Tara Fay: Transferring your fantasy table and wedding design into reality

World-renowned wedding planner, Tara Fay shares her top tips on how she takes a client's fantasy wedding design and turns it into a reality. In her second guest blog exclusively written for Caterhire, Tara gives our customers advice on how they can make their dream wedding a reality.

Turning your Dream Wedding into a reality

Now that you know how to create the design for your wedding (view previous blog), here is where you turn it into reality.

So remember we spoke about the colour, the style and how you want to feel on your day. Take out that list again and review it. Look at the photos and images you have saved to your dream wedding design. Now have a look at your venue wherever that may be.

Remember to use your imagination without copying and pasting the full design. This can be easier said than done, as I know most clients tell me they are not visual or creative.

However, what I like to say to them is they usually know what they don’t like. So have a little faith in yourself. Look at the image and ask what do you like about it? Why does it speak to you? How can you re-create an element of it for you?

Be ruthless, do you like an image because of the location of it, will that image work in your location. Chat to your florist and your creative partners for your wedding, be it the venue stylists, wedding planners or even your stationers etc. Remember all the aspects can contribute to the look and feel of your day.

Not all elements of an image will work for the time of year or your specific day.

Tara Fay's examples of turning a fantasy wedding into a reality

Here are some examples of where I took “inspiration” from an image to make it work for a wedding.

Example One:

So in the first image, our bride liked the idea of the falling foliage and signage hanging from it. We created arrangements from trees and foliage and used it as a base for her table plan as in the image above. You can see we used a natural paper with white ink, to recreate the woodland style for the arrangement.

Example Two:

For this overseas wedding, our bride wanted her guests to dine outside, but to feel like they were inside this picture. In the first image the long tables are lit with hanging chandeliers, we used this as a base to create hanging pergolas with chandeliers and lighting to make guests feel like they were sitting in an overgrown garden.

Example Three:

But what if you just want to try and recreate a specific bouquet. This image we used for a photoshoot at Bantry House (left) and here is the image we recreated from that (right), so remember it doesn’t have to be exact, you can have a nod to the original design whilst still maintaining the aesthetic.

Example Four:

Your image can even relate to a photo that you would like your photographer to take, so this bride wanted a photo surrounded by candlelight. The weather decided it had different ideas and the snow meant we had to think on our feet, so we inserted a fire pit to give us the candle-like glow.

These are just a few examples of how you can take an element from an image you like to make it work for you.

One last piece of advice, it's important to try out your designs in the actual space.

So a good idea is to re-create a sample of what you are thinking within the venue. So whether this is bringing a sample of the fabric of your linens you are planning on using and placing on a table. Then you can see what the colours look like. Ask your florist to create a sample for you for your table centre and look at that while you are sitting at the table at your venue. This is sometimes the only way you will get an exact idea of what you really like and also what you don’t love as much.

Tara Fay

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