Thinking about Themes
Our wedding theme has evolved a lot over the year or so that we've been engaged so far. At first we were thinking about a Celtic theme: ceili music at the ceremony, ballads during dinner, Dropkick Murphys during the dancing, Celtic knot wedding rings, and green and Celtic imagery used throughout the decoration. There are some elements of this theme that will still be present (the rings and the Dropkick definitely), but after we decided to get married inside Lucy the Elephant, we realized that having a whole worked-out unrelated theme on top of getting married inside an elephant at the beach would be overkill.
Instead, the main design theme is going to center around the impulses that would have led to the design of Lucy the Elephant in 1882, i.e. Gilded Age obsession with the culture of India. I'm not talking about an India-themed wedding necessarily, because that would be disingenous, but we will be working patterns and motifs from Indian art into our decorations, linens, paper, and other elements where it is appropriate.
Another aspect is the fact that we are having our wedding in and around Ocean City, an important site for our relationship. We're not going to do any kind of beachy theme in the decorations, but we are going to have Mack and Manco's pizza as our rehearsal dinner and take lots of pictures on the boardwalk (maybe in photo booths) when the reception is over.
Another important theme is that of a return home, since this wedding will mark the end of our long distance relationship and the beginning of our life together, in our own home. This is going to play itself out in readings and music.
India, Elephants, and "Moulin Rouge": Inspiration Pics
Shortly after we decided to get married at Lucy, I watched "Moulin Rouge" for the umpteenth time and was reminded that some of the key love scenes from that movie take place inside an elephant, somewhat accurate considering that the real-life Moulin Rouge did feature an elephant-shaped building. The Moulin Rouge elephant would have been built within a few years of the Margate elephant, and so there is a sensible connection. "Moulin Rouge" the movie also owes a lot design-wise to Indian culture and to Bollywood films, and so we may be looking to the designs from that movie somewhat in thinking about our wedding. This works well because it is a movie that both Charlie and I love, although I suspect that some of his enjoyment has to do with John Leguizamo (he's always saying, "It shall take pwace in Switzerwand!"). Keeping the Moulin Rouge in mind, we are going to feature a lot of red and gold and sumptous patterns.
I'm going to need a parasol for some points in the day, because I have this skin condition called polymorphic light eruptions where the skin on my chest, shoulders and upper arms breaks out into itchy hives if I have too much exposure to strong midday sunlight. Yes, I know I'm a vampire. However, it allows for lots of great style choices, and this parasol from
Luna Bazaar fits exactly into what I want.
I'm going to DIY our invitations, and I really like this template, available
here. I like the idea of an invitation that folds out in a triptych, and I figure the design will be pretty easy to modify to our theme. I am going to change the playing card shape on the outside to an elephant that resembles Lucy (we are probably going to have a stamp custom-made) and the inside will have some henna-inspired designs, whatever I can find. I'm looking forward to working on this.
