Total Wedding Event Design
by: Kim Moody
Photography by Susan Bolling Photography
Event Design by Kim Moody Design
Imagine opening a wedding invitation from a friend who has recently gotten engaged…
You can tell by the artistically written calligraphy on the outer envelope as well as the thickness of the paperweight that the event is going to be formal.
You open the invitation and get your first glimpse into the “feel” of their wedding. The scrollwork on the thick linen paper stock gives you a sense of the look that their celebration may showcase.
Based on their invitation and the time of the time of evening, you wore a very dressy cocktail gown and your best heels.
You made sure your fiancé was dressed to the nine’s as well! To your surprise, you arrive and the entire bridal party including the couples parents are dressed much more casually than you. Feeling confused and self-conscious you have a hard time relaxing and enjoying their evening….
Days later you find out that a cousin of the bride did the calligraphy as a wedding gift to the couple, the aunt of the groom works at a local stationary store and paid for the invitations as her gift to them, and the couples best friend is the manager at the reception venue.
Your friend and her fiancé scored ‘great deals’ on all of those wedding vendors and services, so they jumped at the chance to have the upgrades! But as a wedding guest, you were mislead about the details that the invitation can typically help clue you in about.
As a bride, your job is to enjoy your day to the fullest, while playing host to your guests and making sure you give them the tools to have a great time! The concept of ‘total event design’ can be so much more than how a wedding looks!
Focusing on your overall design is something your wedding planner should be vital in coordinating. She is the only person who knows all of the details that you do about each of your vendors. It is their responsibility to lift out underlying themes, make sure the color palette is cohesive throughout the evenings festivities, and that aqua actually means aqua and not turquoise or teal.

Often through quick communication from bride to various vendors it is easy to misunderstand specific details. Imagine showing up to your wedding and realizing your bridesmaids gowns are one shade of aqua, but the caterer ordered teal cocktail napkins, the rental company provided turquoise table cloths, and the bakery accented your cake with sea foam green icing. This isn’t an ideal scenario and could have easily been avoided if you had a professional involved.
It is the role of the event planner to be the skilled communicator with you and all of your wedding team. Your wedding planner can do far more than suggest a great band, review the vendor contracts before you sign them, and make sure your chairs are lined up properly at the ceremony.
Make sure to utilize them to help with your cohesive event design and you can ensure a fantastic event that your guests will enjoy and you will remember fondly for years to come instead of having regrets that certain details of your wedding were unclear to your support team.
Just as the chief architect on a large project serves as the project manager, they also focus on the design of each detail from the look of the doorbell to the type of toilet paper dispenser. An event designer that truly understands the logistics and the aesthetics wants to ensure you have a “total package” on your wedding day!
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Kim Moody Design is an event planning and interior design firm in Blackstone, Virginia that orchestrates weddings statewide. The principle event designer is certified in Interior Design and believes strongly that an event experience should be just as flawless and cohesive as a well designed living space!



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