Decorate a gazebo for your wedding

Springtime always makes me think of outdoor weddings and ceremonies. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but except for last Saturday, the weather in Southern California has been absolutely gorgeous and temperate. So if you’re taking advantage of a picturesque gazebo, like this one at Almansor Court in Alhambra, you should definitely take heed of a few tips I have to offer for decorating it.

Tip #1: Use a really bright color. Most gazebos are painted white (although there is the odd brown one), so just about any color will pop against a gazebo.  Of course, I’m very partial to fabric as decoration, and on a gazebo its especially nice, because then things are all floaty and blow a little bit in the wind. Don’t give too much loop to the fabric, though, or it could catch something.

Continue reading

Drape your wedding in garlands

I’ve been thinking a lot about my friend Jinah’s wedding. One thing about decorating for a friend is that you don’t want to disappoint — but at the same time, you don’t want your friend to be a drill sergeant, barking orders about how to do this, or do that that way. Luckily for me, Jinah has given Caroline and I pretty free reign on what to do, mostly just telling us she wants the colors to be silver and gold. Hey, that works for me!

Problem with that approach is now there’s too many possibilities! But when I think about the house where Jinah is going to get married, all I can think of are all the horizontal and vertical lines there are — all the balconies on the second floor, the height of the portico, the top of the portico, not to mention the pool’s fountain. There are so many surfaces to decorate! So I naturally began to think of garlands.

Continue reading