The week of November 1 I will be traveling to Costa Rica for site inspections and to participate in a tabletop design photo shoot. I was immediately interested but worried about the logistics of decor and accessories being available, however after having about ten days to mull it over, tear through wedding magazines, books and online images I did agree.
Of course the tabletop design has to be wedding related and pertinent to weddings in Costa Rica. I did not want the obvious or "Clichéd" themes of shells, sand, flip flops etc so started researching Costa Rica and its culture. Several broad ideas came to mind such as Rain Forest, Eco-System and native birds such as the Macaw. My initial choice was then narrowed to the macaw and creating a table full of lush vibrant colors such as ocean blue, red and lime green seemed fairly simple.
While it is easy to see ideas in your mind, creating the idea in living color with texture and dimension is much more difficult. I worked several days on pulling the Macaw theme together but it always boiled down to the one final element that said "Macaw" and unfortunately that meant a fake bird. While the table linens, base plates, napkins, candles and other details were great together, adding the fake bird made everything look like a circus. Here's a photo of my initial inspiration.
Frustrated, I was ready to give up but as luck would have it, I came across a story in the travel section of our Sunday paper about sea glass. That sparked new interest and design ideas and after additional research, shopping trips and consultations with my graphic designer, I think I'm ready to head to Costa Rica. Getting there is going to be interesting, especially since I'll be bringing an entire suitcase filled with colored glass, decor, centerpieces, linens and votives but I'm hoping my frequent flyer status on Northwest will get them to look the other way when it comes to an over-sized luggage.
So the moral of the story for anyone who may have hit a design block, stop looking at wedding inspiration boards, wedding blogs and wedding books. Inspiration may hit where you least expect it. Here is my inspiration found by reading the news. Good luck and let me know if Fete Perfection can help you get over your design block.
. Photo courtesy of Sea Glass Blog - thank you.
