Egyptian Wedding Inspiration

We absolutely adore Vanessa from Alchemy Fine Events and Invitations, so when she offered the idea of designing styled shoots for our site, we almost died at the thought!!  This is the first of {12} ... yes, 12 ... styled shoots from Vanessa.  We will have a new one each month.  This first one is all about using Egypt as a source of wedding inspiration.  An article written by Vanessa is below the images :)

Wedding vendors involved include: Design and Coordination:  Alchemy Fine Events and Invitations  Paper Pretties:  Alchemy Fine Events and Invitations   Photography:  Katie Neal Photo   Flowers:  Isari Flowers

When it comes it comes to art and design, whether it be fashion, architecture, decor or painting, the genre from which it came speaks loudly about its origins and the culture in which it was born. It says who the people were, how their civilizations functioned, and how their creative expressions told us about their lives at that time in history.

In today’s world there is rarely an element of design that did not derive from one of the great art genres of our history. Bringing in these elements from Egyptian to Roman, Baroque to Victorian and Art Nouveau to Art Deco, and then combing them and reinterpreting them into your own personal translations is what creates truly unique and stunning wedding designs.

In working with many different brides, I love to have them tell me what they love and imagine their dream wedding to be like, but all to often then not, they unfortunately mix up their Baroque from Victorian, their Deco and Art Nouveau and tons of Mid-Century modern with Hollywood Regency. With so many looks and styles to admire, unless they know their Renaissance from their Regency, who’s really to blame?! Enter Art History for Brides. Showing all of the genre-confused brides out there that walking step by step through history can be fun and of course be a tremendous style aid in designing their big day.

Walk Like an Egyptian….

We will be starting as early back as the ancient Egyptians, who were known for their bold use of gold, jewels, geometric shapes and ornately decorated objects.

Symbolism played a major role in Egyptian art which led to over exaggerated colors and geometric illustrations of their perceived lives. Egyptians were known for worshiping their animals at the highest level and projecting them into gods that were often seen as the head or body of a human. This was seen in the Sphinx with the body of a lion and Horus the falcon headed god. Lotus flowers, Papyrus, Ankh were also a widely used symbol

Gold was ever present in the times of the ancient Egyptians and considered to be the skin of the gods, a divine and indestructible metal associated with the sun. Egyptians worked with gold, blue lapis from Afghanistan and many precious gemstones such as rubies and emeralds in their jewelry, funeral masks and other precious decorative objects. In addition to their jewelry making skills they were very talented glass artisans who created beautiful decorative vases, bowls and goblets in blues, greens and amber present in the royal chambers.

• Black – Black granite, silt and paint was widely used and considered the color of the country, the underworld and life and fertility.

• Turquoise - The green color of turquoise was synonymous with joy and life (A perfect stone for a wedding celebration!)

• Lapis Lazuli - Blue was the color of the heavens, water, and the primeval flood, and it represented creation and rebirth.

• Amazonite - Its light blue color symbolized good luck and fertility

• Jasper - Red symbolized fire and blood of their god Isis and thought to improve fertility.

Lotus flowers were considered a holy flower that represented the sun and a symbol of rebirth since it closes and goes under water at night and rises and reopens at dawn. Water lilies were also very praised because of the same qualities. Brilliant poppies and Papyrus were also widely used. For our Egptian style tablescape we infused black cala lilies and white lily-of-the-nile.

Movie Reference: Cleopatra

Written by Vanessa Van Wieren of Alchemy Fine Events and Invitations

Comments

[Paper Moss]

Wow this is really beautiful! We love the paper (of course) but the color palette is even more intriguing!! Can't wait for the next :)