Behind The Scenes: A Modern Wedding with Isari Flower Studio

When you have been in the wedding industry for as long as Tam Ashworth has been, you have almost seen and done it all. You’ve seen trends come and go, you’ve pushed the envelope (sometimes a little too hard) and you’ve played it safe sometimes. But regardless of how many times you have been around the block, one thing is always the same: the amount of effort that you put in behind the scenes.

Tam opened Isari Flower Studio + Event Design in 1991 and has worked tirelessly to build her studio, team, and relationships with some of the industry’s best. She shies away from nothing and is always looking for an opportunity to do something modern, colorful, and unexpected. So when Ayisha and Matt hired Jenny Minns of Luxe Special Events and started conceptualizing their modern wedding, Jenny knew exactly where to take them.

The couple wanted nothing to do with “ordinary” wedding design. They wanted to create a modern, clean, and contemporary feel but make it exciting with a subtle funky vibe. Challenge accepted! Tam turned to her vast inventory of unique vessels and, guided by the couples inspiration (the San Diego Skyline), got to work.

The Mock Up

To design such a clean and unique look, Jenny spent lots of time with the bride sketching out ideas for show-stopping ceremony backdrops. The initial concept included a flower display that, in the end, competed too much with such a clean aesthetic. The next design iteration was a more literal interpretation of the wedding invitation and involved laser cutting large dots into the paper strips. And because the third time is the charm, Jenny's final design achieved the look of a clean skyline but using long black paper strips accented with gold foil.

To show Ayisha and Matt how their tables could feel modern but still cohesive with Jenny's overall event design, Tam did a couple of things. First, she worked within the black and white color palette but didn’t force it (she used burgundy in place of black in the flowers themselves and pulled in the black with vessels and votives). She created the arrangements with structured but clean flowers like protea, scabiosa, and dahlias that added both funky and feminine textures. Tam also pulled votives and hurricanes of varying sizes to represent the skyline. Pops of geometric terrariums added contemporary lines and incorporating mercury vases and lots of candlelight softened the designs.

The team at Isari loves to play with texture. It is a challenge to take a concept that is really editorial and translate into something that is wedding appropriate. “You have to know when to edit yourself and that can be a challenge when you are really excited about a funky design,” says Tam.

The Set Up

And because we all know there is always a real chance that you will get asked to do something a little crazy, when Tam was asked to install the ceremony backdrop, she recruited a couple extra hands and packed a ladder. To install the backdrop, Tam and her team first laid out all of the pieces they had received from designer Courtney of Brightly Designed. “We had to be sure to order them correctly otherwise the skyline would have been lost.” The team then secured the paper pieces to a rod, fully constructing the backdrop before hoisting it up a 20 foot ladder.

The Finished Product

The result was a clean look that had bold personality and it perfectly set the stage for this modern couple to start their lives together.