Designing and Creating a Unique Wedding Backdrop

This morning I was so excited to find myself tagged on Facebook in this photo.

"Happy one month anniversary Justin! You're proving to be an excellent husband.
Let's do more standing in front of pretty backdrops while holding hands."

Justin (the groom) is an ex-colleague of mine who proposed to his girlfriend Maggie right before they made the cross country move to Boston. I had the honor of meeting Maggie at my own engagement party over a year and a half ago and then when le husband and I visited Boston this last winter we got to catch up with Justin and Maggie in the midst of their wedding planning. Maggie was super excited to work with me to create a unique backdrop for their wedding. And I was super excited to have this opportunity.

Working with Maggie was so fun. Even though I have only spent time with her twice, I feel like I got the pleasure of getting to know her more through designing and creating this backdrop and she is such a kind, sweet soul. I just adore her and I can honestly say Justin is a lucky, lucky man. And I know he knows it. :)

The process of designing was so fun. There were back and forth discussions centered around a Pinterest inspiration board and then I put together a drawing different from but inspired by some of the backdrops that Justin and Maggie got most excited about. It ended up being 3 columns and 4 rows of hanging fabric chevrons with strips of paper bag hanging from each column and pine cones hanging from each strip.

Design work in progress

The next process was sourcing the materials. As I love to use as much reused material as possible, I already had the pine cones and paper grocery bags for the bottom layers of the backdrop but I had to find the perfect fabrics. This involved a lot of pinning off some of my favorite fabric websites (Etsy, Fabric.com, and Spoonflower) and visiting and taking pictures at some of my favorite local fabric stores (Stonemountain and Daughter and a A Verb for Keeping Warm). Maggie and Justin marked their favorites and I made some possible combinations for them to choose. I was a bit surprised that they picked exactly the combination that I would've picked but I guess I really shouldn't have been.

Left Fabric / Right Fabric

THE ONE!!!!
Left Fabric / Right Fabric

Left Fabric found at A Verb for Keeping Warm
Right Fabric found at Stonemountain and Daughter

I purchased the fabric and was ready to get going by July. However I put off starting for two reasons:
1) I was in the process of finishing wedding décor for a late July wedding, and
2) I was scared shitless.

Up until now the process had been fun and easy. I don't think I attributed my procrastination consciously to fear but looking back, it probably was due to that. And if it wasn't, it should've been. Just a month away from their wedding I started putting the backdrop together. To be perfectly honest, it was a nightmare. I expected to have it done in one week and it took 3 weeks instead. Luckily, I had some time to get it finished and sent off to Boston but I wanted so badly to get it out there to Justin and Maggie with plenty of time on their hands. Well, I got it to them just in the nick of time.

The reason it was a nightmare is that it took a lot of trial and error. The design is so simple to plan up in your head but the logistics of pulling it off doesn't always work due to many factors: the fabric stiffener doesn't work as well as planned, the yarn despite being cut the same length stretches and causes things to be crooked, the pine cones are too heavy. It was one thing after the other. And to be honest, this is kind of the best part of creating: the engineering and reengineering, the thinking outside the box. But with time not being on my side and spending day after day on something and then having to start over from the beginning on the third day, and then again many days later, it was just a little stressful. If I was scared shitless, I had every right to be. This project really stretched me. But I'm all the better for it. As a creative person, the best we can ask for is to be stretched by scary, intimidating projects on a regular basis that help us flex that creativity muscle and grow all the better for it.

And the ultimate benefit of all of it, Maggie and Justin loved it! Blessings to them for celebrating a first month of marriage and to many, many more.

On my end, I hope I can be blessed with many, many more scary, intimidating projects in the future.

P.S. Maggie will be sending me some more pics of the backdrop in all it's wedding glory in the future and I can't wait to post it up here for you all to see.