Customize your reception and share your style by choosing inspiration from the world beyond weddings.
Photos courtesy of Paisley & Jade
Not content with look-alike weddings, today’s couples want remarkable visuals with personality, and specialty rental firms are heeding the call.
“We are inundated with imagery now, thanks to modern media,” says Morgan Montgomery, the owner of rental business Paisley & Jade in Richmond. “Design is a huge way they can make their event stand apart and represent who they are moving forward.”
Couples are developing their design around a space that speaks to them. “The choice of venues in Virginia has grown exponentially over the last decade—the classic choices, breweries, open spaces, urban areas, modern or industrial feel,” Montgomery says. “Step one is obviously budget, and then venue, and those go hand in hand with design. You can take a plain ballroom and turn it into an ice palace, but that requires a heftier budget.”
In the Paisley & Jade showroom, inventory is displayed to help brainstorm a look. Pink button-tufted sofas, black leather settees, and ornate statement chairs offer photo-ready punch in a range of styles. To distinguish its offerings, the firm makes about half of its large-scale pieces, including backdrop panels, hanging grids for florists to decorate, and a 10-foot circle bar that’s destined to be a focal point.
“From a design perspective, it’s super important to look beyond the wedding world to what inspires them—home décor, fashion, travel. It’s easy to come up with elements if clients can bring inspiration other than somebody else’s wedding,” Montgomery emphasizes. “If they come to us with photos of interiors from Nantucket that they love, we can pull the elements from there that will help elevate their event without copying a wedding photo they saw on Pinterest.” PaisleyAndJade.com
Other Virginia specialty rental firms include MadHatter Vintage in Virginia Beach, with sofas and settees from Victorian to mid-century, collections of mismatched dessert plates, Depression glass, crystal chandeliers, and accents from trunks to poufs to bar carts. MadHatterVintage.com
Stonegate Event Rentals in Charlottesville offers classic bars, lounges, and seating, as well as décor from frames and signs to vases, lighting, altars, and pedestals. StonegateEventRentals.com
This article originally appeared in our Weddings 2019 issue.
