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All in the Details
Celebrity wedding planner Lisa Gorjestani shares her favourite personalized touches you can incorporate into your wedding day. By Stephanie Gray
L.A. event planner Lisa Gorjestani, founder of Details Event Planning (detailseventplanning.com), has been creating stunning celebrity weddings, events and charity fundraisers for more than 10 years now, with clients including Halle Berry and Dustin Hoffman. Weddingbells recently had the chance to chat with Gorjestani about her favourite details and what’s hot in weddings right now.
1. Green Friendly
Eco-friendly practices are continuing to be very relevant, says Gorjestani. And it’s not just about using recycled paper for invitations. For example, use cloth towels in the washrooms instead of paper or a chalkboard menu instead of printed ones. Plastic bottles are also disappearing and being replaced with pitchers of water on the tables. Besides being nice to Mother Nature, it’s prettier, too.
2. Personalize
“I love all the little details and all the things that are unique about the couple,” admits Gorjestani. She feels people are really expressing their personalities and incorporating them into the wedding. For example, she’s seen many couples bring in their own officiant, with one couple asking the guests to repeat the vows with them. Last fall, Gorjestani printed a couple’s email correspondence on cocktail napkins for an ultra-personal touch.
3. Utilizing the Environment
Having an outdoor ceremony? Find a way to incorporate your natural surroundings into the overall design. For a recent wedding in a small beach community in San Diego, Gorjestani and her team built a structure for the wedding to model architectural pieces in that were already in the community. “It fits right in and is different, but feels very natural,” she says.
4. Throw an After-Party
One trend Gorjestani is seeing more and more of is the after-party. Often the wedding itself is traditional, but then the party transitions into a less formal event by bringing in great lounge furniture and a DJ so the guests can dance the night away.
5. Dramatic Centrepieces
“People are taking one flower or one item, even greenery, and doing massive amounts,” explains Gorjestani. She suggests some less expensive options such as magnolia leaf, boxwood leaf or hydrangea blossom that when done in huge quantities, “definitely have impact without the price tag.”