought iron garden trellis which had been left out in the rain to rust but after some TLC became the perfect wedding alter.
We also carried the Art Deco theme into the music and wedding favours by including Speak-Easy and Jazz tunes during cocktails and dinner and candy bags filled with vintage treats such as BB Bats, Kits Taffy and Tootsie Rolls for our guests to take home.
Choosing the wedding attire was also a lot fun and we included vintage elements such as pocket squares for David and his best man, slim polka dot ties for the groomsmen and textured fabrics such as lace and ruffles for the ladies, without making the look too costumey.
My dress, the only part of the wedding that David wasn’t involved with, was a beautiful vintage-chic Nicole Miller made from chantilly lace with a scalloped sweetheart neckline, modest train and low back.
I chose accessories that complemented the vintage theme including a feathery white fascinator, gold geometric earrings, a black and gold clutch, and my great-grandmother’s pearl and aquamarine ring as the finishing touch. I also had a secondary outfit, a short black dress with heavy gold embellishments, that I changed into after the first dance.
Our hair and makeup team completed the vintage look perfectly with old-Hollywood curls, smokey eyes and pink lips – making myself and my ladies feel gorgeous but also completely comfortable.
Our wedding took place after dark so that we could have a candle lit ceremony. Earlier in the day we took photos at Hotel Vancouver and the Marine Building – both of which are historic Vancouver Art Deco buildings from the 1930s.
My gifts to my bridesmaids were black and white polka dot change purses from Kate Spade and jewelled hair clips from Anthropologie while David gave his groomsmen black and white Kenneth Cole cufflinks.
Brock House Restaurant in our hometown of Vancouver was our wedding venue. It’s a Tudor revival heritage house built in 1912 on Jericho Beach, overlooking the water.
It was the obvious venue choice for us from the beginning, as we both love the venue’s proximity to the ocean as well as the fantastic views of the north shore mountains and the twinkling lights of downtown. Rain or shine the ocean looks beautiful through Brock House’s windowed conservatory and we knew our guests would be warm and cozy next to the roaring fireplaces.
I didn’t know much about flowers before we started planning the wedding but fell in love with ranunculus after my first meeting with Brenda. One thing I did know was that I really disliked the large spherical bouquets and towering floral arrangements you traditionally see at weddings so for our wedding I went with smaller bouquets and simple but elegant centrepieces.
Flower recipe: white and pink ranunculus, white and pink garden roses, eucalyptus leaves, white wax flowers, grey brunia berries. I chose a sparkly gold ribbon to tie around the bouquets and used wide mouth mason jars with a vintage crest design for the table arrangements along with a couple vintage glass bottles.
We decorated our venue with gold charger plates, tea lights in mercury glass votives, flowers in mason jars and a seating chart I designed which was displayed on a wrought iron easel.
If you could impart any words of wisdom to a future bride to be planning her marriage and wedding day, what would they be?
Abandon any and all wedding traditions that you don’t like so the day feels natural and not forced but keep the wedding traditions you do like. At our wedding I wore a white dress and had my dad walk me down the aisle but didn’t have a wedding cake, had no bouquet or garter toss, got married at our dinner venue instead of a church, saw my groom before the ceremony and had my bridesmaids in non-matching dresses.
Also remember that the wedding is about your friends and family just as much as it’s about you and your groom so make sure their enjoyment is high priority by making the day easy and fun for your guests.
What was your most memorable moment of the day / evening?
The speeches were amazing: short, sweet and incredibly funny. I’m so thankful to the people who got up and said a few words about us and shared fond memories.
I’m also very thankful for our minister, Reverend Julie Lees, who crafted an incredibly meaningful ceremony for us that spoke to the essence of love and why it’s so precious when you have it in your life. We also included a poem by e.e. cummings in our ceremony, who is one of my favourite poets.
Another amazing moment was my dance with my dad. Instead of doing the traditional father/daughter slow dance we pretended we were going to do that then had the DJ break into a lively Bruce Springsteen song (my dad’s favourite artist). Our guests thought it was hilarious and it was a great way to transition into the dance party.
Oh wow! How in love with this wedding are you ladies? Natalie and David really pulled off a stylish wedding completely on their own terms didn’t they! I love Natalie’s style and aren’t those art deco inspired accessories to die for? Totally in love with all aspects of this gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous wedding and such beautiful photography too.
Massive congratulations to you Natalie and David and thank you so much for sharing your beautiful wedding day here on the Want That Wedding Blog.
Do you love the Art Deco period? Take a look at these gorgeous glamorous Gatsby boards, Glamorous Gatsby or Romantic Gatsby. You decide.
photographer: daniel ha | additional photography (paper goods): james stockhorst | florist: brenda dewonck | ceremony & reception venue: the brock house restaurant | wedding dress: nicole miller from blush bridal | hair: chris funk | makeup: atefeh shojaie | bridesmaids’ dresses: bridesmaids chose their own black dresses, black shoes and gold accessories within the style | groom’s suit: made-to-measure | groomsmen’s suits: groomsmen wore their own black suit, white dress shirt and black shoes | groom and groomsmen’s ties: michael kors | dj: scott findlay – bluenose production & entertainment | officiant: rev. julie lees | wedding stationery, menus & signs: bride
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Very beautiful accessories!!All the photographs are very beautiful. Black and white wedding card is looking classic.
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