One of the many reasons we love our job so much is that we get to focus on beautiful wedding aesthetics – literally the dream, right?! But another key part of our role, which often gets overlooked, is the client experience. Now, we know that sounds like some rubbishy tech start up jargon, but hear us out: part of our job as wedding stylists is to make sure that your day is easy to enjoy. Especially seeing as we specialise in styling events for laidback lovers – you don’t want a day that’s an absolute mission to navigate, no matter how good it looks! But how does this relate to your quest for unique wedding place settings?
Well, one of the key things for us to consider when styling a wedding is the smaller details that so often get forgotten about. Of course, the bigger picture stuff is important too, but we also take great care over the minutiae to make sure that your loved ones are completely blown away. And one of our favourite ways to do this is by making sure each guest’s place setting is a stunner: an oft-overlooked part of the day, but one of the best bits of the design, in our humble opinion! With this in mind, we thought we’d take you through 5 of our all-time fave unique wedding place settings that we’ve created, to get your imagination running wild:
(p.s. – not only do we offer styling, but you can also order stand-alone stationery like the below from us! Head here to see more…)
Unique wedding place settings with fresh flowers
When we were rebranding to Gloam, we planned a shoot that reflected this exact ethos of making every detail magnificent, no matter whether you have 6 or 206 guests. For this, we took over one of our favourite Scottish wedding venues (and, come to think of it, places in the world), the spiritual Gloam home that is Guardswell Farm, and turned the greenhouse-style structure into a romantic microwedding setup.
As the food was sharing pizzas from our pals Luigi’s, we knew the decor couldn’t be too stuffy or formal, so instead we opted for an elevated aesthetic, with a warm colour palette and lots of soft texture. If we can toot our own horn, one of our absolute favourite details is the unique wedding place settings we designed, with speckled neutral card, flowy script for each name, and a handpicked fresh flower on each one. The stems were small and simple, but they were carefully chosen for their delicacy and hue, and added a sense of organic, down-to-earth beauty to the place setting.
Soft linen place settings tied up with string…
…these are a few of our favourite things. This was all about refined rustic luxury, so we didn’t want to overwhelm the table. Instead, we started with a woven placemat and simple white plate as our base, and then wrapped the white napkin with twine so that it looked like a gift. (Because who doesn’t like opening presents?!) We finished it with a dried bunny tail and a narrow name card tucked under the twine, for a super low maintenance but high impact unique wedding place setting.
(And can we just take a second to appreciate the sunlight cooperating with us on these heavenly photos?)
Photographs – Claire Fleck | Stationery, styling and floristry – Gloam | Venue – Guardswell Farm
Arched wedding place settings
A really simple way to add mega elegance (say that 5 times fast) to your place settings is by playing with shape. For Susan and Fraser’s wedding, we worked on a folded menu with an arched top, to mirror the curvature of the plate stack, and juxtapose with the straight lines of the napkins and the name cards. We then used this shape to tie in with more of the decor, like the order of ceremony timeline, which we displayed with the wooden welcome signs. You can see more of Susan and Fraser’s wedding here!
Photographs – Claire Juliet Paton | Stationery, styling and floristry – Gloam | Venue – Crear
Unique wedding place settings using natural elements
One of the things we wax lyrical about here at Gloam is texture. Focusing on texture is a really easy way to add loads of depth to your table styling, so we went in for this setup at The Cow Shed Crail. The Cow Shed is a stunning venue that showcases the best of rustic charm, so to celebrate this we opted for lots of natural texture on the table. The 3 layer stationery stack featured a calligraphied name card and a printed menu on rough, hand pressed paper with a delightful speckled finish, which we anchored with a dried flower stem and a smooth pebble.
Natural and rustic wedding styling often errs on the side of twee, but when partnered with sleek gold cutlery and black plates, it feels luxurious and elevated. (See the full thing here)
Photographs – Nikki Leadbetter | Stationery, styling and floristry – Gloam | Venue – The Cow Shed, Crail
Traditional venues with modern wedding place settings
If you’ve fallen in love with a fairly traditional wedding venue and you’re wondering how to add some modern elements to your wedding styling, the table is a BRILL place to start. For example, when we worked at the beautiful Drumtochty Castle, we played on the deep jewel tones found in the rich interiors of the venue, and incorporated them with a sleek sans serif font on the name cards to bring the place settings bang up to date. We used this font as the main design element, with a large initial as the focal point for a minimal design with maximum impact. Finished with beautiful textured (there we go again, classic us!) linen and a fern frond, and you’re good. To. Go! (You can see more of that one here.)
Photographs – Emma Lawson | Stationery, styling and floristry – Gloam | Venue – Drumtochty Castle
We hope this roundup of our favourite unique wedding place settings has got you thinking about what you can do with your table styling – and we’d LOVE to chat to you about any plans we might be able to help with. Head here to see more of our services, or here to get in touch!
