Today’s Friday Guest Blog Interview brings us over to a site that I love to visit often for event inspiration. These special ladies have made everything *wedding* their world – and what works spectacularly as an event for 200 is guaranteed gold for a cocktail party for 20. So why not borrow some of the best trade secrets, theme inspirations and color combinations from the pros? And this is where the lovely Kimberly and Heather of Style Unveiled step in!
Style Unveiled shares event tips, real weddings and vendor matches for four main cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland & Chicago. If that’s not enough eye-candy to keep you in happy-event-planning-land for days, dive into their delicious blog (a specific one for each city!) – known affectionately as The Lounge.
Kimberly took a few moments to sit down and share with PDB what makes Style Unveiled so special, what industry tips & tricks they rely on, and a few of their favorite up-and-coming trends. If you’re a bride-to-be you’re in for a real treat. On the flip side, if you’re constantly on the hunt for everyday event inspiration you’ll love their easily adaptable answers that apply to parties of every shape and size.
Without further ado, I’m so happy to introduce to you Kimberly & Heather of Style Unveiled!
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{PDB Interview with Kimberly of Style Unveiled}
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What inspires your design style?
Style Unveiled is super inspired by the high end fashion brands that women lust after whether they are brides or not. We’re big believers that just because someone received an engagement ring, their design sense doesn’t immediately fit into a ‘wedding mold.’ Modern weddings are more than ever the perfect opportunity for a couple to flex all of their creative powers to craft an event that is so uniquely them that even though it’s just a day, it will totally live on! We are always on the prowl for weddings that make a reader fall in love with the couple, think ‘Oh, I totally know them!’, and provide a jumping off point in their own planning. Creating a space that feels like a reader’s favorite high end department store full of unique ideas, local experts, and total eye candy seemed like a perfect portal to get readers in the mood for that type of creative planning.
What do you love most about what you do?
Heather and I are so fortunate to run Style Unveiled in four cities {and growing!} Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland. Each site is completely its own and we get to feature, celebrate, and cover all of the amazing vendors and brides who work together to create {UNREAL} weddings. It’s really a total blast to see how each different city creates a wedding scene that’s all it’s own.
On a personal level, working with one of your best friends couldn’t be more fun! We share this great lavender office with our three dogs {Heather’s Min-Pins Deacon & Bitsey and my adorable Shephard/Husky mutt, Winston} We start everyday with a coffee run and inevitably get excited about our current ‘big idea!’ And… because we’re blogging about super cool wedding stuff that vendors and brides are doing… we get to send all these fun emails that are essentially ‘Hey, we told the world how awesome the stuff you do is’ How is that not the most fun thing ever?
What are your favorite design trends?
This is such a hard one! LOL :) Because we’re sharing what creative wedding professionals all over the West Coast and Chicago are doing everyday… it feels like we see, fall in love with, and get excited about a new idea everyday! Recently, I’ve really been impressed with the personalization that photographers are bringing to engagement sessions. I love what Karina Pires Photography did in this post by getting to know the couple super well and creating a whole narrative for their photos including balloons, a train station, and a vintage suitcase.
{Photography by Karina Pires Photography}
Wow… that may be my favorite design trend actually! Seeing the crazy, creative stuff that comes from brides working in tandem with their vendors to create something neither probably would have on their own… Take our Portland site for example… A bride there fell in love with her groom over the New York Times Crossword. She worked with her florist to add newsprint flowers she’d created to her professional bouquet.
At the end of last year, we’d seen a ton of birds and trees in weddings… I remember joking to Heather that this year it would be foxes and thistles. {Please let it be foxes and thistles!} But really, I think the stand out trend is going to be the vendors and brides taking collaboration and creativity to a whole new level :)
What are three design suggestions that you would like to offer our readers?
{1} Take your time to choose your design path! Weddings, events, writing, drawings… it all starts with a big empty slate of potential. There is an infinite number of ways that any plan can end up and no right answers. Take time to figure out what inspirations keep calling you so that you feel more focused as you begin to make decisions.
{2.} Seek feedback but edit the advice! Designing in a vacuum can lead to some arbitrary fixations on decisions that may not be crucial. {Ecru or eggshell? ECRU OR EGGSHELL? AHHHH!} So… use all the magic of technology that’s available and build a network of design people that can give you feedback! Twitter is full of wedding people who have great advice and to whom you have instant access! @bloomdiva @weddingshoebox @champagnenw @wileyvalentine to name a few! Of course, we’re always happy to chat, too! @styleunveiled
After you’ve received advice, just make sure that final design decisions still reflect you!
{3} Be open to inspiration! You never know what object, feeling, or situation will be the lightning strike of inspiration that kicks off your whole design process. We’ve had brides design an entire wedding around the vintage element of their engagement ring and others that designed on the dynamics of their relationship with a ‘His & Hers’ themed wedding.
{4} Is it too silly to say have fun with it? I mean… that’s why people get excited about design and read design blogs, right? ;)
{ Ring style board credits: 1. Badgley Mischka Statement Ring 2. Le Vian 14k Gold Citrine & Chocolate Diamond Oval Ring 3. Crystal Bow Cocktail Ring 4. Smokey Cocktail from DominicMcCabe 5. Evenbis Ring 6. Retrotastic Rhinestone Ring from MoonFaces 7. Silver Savoy Ring from MikeandMary}
Thank you, Kimberly & Heather!
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Photo of Kimberly & Heather by Alante Photography
Great read, good tips here for your readers. I adore the Style Unveiled vibe and the Pepper Design ideas!