3 Inspiring Wedding Themes

Have a Ball

Strike up the band, pop the champagne and fling open the doors to hotel ballrooms, urban loft spaces and museum galleries. Ballroom-style weddings tend to be grand and traditional, with an aura of old-fashioned formality. We asked Dale Flam and Cheryl Beitler of the Zanadu Group in Fort Lauderdale for all of Cinderella's secrets.

Décor

Are you a Great Gatsby girl? If you're all about the Jazz Age, go for glitzy color schemes of silver with ivory or navy (and drive up to your venue in a vintage Rolls!). If you take your cues from the elegant Victorian era, choose light pastels or a winter color scheme of rich plums, burgundies and gold, paired with burnished gold and rich brocades.

If your style is more minimalist, go for a chic, deceptively simple color scheme. Start the evening with all white, and as the hours pass, project dramatic colored lights—siren red, sultry amber—onto white fabric on walls, tables and floors. Black-and-white is another hot take on the minimalist look—and all the more au courant when presented in a bold graphic pattern.

Walking into a ballroom should be a take-your-breath-away moment. Flam says, "We've built flower archways and little bridges that guests cross into the reception area." And what's a ball without a fabulous dance floor? Shine a pattern of lights on an all-white floor, projecting your monogram or a frilly pattern of curlicues and swirls. For guests' comfort, create a lounge area with low tables and ottomans near the dancing.

 

The tables take center stage at a ballroom wedding, so make yours sensational with gorgeous linens in subtle brocades or fabrics with overlays that have beading, ribbons or pearls. "These add glamour and shimmer to the room," Flam says. She also advises brides to add unexpected shining details to the table: for instance, charger plates in gold or gleaming silver.

Flowers

Formal escort cards with black calligraphy look especially elegant when perched on a bed of baby's breath. "It creates a cloud effect, and the cards look as though they're floating!" says Flam. Topiaries—arrangements with tall vases crowned with flowers in a ball shape—are her centerpiece of choice for a ballroom wedding. Make them modern by dripping garlands of orchids down to the table or winding greens around the vase.

Menu

Formal does not have to mean stuffy. Ask your waiters to greet guests with individual bottles of champagne and sipping straws, presented with a flourish on gleaming silver platters. A full raw bar is a classic at this kind of wedding, especially when oysters on the half shell, shrimp, crab and lobster are displayed on a table of carved ice. If this is too traditional for you, bring in a long bamboo boat and set up a sushi station.

If you want true elegance, consider adding extra courses to your menu. Have a salad followed by an appetizer and then an entrée followed by a cheese course, with a little something sweet to finish. The classic cake to crown a ballroom? A white tower emblazoned with your new monogram. And if you want to go all out, have a Viennese dessert table, complete with lavish chocolate fountains, lady fingers and petit-fours. But don't forget the old favorites. "Sometimes you just want ice cream," says Flam, who's arranged sundae bars for even her most sophisticated ballroom weddings.

Tips from the Pros

• Do you have a huge ballroom and not enough guests to fill it? Cordon off unused sections of the room with fabric "walls."
• To fix an ugly wall or hide a not-so-stylish room, turn the lights down low and pin-spot centerpieces, or arrange to project patterns and colors against problem areas.
• If a big-time lighting display will bust your budget, illuminate your space with banks of glowing candles. Draped fabric and vine-covered trellises are also good quick fixes.
• For a touch of old-world panache, have the catering staff offer personal white-glove table service.
• Worried your reception is going to look cookie-cutter? Vary your table shapes, centerpieces and linens from table to table (always staying with complementary colors, patterns and styles). —Cheryl Beitler & Dale Flam