Imagine Pinterest

February 24, 2017

“Come with me, and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you’ll see into your imagination.”

-Willy Wonka

I find myself staring at a wall or table, and wondering “There must be something I could do with that.” I reach for a tech device, click my Pinterest button, and get lost in a world where wooden pallets become chairs, chairs become night stands, and a night stand becomes a kitchen. It is a world that can stretch, deepen, and enhance your imaginative mind; or it can be a world that consumes you and you lose your own imagination.

As a wedding designer it is my job to take a person’s style, interests, ideas and make them into an environment that reflects one of the most important days in their life, a wedding. When I started as a wedding designer there was no Pinterest. You flipped through magazines or watched reality TV to find the latest trends. Big trends beginning in NYC or LA didn’t reach little Knoxville til 2 years later. It always fun to design for bridal shows. You could make your booth/display completely out of your imagination, and get brides to think “huh! Thats different.” It could be purple, yellow, all black or all white. It was always exciting to see what people would dream up. Now we have pinterest to filter to us the latest trends, and we get them as quick as we can. The pantone color of the year” greenery, the latest dress style: grace kelley/lace; the trend of weddings; copper. It is all at your fingertips, no imagination required. Weddings seem to be more about replicating a photo, and less about expressing personality.

Now don’t get me wrong. I who hold a Bachelor’s in Art find myself searching Pinterest many times a day for various projects. I too have lost a since of imagination. My goal now is to awaken my old imagination. I urge you to do the same. Find the latest trends and ideas, and apply them to your wedding. Just remember you are not like everyone else, you want your wedding to be special, set apart. Use Pinterest as a taking off point. So, copper is the latest trend, how you use it is key. Are you a bride who serves a cocktail in a moscow mule mug, or are you a bride with a sweet tooth who will fill it with krispy kreme bread pudding? Are you a spreadsheet type person who will use copper geometric lanterns for centerpeices; or will you be adventurous and copper spray paint your grandmothers teapot as a memory to her.

I urge you to use Pinterest, and discover a world of imagination. I also urge you to deepen your imagination and go one step further than Pinterest. The world of weddings can be endless, it is important not to lose you and your imagination in such a giant world.

Pinterest Wedding Trends

Wedding Imagination

bright pops of yellow wedding

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=wedding%20trends&rs=remove

My Perfect Day; inspiration, design, build, invent, create

February 5, 2017

Create and Invent; it is the lesson I took away from today. Today Tara Geurard introduced me to her life as a wedding designer. I entered the room full of glee, butterflies, and amazement. I sat in my seat and thought “I finally get to hear and understand this woman who does these amazing, customized weddings. She will be incredible.” As I heard her speak, I found myself engulfed in every word she spoke. She shops at Lowe’s; She spray paints; She hates round tables! Shes a lot like me. All this time I envisioned Tara as a rich designer, who travels, and has everything at her disposal to make these incredible wedding environments. Within 10 minutes of her talking I found she is humble, tireless, inventing, and dedicated. Everything I strive to be in this business.

I launched my business at the January Pink Bride Show 2009. I wanted to conquer everything. I had 10,000 ideas to put into a wedding. I was constantly trying to invent new displays of place cards, or collaborate crazy colors and make them work. I had inspiration from my own imagination. I had a passion to invent, build, and create. I wanted to do it all. Then one by one life piled up. I became “mom”; Pinterest infected every wedding; and white became the trendy theme. My inspiration was getting lost, and my ideas were random.

Today Tara brought a spark back to me. She reminded why I started this business, why my whole heart and mind should be in every wedding I design. She inspired me to create trends. My favorite was ” Can’t find it? build it!” Early in my career I was on fire, and I’m on fire again. Color is coming, patterns will make a statement, personal style will be reinvented, and F-U-N is coming back to weddings.

Thank you Tara for reminding me of the joy of this job. We are creating an experience, an environment that should be intimate, joyous, and the least of all random. We create weddings.

Tara Guerard Signature. Weddings by Tara Guerard; Southern Weddings by Tara Guerard

February 2017