25% OFF SITEWIDE SALE - THROUGH MAY 8

Starting today and ending May 8, Wedding Paper Divas is having a SITEWIDE sale - 25% OFF everything!  Whether you need wedding invitations, rehearsal dinner invitations, save the date cards, programs, favors or any other wedding stationery, order by May 8th and receive a 25% discount!

The code for the sale is 25WPD.

Behind the scenes with 9 News at StudioWed Denver from Pure Cinematography on Vimeo.

Producing the tables, designs and TV interviews involved an incredible amount of work and planning with our vendor partners.  The process was so entertaining that Pure Cinematography created a time lapse setup video of the chaos fun!

StudioWed Denver Time Lapse | Setup Wedding Trends from Pure Cinematography on Vimeo.

Check out our full post with details and photos of past, present and future wedding trends!

Leslie and Jamie were married at the adorable Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield. An old windmill on the property provided the pinwheel design inspiration and a perfect backdrop for the comfortable BBQ-style wedding. Details such as apple baskets, mason jars, sunflowers, burlap, BBQ food, a tower of cupcakes, and a fountain of handmade pinwheels hanging behind the dessert table projected the colorful, pastoral atmosphere the couple wanted. After the gorgeous ceremony, guests met the evening’s reception with local beers, signature cocktails (created by a friend), and dancing outside of the charming red barn. We are so proud to have worked with Leslie and Jamie on this fun and vibrant event that truly matched their vision. Thank you to Western Skies Photography for sharing images of their day with us!

Venue: Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield
Photographer: Western Skies Photography
Flowers: Design by Ann
Music: Jammin DJs
Caterer: Footers Catering
Dessert: Lovely Confections
Hair and Makeup: Girls and Curls
Planning and Design: Amber with Save the Date Events

What’s Out:

Five to ten years ago, wedding blogs weren’t nearly as popular and well known as they are today. For inspiration, brides relied heavily on wedding magazines and on websites such as the knot.com for inspiration photos. Wedding day coordination just started to become a common service offering from wedding planners. Wedding day coordination helped brides pull together everything on the day of the wedding and have a professional resource to ask for vendor recommendations.

The hot color palettes for weddings from 2004-2007 were chocolate brown with baby blue, chocolate brown with pink and chocolate brown with green.  Monograms were very popular along with chair covers, floating candles, floating flowers and hanging paper lanterns.  For dessert, cupcake towers were a huge wedding trend and often replaced the traditional wedding cake at weddings. If a couple still chose a wedding cake, it was often the topsy-turvey style. “Whimsical” was one of the most popular style words for weddings during these years.

Food trended toward traditional plated meals (aka rubber chicken style dinners) and buffets with chafing dishes. You may also have seen a standard carving station at weddings with a chef in traditional chef clothing.

Wedding gown styles were a-line or ball gown silhouettes with elaborate beading and crystal work.  The “pick-up” style dress with fabric bunched together throughout the skirt of the dress was very popular.

Other wedding details that were popular during this time included signature photo frame guest books, napkins in the water glass, layered wedding invitations with vellum, “I DO” wood accent letters and loads of organza.

What’s Hot Now:

With the ever increasing popularity of wedding inspiration blogs such as Style Me Pretty, Mile High Bride and Couture Colorado, weddings are more creative than ever. Along with these wedding blogs comes increased pressure for brides and grooms to have a highly styled and personalized wedding. With these new inspirations and expectations,  busy professional couples are looking to event planners more than ever for full service planning and event styling. Wedding studios such as StudioWed (also called wedding collectives) are just starting to take hold in the marketplace and influence the way brides and grooms plan weddings.

The hot color palettes for 2012 include the accent color of gray - charcoal gray, light gray and any shade in between. We have seen a lot of charcoal gray paired with yellow or orange.  In our featured table shown above, we paired it with shades of purple and plum. Long banquet tables, often called “kings tables” are all the rage this year for guest seating at receptions. Chivari style chairs are as popular as ever.

The hot trend word for this year is vintage. Mixing vintage elements with modern accents is hugely popular and has resulted in specialty event rental companies such as A Vintage Affair in Colorado where you can rent vintage decor elements. On the flower front, ranunculus, hydrangea, succulents, garden roses and peonies are at the top of the list for many brides this year. These blooms fit very well with the vintage inspired wedding trend. Colorado brides still love aspen bark accents along with white milk glass in centerpiece arrangements.

Dessert bars are the go-to trend this year for wedding dessert. Couples may still have a well designed cake or they may have 2-3 smaller cakes mixed with bite size desserts such as mini pies,mini cupcakes, petit fours, macaroons and milkshake shots.

Food at weddings is much more creative and inspiring. We are bringing the chef out of the kitchen and putting him on action stations to “wow” guests.  Ethnic food stations are hugely popular such as a pad thai station. Indian-inspired cuisine, family style Mexican and upscale Italian are also trending this year at weddings.  Gourmet comfort food such as buffalo sliders and gourmet mac-n-cheese are still popular choices for cocktail hour and dinner stations.  Late night snacks and food trucks are trending big this year for Colorado weddings and events.

Current wedding dress trends are all about the lace. With the influence of Kate Middleton’s royal wedding gown, the return to romance is ideal for Colorado’s rustic/vintage mountain bride. Cap sleeves and sashes are also very popular this year.

Other popular wedding details for this year include photo booths, wedding websites, unique guest books, chalkboards, pocket-style napkin folds, letterpress stationery and ribbon accents.

What’s In For the Future:

In the next five years, wedding inspirations and blogs are going to continue to grow exponentially. The attention will become more focused on the guests and creating a personal experience that truly reflects the bride and groom.  Most couples will look to a professional planner and event stylist in some capacity to plan, design and coordinate their wedding weekend. Wedding planning studios and wedding collectives such as StudioWed are going to be the standard way that many couples plan weddings.

Mixing unexpected colors and patterns is going to be the future trend in the next five years of wedding style.  Color blocking is going to take hold in Colorado and inspire many wedding designs. We also expect brides to mix different materials such as glass, acrylic, wood and metal. The popular vintage look will slowly fade out of style for weddings in the next few years. We are going to start seeing unique floral design details such as hanging centerpieces and one-of-a-kind vases.

For wedding desserts, cakes are going to make a comeback as more and more creativity influences the trends.  The style in the next few years will be tall cakes with multiple textures, patterns and materials. Cake are going to be a decor element and focal point instead of just dessert.

Food is going to keep growing as a dominant part of the reception fun. Watch out for entertainment-style catering, molecular cooking, mixologists and more.  We expect to see moving food stations, more food trucks, table-side cooking and unexpected menus with a wide range of food styles. We also expect to see multi-course plated dinners such as 8 courses of tapas with wine pairings.

The future of wedding gowns in the next five years is a sleek, modern silhouette. You may see special features on gowns such as detachable tulle overskirts. Dresses that can be worn one way for the wedding ceremony and a different way for the reception are also going to start trending in the next few years.

Wedding details we will start seeing more of include flip book booths, video booths, Facebook pages instead of wedding websites, live streaming of weddings, live Twitter feeds for weddings and mixing of table shapes for guest seating.

We would like to thank the incredible vendor partners who helped us create these tables designs and gave their input about trends in their specific category:

Floral Decor and Design: Statice Floral Design

Catering: Footers Catering

Cakes, Cupcakes & Desserts: Intricate Icings

Wedding Gowns: Little White Dress Bridal Shop

Bridesmaid Dress: Bella Bridesmaid

Planning & Design: Save the Date Events

Linens: Chair Covers and Linens

Event Rentals: Event Rents

Photography: Revert Photo

Cinematography: Pure Cinematography

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Caitlin and Jason were absolutely incredible to work with. We helped them plan their entire Denver wedding in less than four months at Arrowhead Golf Club. Caitlin loved the idea of a colorful vintage modern wedding.  The color palette of teal, lemon yellow, blue and white fit perfectly with her style. We incorporate custom table runners along with lemon yellow linens, unique chargers and clear chivari chairs to give a hint of modern style combined with vintage elements.  The long banquet tables lit with candles and gorgeous florals in silver vases welcomed guests with color and warmth in the ballroom.

The stunning letterpress stationery along with the vintage Rolls Royce transportation added to the flair and fun of their wedding day. Their adorable dog Vin was the “ring dog” and did a great job of parading down the aisle during the ceremony.  Guests were treated to a live band, gelato cart, fun food stations and a cupcake bar complete with Caitlin and Jason’s favorite flavors.

Pure Cinematography did an outstanding job of capturing the video highlights for this Arrowhead Golf Club Wedding:

Caitlin & Jason | Wedding Highlights from Pure Cinematography on Vimeo.

A huge thank you to the wonderful vendor professionals who did such an incredible job:

Photography: Studio JK

Cinema: Pure Cinematography

Flowers: Mulberries Flowers

Music: Aaron Medina & Fashionably Late

Cupcake Bar: Lovely Confections

Makeup: Carissa Beauty

Stationery: Cloud 9 Bliss

Transportation: DDG Luxury Limo

Design & Planning: Debbie at Save the Date Events

You don’t want to miss this FANTASTIC opportunity to purchase a cocktail dress, a bridesmaid dress, designer shoes and gorgeous jewelry at an incredible discount.  A portion of each sale will benefit Dress for Success Denver. There will also be great drawings for prizes and gifts.

We had such an incredible time working with Emily and her mom to plan a destination wedding in Crested Butte, Colorado.  Crested Butte is tucked away in southwest Colorado and is a true gem of a mountain town.  When Emily and her mom came out to tour venues, it was very snowy and cold. We actually did our venues tours on snowmobiles! It was one of the most fun planning days that I have ever had.  The logistics of this wedding were challenging because of the location of Crested Butte which is approximately a five hour drive from Denver plus the location of the ceremony on one part of the mountain with the reception location on a different part of Crested Butte mountain.  The coordination of vendor transportation and logistics along with the guest transportation, shuttles and logistics were very involved and detailed. We had a great time working through all the details and logistics to pull off an incredible day for Emily, Jim, their families and guests.

Emily, Jim and their families live in Louisiana and wanted to bring in a bit of New Orleans flair to the wedding day.  We incorporated a New Orleans inspired menu, had a second line grand entrance, hired a New Orleans jazz band for the ceremony and cocktail hour and brought in Emily and Jim’s favorite petit fours from a New Orleans bakery.

The Uley’s Cabin site is a stunning location with one of the best mountain views in Colorado.  With the help of Crested Butte Resort, we had a tent installed next to the cabin.  Guests could either ride the chair lift or take a shuttle to the ceremony site.  The ceremony took place near the top of the Red Lady chair lift with cocktail hour following on the deck of Uley’s Cabin.  Guests enjoyed a casual buffet dinner while listening to Queen City Jazz Band and mingling between the tent and cabin.  Once dinner was complete, Soul School Band took the stage inside the tent and kept guests dancing all night.

We worked with custom stationery designer JS Design Custom to create a fabulous invitation suite inspired by a ski lift ticket. Emily and Jim commissioned a local baker to create a wedding cake that looked just like their wonderful pet bulldog Gus.

It was truly an honor to work with such an incredible couple and their families. You can check out their adorable winter Crested Butte engagement photos and also their stunning Crested Butte wedding video highlights below.

Emily and Jim, Crested Butte Colorado from Lupher Arts on Vimeo.

Wedding Professionals:

Site: Uley’s Cabin with the ceremony at the top of the Red Lady chair lift

Music: Queen City Jazz and Soul School

Floral: Misty Mountain Floral

Hair: Elevation Salon

Makeup Artist: Anthony Arts

Photography: Studio JK

Guest Transportation: Alpine Express

Video Productions: Lupher Arts

Ski Lift Invitations & Stationery: JS Design Custom

Planning & Design: Debbie at Save the Date Events

It was a true joy planning Sally and Ricky’s modern charcoal and tangerine wedding. Their love for each other was very apparent through the entire planning process and we absolutely loved working with them.  They tied the knot at the intimate Foothills Chapel in Golden, Colorado. Sally walked down the aisle to acoustic music provided by Michael Lancaster.  After the ceremony, guests made their way to Mount Vernon Country Club for an evening of great food and dancing. The ballroom was transformed with charcoal pintuck linens accented with tangerine chair sashes from Chair Covers and Linens. The invitations and wedding stationery matched the modern charcoal and tangerine wedding color palette and were provided by Cloud 9 Papers. We had a great time bringing special touches to this wedding, for example we told their engagement story through an angry birds grooms cake. The happy couple cut the cake with a fireman’s ax that was inscribed with Sally and Ricky’s wedding seal (the groom is a firefighter). Their beautiful wedding cake by Intricate Icings mimicked her dress perfectly. Plum Sage provided a punch of color with stylish modern centerpieces full of orange calla lilies. After a wonderful plated dinner, guests danced the night way to music provided by The DJ Guy. Guests posed for the perfect picture in a photo booth provided by ShutterBooth. Thank you for Andy and Angie Wood for documenting the day perfectly and sharing the images with us.  Planning and design provided by Brynn at Save the Date Events.

Kerry and Blake were married last fall at the beautiful Evans Chapel on the DU Campus. Their reception was held at the historic Manor House in the Ken Caryl Valley. This couple couldn’t have been more pleasurable to work with, even though we spent most of our time on Skype since they were living in Germany during the planning period!

Kerry had the desire to be surrounded by soft, lush flowers, blush tones and simple textures. We worked with an amazing florist, Annie Aubert, to accomplish Kerry’s dreams for her wedding day. The chapel was draped in lovely pale flowers and soft candle light.

Their reception at the Manor House was filled with love and laughter - and even when the party was officially over, one of their friends hopped on the piano for a group choir session before their transportation arrived.

It was amazing to see the love this bride and groom had on their wedding day, and I will truly miss working with them!

Thanks to the fantastic photographer, Chris McLaughlin for these awesome images!  Planning and design by Gabby at Save the Date Events.

Jessamyn and Erik were married this summer at the lovely Hudson Gardens in Littleton, Colorado. Jessamyn and Erik are both active runners and wanted their wholesome lifestyle to truly shine on their wedding day. From the adorable garden flower pot centerpieces created by Hillside Consultants, to the fresh local foods at their reception cooked up by Footers Catering, they really accomplished that idea.

Erik’s mother baked and designed the cake herself, and did a fantastic job! Jessamyn’s father worked with Footers to pair amazing local wines and beers for the dinner, and every detail of the ceremony (officiated by the father of the bride) was incredibly special and heartfelt.

Special thanks to the amazing photographer Paul Steinke for these beautiful images! Planning and coordination by Gabby at Save the Date Events.