Say bye bye to blush tones, and hello to jewel tones because this season’s hottest color palettes are all about rich, sultry hues. Plummy purples, emerald greens, and deep dark reds are just a few of the shades taking over from the pretty pastels of the last few years. Creative couples everywhere are embracing this shift toward bolder colors and incorporating them into their wedding day, and you can too.

An easy way to incorporate jewel tones into your wedding look is through your make-up. Pair a dark fuschia lip with a green shadow on your eyelids for a striking effect.

You can’t go wrong with a great pair of Gucci heels in emerald green; or, if you’re a non-traditionalist, an all green wedding dress!

Take a step back into the Jazz Age with an abundance of rich colors, geometric details and stunning embellishments. Art Deco inspired fashion is a glamorous option for vintage nuptials.

Art Deco is an eclectic design style, that burst onto the scene in 1925 at the Paris Exhibition. The style spans across a range of design forms and is full of diverse influences. There are plenty of elements to draw inspiration from, making it a perfect theme for bridal fashion. Plus, who doesn’t want to look like they belong in the pages of The Great Gatsby?

Wedding Dress 

A tubular silhouette was favored during this time and contemporary dresses with a streamlined look will work well. Embellishments are key to capturing this style. Ornate beading and shimmering dresses were worn frequently by the 1920’s bride. As Art Deco started to move into the thirties there was an emphasis on the cut of the dress. Bias cut dresses that are molded to the body (hello, body-con!) are a flattering silhouette to look for.

You might expect a wedding planner to want a large, lavish wedding with lots of details, but for today’s bride (and professional event planner) Amie and her husband Greg, a big wedding just didn’t match the intimate, romantic vision they had for their big day. The couple managed to snag their dream garden venue – despite it being a store and not a venue at all–and opted to host a small cocktail-style ceremony and reception for 60 of their closest friends and family instead; proving once again, that sometimes less really is more.

Special thanks to Jillian Michelle for sharing all the beautiful photos with us!

Amie, 29 & Greg, 31

Portsmouth, Virginia

Wedding Date:  August 30, 2013

Number of Guests: 60

Wedding Cost: $11,000

Wedding Ceremony Location: Anderson Wright Rooms and Gardens in Olde Towne

Wedding Reception Location: Same

Practical couple Liz and Ben originally wanted a simple courthouse wedding. When they realized, however, that a city hall wedding simply wouldn’t be able to accommodate all the important people in their lives, what started as a no-frills civil affair evolved into a heartfelt 75 guest ceremony and reception filled with meaningful details including a personal letter from Ira Glass about marriage, a klezmer band led procession to the reception venue, and home brewed beer. Looking at all their beautiful and happy photos from Bulloss Photography, we can’t imagine them having done it any other way!

Liz, 28 & Ben, 28

Washington, DC

Wedding Date: September 20, 2014

Number of Guests: 75

Wedding Cost: $20,000

Wedding Ceremony Location: Spanish Steps 

Wedding Reception Location: Hillyer Art Space 

Why did you have an intimate wedding?

When we first started to talk about marriage and what our wedding would look like, Ben and I were very excited about a city hall wedding. We are both very practical people, and liked the idea of having little frills and focusing the day on our commitment to each other. However, the more we talked about it and reality set in a little, we realized that there are too many important people in our lives that wouldn’t be able to join us at a courthouse wedding. So we started from a very small, practical frame of mind, and grew our guest list and venue from there.

What are some of the challenges that you faced planning an intimate wedding?

Finding a venue and narrowing down the guest list were very difficult for us. We knew we wanted to get married in the District of Columbia where we had lived and grown as a couple together, and most of the venues we found were either way out of our budget, too large, booked, or just didn’t fit our personality. We finally found Hillyer Art Space and we loved that we could have an outdoor ceremony very close by, and that we would be supporting and showcasing local artists at our reception.

Was it difficult to pare down the guest list?

Absolutely! We put so much thought into our guest list because we knew we could only fit 75 guests in our venue. So we spent a lot of time thinking about who could definitely make it, who probably wouldn’t be able to come etc.

Did you have any ‘issues’ with the small guest list from friends and family? If so, how did you address them?

Luckily for us, our families were very supportive of having an intimate wedding.

What were the highlights of the ceremony?

The highlight of the ceremony, and really the whole wedding, was having Ben’s sister officiate for us. The three of us got together about a month before the wedding at a coffee shop in New York, where Nora lives, and spent the afternoon talking about how the ceremony should go. We knew we wanted to talk about muppets and our story, and it was great spending time with her in that way. It meant a lot to have someone we both love so much give us her blessing.

Ben and I both loved seeing all of our friends and family on the Spanish Steps. We had to walk down a side street and round a corner, and it was overwhelming to suddenly see everyone standing there in support of us. We also loved our readers, and the quotes we selected for them to read. Both of our readers are close friends from college, and we had them read an excerpt from a letter we received from Ira Glass (we invited him to the wedding, and while he didn’t accept, he wrote a very moving letter about marriage and how much it has meant to him), as well as a quote from Steinbeck on the power of love.

What were the highlights of the reception?

The highlights of the reception include the speeches from our fathers, best man, and maid of honor, as well as the klezmer band we hired for the ceremony and cocktail hour. We had a two block walk from our ceremony to the reception, and we had the musicians play while we all walked over. They also led a Hora in the tiny dancing area that we had set aside in our venue. It was hot and crowded and everyone got really into it and had so much fun.

We also loved the food and drinks. We spent a lot of time with our caterer developing a menu that everyone ended up loving, and we brewed our own wedding beer. People loved the family style dinner and personal touches we put into our reception.

What was the best thing about having an intimate wedding?

Having all of your closest friends and family members together in one place. It is wonderful to get to go to a party that is full of your favorite people.

What advice do you have for couples who are considering an intimate wedding?

Invite your closest friends and family members and you will have the best time. In my experience, weddings are best if they are true to the couple, and if you invite the right people. For us, that meant DIYing a lot of our wedding, working with small, independent vendors that we loved supporting, and incorporating cultural traditions, music, food, and other elements that mean a lot to us. We invited people who supported us and our relationship and we will remember being in their company for the rest of our lives.

Vendors:

Photographers: Bulloss Photography

Dress: J. Crew

Flowers: DIY centerpieces, with flowers from Potomac Floral;  Bridal party flowers from Palace Florists

Ceremony Venue: Spanish Steps

Reception Venue: Hillyer Art Space

Hair & Make Up: Fusion Day Spa

DJ/Entertainment Services: Live band is Machaya

Cake: Dangerously Delicious Pies

Catering: B. Lin

Groom’s Tux: Indochino

Invitations: Sweet Invitation Co.

Soft Pretzel Favors: (a treat from Philly…where we met!) from The Pretzel Bakery on Capitol Hill

What do you get when an artist and a floral designer get married? A spectacularly dreamy studio wedding, that’s what!

Morgan and Christian were introduced by Morgan’s 13 year-old nephew and engaged a few short months later, in what can only be described as a whirlwind romance. Morgan even packed up her business and relocated from Chicago to Napa to be with him. She calls it one of the craziest things she’s ever done, but clearly it was worth it!

They held the ceremony at the Gordon Huether Gallery where Christian works and chose Celadon restaurant for its romantic enclosed patio as their reception venue. The bride put her talents to work designing the big day and trust us when we tell you that these photos from Gretchen Gause are guaranteed to give you a serious case of wedding envy!

Morgan, 34 & Christian, 31

Napa, California

Wedding Date: March 23, 2013

Number of Guests: 45

Wedding Cost: $20,000

Wedding Ceremony Location: Gordon Huether Gallery (Napa, CA)

Wedding Reception Location: Celadon (Napa, CA)