Here are a few tips on how to decorate and bring your wedding vision to life for an at-home wedding.
By Mekita Rivas
The night before her wedding, Maya Posey-Pierre crouched on the living room floor of her Brooklyn apartment watching YouTube tutorials on floral design. She neatly laid out rows of orange and white roses, which she bought in bulk from Trader Joe’s. Armed with floral shears and sheer determination, she got to work.
“We wanted to go to an actual florist,” Ms. Posey-Pierre, 29, an actress, said. “The only reason we didn’t go — timing. I believed I could do it, so I told myself, ‘I’m going to make it work.’”
“Make it work” is the unofficial mantra for many couples who planned their dream weddings for 2020, only to have the coronavirus pandemic turn everything upside down. While some postponed their nuptials to 2021 or beyond, others decided to plow through, emboldened by the “love is not canceled” philosophy that’s become somewhat of a rallying cry on social media.
Instead of lavish affairs, 2020 weddings are distinctly low key and intimate, yet very technologically advanced. But when your home becomes your venue and your main audience is a webcam, how does this affect your design decisions? We asked newlyweds and industry experts to share their best advice on beautifying any space — no matter how big or small — for a virtual wedding.
Dramatic Stairways
“The only thing I had my heart set on was using light on a stairwell,” Ms. Posey-Pierre said. “The camera can’t see everything, so it doesn’t matter if the entire space isn’t beautifully decorated, but whatever the camera can see, you want it to look nice.”
However, She and her husband, Marc Pierre, a high school teacher, live in a 400-square-foot Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment without stairs. So they reached out to the couple who owns a renovated barn in the nearby South Midwood neighborhood, where Pierre, 28, had proposed on Valentine’s Day this year. The owners, who operate the barn as an Airbnb rental, practically insisted that they host their virtual wedding there instead.
Mrs. Posey-Pierre would get her dramatic, bride-coming-down-the-stairs moment. But not without a few headaches.
“It turned out to be the most difficult thing because the wires kept getting tangled,” she said. “Then literally at the last minute while I was making all these flower arrangements, I remember thinking, ‘Flowers on the stairs would be nice.’”
Knowing the stairs would be the focal point, the couple added a few finishing touches for softness and warmth, like candles and a gold cake topper from Amazon. On May 24, after exchanging vows, they sat at the dining table to cut the cake and chat with guests, as string lights twinkled behind them.
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