Guest Blogger: Style over Substance

This week I had over the blogging batten to Chris Lewis as he talks about styling for your wedding day. Chris is well experienced in this subject having worked as a fashion stylist and in theatre design before settling with the floral design company Desmond Talbot, one of London’s most stylish florist, where his background in providing creative solutions through great service are put to good use.

Style over Substance

Guest blogging is a funny thing. I all ways think it’s like dressing a mannequin when you don’t really know its size. So I sit with my mac thinking about what makes a good blog entry when I notice my near 300 strong DVD collection (they are the shoes to my Carrie Bradshaw) and I realise, Patrick Swayze has the answer.

In ‘To Wong Fung’ he ever gracefully quips, “it’s the age-old question of style or substance”.

This isn’t just about fashion or even blogging as such. This is bigger than that. This is about one word. This is about ‘Styling’.
Having worked as a fashion stylist and in theatre design before settling with the floral design company Desmond Talbot, there really is one tip I would give anyone planning an event, a wedding or anything else where it is important to get it right and I’m sorry, it’s not good news…
YOU CAN’T DO IT ALONE. Sorry to all of you control freaks out there, it’s time to call in some help.

Like a good Mojito cocktail, most things in life are made up of simple yet perfect ingredients. As with any event, a Mojito is equal to any other unless you take the details and spend time on them. It’s about crushing the ice instead of using cubes and the very top of the mint plant instead of the bottom leaves. It’s about the small extra touches that will fill the reception room with “that’s a good idea isn’t it” and “ooh look at that” and make your events smooth and stylish above all others.

You’re probably thinking this is nothing new and you would be right. This is an old fashioned point of view but one that stands to separate style from substance. It’s not about filing every corner with flowers or balloons for the sake of it. Or buying the biggest, most expensive dress that has a label everyone will know. It’s just the opposite.
My advice is to find a starting point. Find one place that your heart belongs and work from there. This might be the colour from a flower, the line of a dress or even something less tangible like a feeling you want to evoke in your guests.
Take this point and build around it. Tell a story with your event and follow it through. Make sure there’s a relationship between the big things and the small things. The dress, the table decorations, the music, the venue, the flowers should all work together telling the same story as the smaller things. The design of the glassware, the cutlery, the shade of white you use on linen, all as important.
This is thinking things through, this is styling. Follow your own story and you will be guaranteed the event you want and not elements from six different events rolled into one!

Yves Saint Laurent once said “fashions fade but style is eternal” so find your starting point and get styling.

To contact Chris go to:
Email : [email protected]
Twitter : theDTtweet
Telephone : 02070 600 038 / 07968 625 954
www.desmondtalbot.com