Tablescape Photoshoot Part I

In late July, Vow Muse stumbled upon Ms. Mary Phan, the chief wedding planner for Very Merry Events. We sent her a friendly email to introduce ourselves and generally spread the good word about VM. Mary kindly responded with a request to participate in a photoshoot she was organizing by requesting we pen a few words to contribute to the tablescapes.

The format was this: wedding planners and other consultants love what they do, but they always have to do everything someone else's way. The bride wants fuscia not violet. The groom wants Guiness not Pinot Noir. The bride's mama wants circular tables not square. Obviously this is what they are paid to do; wedding consultants make someone else's day exactly what they want it to be. Which can be totally fabulous. But, what if the wedding planner had her druthers? That's what this photoshoot was about.

Mary and a team of handpicked consultants designed, created and photographed wedding tables for two fictional couples on a beautiful August day earlier this year. They made up all the details (including in-depth descriptions of each of the couples' personalities, preferences and even hobbies) and then set to work creating a perfect wedding setup.

What was a Muse to do with all this? Mary requested some custom written vows and quotes to sprinkle around the tablescape and let Vow Muse do the dirty work. She gave us the "fact sheet" on both of the couples and her feeling of what these fictional folks would want. Here's what VM delivered:

For "Ben and Holly" who are described as "successful young suburbanites", he a respected engineer and she a talented graphic designer, who "enjoy the tranquility of a quaint cabin, brisk hikes, or slow bike ride" along with indulging in literature both as avid readers and as occasional writers. It was their hope to share their passion for the written word and respectful love of nature with their wedding guests.

Drawing from the couple's strong ties to nature and the neutral gender roles of these two people, Vow Muse contributed this monologue of wedding vows for the groom:

"I am drawn to you like a flower to sunshine; the unstoppable force of nature, timeless in its sincerity, unwavering in its devotion. Gentle as a summer breeze, strong as the roots of an ancient redwood, beautiful as a misty rainbow, you are the only woman in this wide world for me. It is on this day that I vow to cherish your kindness, your keen intelligence, your gentle soul for as long as we both shall live. It is this day that I will forever remember as we frolic in the great seas together, stroll the forest hand in hand and pedal side by side into all the sunsets to come with laughter and joy to light our path. It is on this day, my love, that I give myself entirely to you—and you to me—in exchange for a lifetime of learning, loving, and, above all, happiness."

Mary loved how we incorporated the woodsy theme into the verbiage, weaving the nature theme throughout the text. Under normal circumstances we would have gone through a few revisions to make sure each word of each phrase sounded exactly right and may have ended up writing a second draft that was quite a bit different (sometimes people need to see what they don't want to realize what the do want). But in this case since the bride and groom were fictional, they were quite easy to please.

Stay tuned for how Vow Muse addressed the second couple for this photoshoot, and for some of the beautiful pictures taken by Silva Stills & Cinema.