Simple Wedding Elegance

During the holidays we got the opportunity to splurge and go to a super elegant restaurant. You know the kind I'm talking about. The kind that has an entire gallery of pictures of the owner with movie stars and presidents that have dined there...

No, the night I was there we didn't see anyone we recognized. As far as I could tell it was a normal night of business dinners and families like ours enjoying a special meal - and it was special.

Anyway, looking at the decor of that restaurant reminded me of something we often forget when we are trying to put together an elegant wedding reception.

In a tastefully dressed room, less is often more.

That's it. You can't leave a plain Jane ballroom untouched, but often it only takes a few decorative elements to create the atmosphere you want.

For example if there is a grand piano in your reception hall hire an accomplished pianist to provide tasteful background music for your guests and bring in several free standing plants with white lights in them. With a tastefully designed wedding cake as the focal point for the design aspect of your wedding reception, elegant dinnerware, and well chosen and unique wedding favors on your tables you might well find that you don't need anything else.

That high end restaurant we went to didn't. They didn't even have centerpieces. Not even a candle. Rather a combination of a white table cloth under diamond shaped place mats that created the image of a white star in the center of the table was all they had - coupled with a few well chosen decor elements around the room for their guest's visual interest, it was more than enough.