Wedding Decor

By Sarah Lagrotteria

It’s good to be back!  I’ve been waiting months to share with you some of the décor decisions we made for my wedding last week.  All photos courtesy of Gina DeConti of Imaginative Studios in Chicago and our very own Lydia Ellison.

The ceremony and reception took place at my parents’ home, with guests progressing from the front yard for the ceremony to the house for the cocktail hour then out to the backyard for dinner and dancing.  It was important to me that refreshments be available at all times, so my friends and family were greeted with Mason Jars glasses filled with sparkling water and lemonade.

Our tent was clear on all sides so I based the wedding colors on what my dad’s yard would look like at the time.  As Lydia mentioned, I went with white, greens, pale pale pinks and midnight blue (for the night sky and just because it’s Angus’ fave color).  We echoed the surrounds by using natural materials, like a natural washed flax for the tablecloths, hemstitched linen for the napkins, sequoia wood for the flatware and bamboo for the chairs.  Water goblets in clear green glass reflected the tall trees that encircled the tent.  It all felt very intimate and midsummer night’s dreamish…

For our salad and dessert plates, we picked up on the stonefruit and berries in our centerpieces.  We chose the Sèvres China pattern which features delicate berries on the vine.  We used four different colors—green, blue, lavender (which looks more like a silvery pale pink) and pink.  Each table had a different color for the salad course (see below for the blue, right and lavender, left) and everyone had the blue pattern for dessert.

For dessert, we had 12 different white buttercream cakes from Three Tarts Bakery.  Each table received its own cake for cutting. Mine was coconut with a luscious layer of lemon curd and Lydia’s was lemon curd with fresh strawberries.  Others had variations on white cake with fresh berries, chocolate fudge cake with white mousse or banana cake with chocolate ganache. The best part was that once a table finished tasting their cake, they sent envoys to gather slices of from the next table over so that everyone could taste more than once kind.  Evidently things got a little heated over the banana cake!

I wish I had some of that coconut cake now….xoxo sl