Are Vintage Weddings Over? [Part Two]

Earlier this week, I asked "Are vintage weddings over?" and I shared my own opinions. Over on the corresponding Instagram post, Megan, of Glamour and Grace, brought up a great point that more people in the industry tend to be more tired of the rustic vintage styles rather than the classic vintage.

Yes, I won't argue that. :) Burlap-wrapped mason jars and bunting have certainly received more than a few critiques. But over the past few years, I feel like I've been seeing less and less bales of hay and quilts in open fields yet I'm still seeing a verbal backlash to the all-encompassing umbrella term "vintage." And that right there is at the heart of what bothers me so much about this backlash. If it's rustic chic you don't like, just say that. But please stop clumping so many varying styles together with the broad term "vintage" and declaring that they're all over.

There's a big difference between rustic vintage, black tie vintage, retro vintage, kitschy vintage, couture vintage, classic vintage ... I could go on and on. To throw them all together in one pile and make a broad remark just doesn't make sense to me.

And that brings me to my next point. I'll readily admit that I have never been a huge fan of the rustic vintage or shabby chic looks. I tend to like my vintage more polished and classic (obviously, I hope?).

While planning our wedding back in 2008, I remember first meeting our florist and trying to describe my vision when he suddenly perked up and said "Oh, so you want a romantic shabby chic look?"

I think I visibly cringed in my chair. I didn't want anything about my wedding to say "shabby." Chic - yes - but shabby - good lord, no. His description seriously sent me into mini-meltdown mode and I started wondering if the polished + timeless look I was pursuing and pouring my life into creating would be interpreted by others as "shabby chic." But somewhere in the middle of my freak-out I realized something. Who cares? It's all just labels. If you create something and love it 100 percent, that's all that should matter. I know it's a fairly elementary thing to say but I think its truth is often forgotten in the highly judgmental world of weddings.

As it turns out, maybe milk glass, french doors and hydrangeas (my floral vision) do create a shabby chic look. But you know what? I'll love that look until I die and I'll never think of it as shabby chic. It will always be timelessly beautiful to me.

So this long rant is all to basically say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

A sad, fleeting trend to one person may be eternally beautiful to another. And a trend that's clearly over to one may be just being discovered by another as something fresh and new. Everyone has a different take on the world and sees things differently - that's what makes our world so interesting and wonderful.

So pursue your own vision (whether it's rustic chic, black tie vintage or ultra modern) and remain loyal to it. Don't let a wedding vendor's personal description of your vision get you down and don't let a snarky wedding blogger's comments on broad styles make you question your own.

At the end of the day, a wedding is more about enduring love than enduring style.

That said, let's close with a few weddings that capture both equally well:

See more from this preppy New England wedding by Kat Hanafin

See more from this Paris elopement by Juliane Berry

See more from this timeless California wedding by Henry + Mac

See more from this retro Berlin wedding by Ashley Ludaescher

Are Vintage Weddings Over?

A few years ago, there was a Huffington Post article proclaiming that vintage was dead. It created both a buzz and a backlash among wedding bloggers and the industry as a whole. At the time, I dismissed the article because I didn't see the point in taking sides. Some people like vintage style, some don't - to each his own, right?

Well, in the past few months I've noticed a resurgence in what I'm going to call 'vintage attacks.' Fellow bloggers and industry pros alike keep letting little snarky tweets, memes + posts fly. They're saying they're (yet again) sick of the vintage trend.

But you know what? They'll be saying the same thing again five, ten, twenty years from now. Why? Because vintage is an ever-evolving + enduring style that never goes away.

A big reason so many vintage items and styles are still popular is because the styles themselves are undeniably classic.

Want some examples?
Full tulle skirts from the 50s.
Popular mod looks of the 60s and 70s.
Sequined frocks from the 80s.

These were all trends of their day but because the looks are so timeless, it doesn't feel dated when they're worn today. In fact, it tends to feel fresh.

Heck, even the plaid flannel J. Crew shirts I wore in middle school in the 1990s are a good example. They're definitely vintage now (as that door is always revolving) but they're just as chic and comfy now as they were then.

My point is that you can apply the word 'vintage' to almost anything that's more than 10 years old.

And while some of it may fade in and out of popularity (think 80s neon), some of it retains an eternal charm because of its inherent timelessness. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who would scoff at vintage Chanel or a vintage Aston Martin.

But let's talk weddings. As a girl whose only aim with her wedding style was to stay polished and timeless, I spent over a year collecting antiques for my wedding. Almost all of the decor at our wedding was vintage or antique and I personally found it (and still do find it) timelessly beautiful. My engagement ring is a combined family heirloom - it has diamonds from my family and from J's family. There's no new ring that would ever mean as much to me as the one I have.

Trends fluctuate ... they ebb and flow like the tides but classics remain constant and antiques and vintage wares are a big, huge part of that genre. They stand the test of time. I promise you they'll continue to be used in weddings long after people look back and laugh about the chalk color they wore in their hair on their wedding day or the paper mustaches they provided guests at their photo booths.

Obviously, not all vintage is created equal. But if you have the ability to distinguish the classics from the commons, you'll be swimming in enduring style.

To the classics!

I thought I'd end this post with a few favorite examples of vintage chic weddings I've previously shared on the blog:

This Southern bride used the same antique tussie mussie to hold her bouquet that all the brides in her family had used in their wedding ceremonies. Meaningful vintage may be the very best kind. See more from this Mountain Brook, Ala. estate wedding. Photo by Leslee Mitchell.

Classic vintage car exit FTW! See more from this preppy wedding here. Photo by Patricia Kantzos.

Family (wedding) photos never get old. And they look even more beautiful in antique frames. See more from this elegant wedding in the Hamptons. Photo by Patricia Kantzos.

A peek from my own wedding - antique silver will always offer a classic and polished look. And vintage cake toppers happen to be a personal favorite. See more from my Mississippi wedding. Photo by Itinerant Studio.

Vintage suitcases may have hit a high in the wedding industry a few years ago but this photo clearly demonstrates how classic and beautiful they can still look. See more from this vintage chic wedding in Columbus, Ohio, here. Photo by Adam Lowe.

Another from my Southern wedding. It just doesn't get more classic than an antique car, does it?

Hope you'll weigh in and tell me what you think about the state of vintage chic weddings. Love the look? Not so much? Let's chat!

Something Old // European Bottle Crates

Vintage bottle crates are the best. They exude nostalgia and charm. They remind us of an era where the simple, good things in life were delivered right to our door - wouldn't it be wonderful to still have a milkman come to your door? Anyway, I love the good energy and feelings that these sweet crates possess and they just seem like the perfect little pretties to include in a wedding. They're sized just right to fit bud vases (or, of course, milk bottles!) and make the most precious centerpieces you could imagine. I recently styled a crate with some of my milkglass bud vases and some creamy white peonies and I swear, this arrangement is just begging to be part of a preppy Hamptons wedding:

Polished and preppy, just the way I like it! Here's a few more vintage crates - they are all European (mostly French) and are all for sale in my wedding boutique, CBV! :)

In love?? Shop the full collection of my crates (including a MINT green beaut that will make you flip!) and decide which ones would be perfect for your big day! If you have any questions, just leave a comment or send me an e-mail. I always love hearing from you. xx.

Intimate + Timeless Mountain Brook, Alabama Wedding {at a gorgeous 1927 Tudor Estate!}

I have a huge photographer crush on Leslee Mitchell. I honestly imagine glitter and confetti exploding every time her finger hits the shutter button because her photos are just pure magic. Every one of them. You might remember that I shared this darling Harvard love shoot of Leslee's awhile back. And today I'm extremely thrilled to share a wedding Leslee shot in Mountain Brook, Alabama. And, omg, is it a doozy. The wedding took place at the bride's gorgeous 1927 Tudor home and includes so many couture DIYs that my head is spinning. One more thing I love about this wedding: Mary Catherine and Les are in their seventies and their beautiful grandchildren wanted to be with them at the altar so they all held hands - doesn't that just make your heart melt?? // Magical photos by Leslee Mitchell.

Says Mary Catherine, "My home is surrounded by beautiful gardens and we decided to have a seated dinner in the formal garden for family and friends.  Everything just came together after we made that decision. The invitations set the tone by using an old-style printing technique called letterpress. They were cream color Crane card stock with a rich chocolate brown ink. I picked a non-traditional set-up with an old engraved oak tree design. [...] The huge old oak tree is central to the house and grounds. A can-do-anything family friend wired it for electricity and we hung 12 antique chandeliers of various sizes and styles from the branches that spread out over the circular drive. They were fabulous!"

Says photographer Leslee, "When my website went live, Mary Catherine was the very first person to inquire about my wedding photography. We e-mailed, her daughter, Kristin, and I e-mailed, we all talked on the phone & in February I visited MC and the wedding site, the formal garden of her beautiful 1927 tudor home. MC met me @ the car door with a hug & to this day I still feel like family. One of many favorite things about Mary Catherine is that she's an artist & a photographer. As a photographer, I've never been hired by a photographer. It's extremely flattering. MC is one of the coolest, classiest ladies I think I've met. Definitely."

Says Mary Catherine, "I picked the wedding date when the gardens would be at their peak so we kept the arranged flowers very simple. I have many friends who are talented floral designers and gardeners so most of the flowers came from their own gardens. We ended up with a beautiful mix of garden roses and hydrangeas.

I used the same antique tussie mussie to hold my bouquet that all the brides in my family have used in their wedding ceremonies.

I wanted something different and unique-looking [for my wedding attire] because, being in our seventies, we are not the typical wedding couple. I went up to my attic thinking about antique clothing and found a vintage cape I bought years ago from an antique mall in the Hamptons. It was a beautiful faded pink color and I had always loved the fabric. I thought the design of the fabric would lend itself to a cool skirt so I worked out a design and took it to a seamstress to implement. An artist friend brought over a scrap bag of ribbons and lace and I found the perfect ribbon in a beautiful moss green that perfectly complemented the pale pink color of the skirt. I added fabric roses from a jacket I wore to one of my daughters’ weddings twenty years ago. I remembered a pair of shoes from even longer ago that I thought would work well. They were a perfect fit and, amazingly, back in style. My granddaughter also wore a vintage dress I purchased at a flea market in France that fit beautifully after a few adjustments.

My two young grandchildren, six and seven, decided this was such a momentous occasion that they stood with us through the entire ceremony, held our hands and each other’s at the pertinent parts, even through the exchanging of the vows. I’m not sure, but we legally may all be married.

Since the wedding was not in a church, we wanted a religious symbol for the ceremony. A friend created a free standing floral cross with the combination of garden roses, spray roses, hydrangeas, variegated ivy and smilax which served as the centerpiece on an old farm table layered with embroidered antique table linens and surrounded by sterling containers filled with smaller floral arrangements. The table stood in the timber arbor at the end of the formal garden and made for a truly striking backdrop and focal point for the ceremony.

Les + Mary Catherine's Love Story:

Les and I met through a blind date arranged by a mutual friend.
We dated for more than nine years before I accepted Les’ proposal of marriage.

Since we had a small ceremony for our family, the dinner was really the main event. We are both very passionate about the art of food and the feel of the dinner was especially important to me. When the weather turned bad, we rented a large tent at the last minute that fit exactly over the center of the formal garden. Since I didn’t want groups of round tables that would separate the guests, we decided on a banquet-style set-up. I was really pleased with the look of the long, narrow tables arranged end to end. We covered the tables with painter’s drop cloths I purchased online. The drop cloths were absolutely perfect; they looked like rough linen! To create an intimate look and feel, I borrowed (rather than rented) just about everything for the dinner. The chairs ranged from modern to old church chairs. I borrowed different plates that all had a unique garden pattern. We kept the table decorations simple, choosing simple pillar candles in glass cylinders and spray roses clustered in sterling mint julep cups. The wine and champagne bottles were placed on the tables for the guests to help themselves. (Trust me: they loved that!)

We really wanted to have an open sky over the tables with light strung between the trees, but the tent ultimately gave the dinner a wonderfully intimate feel we just loved. In the middle of dinner a weather check showed a perfectly round circle of clear weather with Birmingham in the center surrounded by rainstorms. How lucky were we?

Thank you so, so, so much to Mary Catherine and Les for sharing their beautiful day and to Leslee Mitchell for sharing her exquisite photography with us! xx.

Mary Catherine will leave us with some wisdom on wedding planning {and I couldn't agree more!}: "Keep it small with family and special friends, and always be mindful of what is important to you and don’t skimp in that area. Whatever that may be, do it spectacularly. For me, as an artist and photographer, the photography was very important. I knew I would want pictures that were more artistic than typical wedding pictures. I wanted to have pictures that captured all the little moments and special details of the day. It was worth the extra effort to find a photographer I knew would be able to do that for me."

Intimate Columbus, Ohio, Wedding by Adam Lowe Photography

There's something magical about today's wedding. I'm absolutely in love with the vintage glass box Violet and Jason used as a ring box {and the beautiful tradition they incorporated with it - you'll see}; the earthy natural palette of greens and whites; and the super cool urban + industrial venue the couple chose. Everything flows together so organically and seamlessly. It's beautiful in the best kind of way because everything feels oh-so-natural. Oh, and don't get me started on that lovely cake! / Gorge photos by Adam Lowe Photography.

Says Violet, "Style wise, my favorite touches were my accessories. I wanted a modern but vintage feel to my dress so I loved my vintage-looking earrings and veil, as well as the pop of color in my red shoes. 

My favorite memory of the day was actually spending time together before the wedding, taking pictures with our photographer ... it was the most time we were able to spend together. Once the wedding started we were too busy talking to all of our guests so it was nice to have that time together.

The vision for the day was to have an elegant but simple wedding. Mood wise, we wanted to keep it simple by not having bridesmaids or groomsmen, we wanted to keep it intimate with just the two of us. We only had Jason's sister and my brother read at the ceremony in order to include a few people we cared about in the ceremony. Decor wise, I really loved the aisle markers my mom made for the ceremony they gave it a whimsical feel. I also loved our cake topper and vintage suitcase we used for the place cards.

Since we didn't do a religious ceremony we were worried about our ceremony being too short. We wanted to add some depth or level of significance besides 'I do' so we researched different non-religious ceremonies and how to beef them up. We came across a ceremony called 'warming of the rings' where the guests get involved and pass the rings around and wish you good luck and bless them. Here is a link with more info.

We chose The Venue at Dock 580 because we loved the exposed brick and open feel of it. It had the industrial/vintage feel we were going for. We also knew we wanted the ceremony to take place at our venue and it had a very nice courtyard that still felt separate from the reception part of the venue. We preferred an outdoor ceremony and we definitely didn't want to get married in the same room as our reception. They also had a very simple pricing structure per head as opposed to per item which kept it simple.

Decor wise, I wanted our wedding to be classic and elegant as well as a little vintage. I chose mainly whites with touches of grey, beige and green, which are very earthy colors. I thought the white flowers, tablecloths/chairs looked nice against the brick of the venue.

We wanted to attend our cocktail hour since we were paying for it ;) and that also enabled us to have more time with our family and guests, as the day flies by so quickly.

I loved the silver mint julep vases we used for the flowers. I felt they added a classic touch to the tables."

Violet + Jason's Love Story:

Jason and I met at our place of work at the time. We were only friends for a few years, even though we were both attracted to each other ;) After awhile, we both figured out we liked each other and the rest is history.

Thank you so much to Violet and Jason for sharing their endearingly beautiful wedding and to Adam Lowe for sharing his always gorge photos with us! xx.

Violet leaves us with the one piece of advice she would give herself back when she was a bride-to-be {you know, if time travel were possible and all}: "I think it would be to relax more and not stress out. I tend to be a perfectionist so I stressed all the way till the wedding and on the day. Somehow at the end of the day it all works out no matter what little hiccups there might be."

ps. Did you miss Violet and Jason's engagement session? It only included the prettiest tulle skirt on Earth! See more here. ;)

Credits: Venue: Dock 580  / Photographer: Adam Lowe Photography / Cake: The Cake Studio / Flowers: DIY (Violet and her mom) through The Floweman / Hair: Jacob Neal - Garrett / Dress: Ramona Keveza - La Jeune Mariee / Earrings: Haute Bride, style EC907 / Shoes: Badgley Mishka / Veil: Twigs and Honey / Jason's Suit: DKNY / Jason's Shoes: Kenneth Cole / Aisle decor: made by Violet's mom from curly willow, tree trunks, and hydrangea