Hi all, today I’m doing an extra silly post, because we are talking about the hypothetical union between Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce. I hope all my subscribers enjoy this post, but please let me know if you have some other fun ideas I could try out!
How I got here: I think a wedding is a really interesting exercise in branding (I’ll explain below). I really enjoy designing weddings and it makes it much more fun to brand a wedding when the bride’s personality has been shared in great depth over the past 15 years or so.
All images will be linked on my new Pinterest! Going to do this starting with this post.
WEDDING DESIGN
I’ve done branding and designing for a few weddings, but not many. In all my years of working, I think weddings are the hardest design to nail down. The real challenge of this kind of design is creating a very intimate and personal brand identity for two very different people. It’s also VERY hard to create something unique, which is almost always what brides want. One has to remind them, being unique isn’t totally necessary when it comes to weddings. Weddings are tradition after all, and tradition can be the most beautiful aspect of all!
I’m basing this wedding identity on what I know about Taylor Swift. She is like an English teacher trapped in a pop star’s body. She loves history and the Kennedys and the Gilded Age. She loves cats, bangs, poetry, treasure hunts. I think she would really enjoy an Escape Room. I promise this will all be relevant soon.
THE MOOD BOARD
To me, Taylor Swift’s wedding would be very unique. It would be classic, but with a Victorian/Gilded Age spin. A wedding steeped in tradition and personality. She would pay millions to make every element look as old and antique as possible, as if the guests were walking into a painting. Taylor & Travis are like the Vanderbilts; they were new money and flashy at the time, but we will look back on them as a classic American dynasty. This wedding should emulate that. It will be about glamour, history, tradition, and the appreciation of the past. It will be about overabundance and excess, but in a way that is so beautiful, people won’t tweet mean things about it.
THE VENUE
First things first, let’s start with the venue! Taylor Swift has a house in Watch Hill, RI, once owned by the heirs to the Standard Oil fortune. Watch Hill was a gathering ground for the New York elite during the summer social season. While Watch Hill has been described by the New York Times as an “old-money summer colony”, I think with the influence of Travis Kelce, they will head 30 mins away to the gilded-age-style Newport. In Newport, they will combine the old money feel with a little bit of flash. There are so many Newport mansions, and they can host a beautiful wedding.
THE INVITATIONS
This is where I shine! Here is what the experience would be: You receive an antique book in the mail with a Taylor & Travis monogram on the front. I prefer a traditional monogram in this wedding, embossed and with gold foil. When you open the book, there is a note written in the text in some sort of pastel. When you think of Taylor Swift, you think of journals, handwriting, beautiful scribble. You think of poetry and history and antiques. See below some old books that I put monograms on!
Once the book is fully open, I think the whole invitation suite would fall out. For the schedule card, I love these antique valentines and how they use little illustrations as clues to words. Perfect for Taylor Swift, who loves to put easter eggs in all of her albums. Everything should look very victorian-esque, but also with very hands-on touches. For the invitation itself, how about ongoing handwriting from edge to edge. Within the handwriting, I would do a blind-emboss of their names and the wedding announcement. For the envelopes, I love the idea of an illustration (with the stamp as the head) on the envelopes to play with the vintage stamps. Maybe the illustrations on each envelope could correspond to the guest receiving! Here is who I think could help : Bernard Maisner, and Imprimerie Du Marais.
FLOWERS
For the flowers, I want them to look straight out of these Dutch still life oil paintings. I want grapes draped from the vases, and I want some of the flowers to be half-dead! I don’t want it to look perfect, but rather like the flowers have been there for hundreds of years. Perhaps a stray apple or a few leaves, to make the floral arrangements feel like they’ve jumped out of the paintings. Like the paintings, some of the flowers would be wilting and falling out of the bouquets. There would be oyster shells, grapes, snails, open pomegranates, leaves, and anything that emulates these beautiful but decaying paintings. Some florists I think could accomplish this: Lucy Vail, Hart Floral, and Yasmine Mei.
DRESSES
For her dress, I want it to be very classic. She is most definitely a ballerina-skirt kind of girl, but I think we could put a spin on it. Taylor Swift’s fashion is the most unpredictable part about her, so this is hard! I love this July 1999 Balmain feather gown. I think it’s delicate and ladylike, but simple and traditional. The silhouette seemed very Taylor Swift!
For other events, I love blue for a rehearsal dinner (I don’t like white for anything but the dress, I wore pale pink to my rehearsal dinner). I think the blue Georges Hobeika corseted dress has a Victorian feel, but is very modern. The YSL in the top left is so delicate and simple, and I think Taylor Swift needs to have some sequins in her wedding attire. Same as the swans in the bottom right, I felt like swans were very appropriate for the wedding theme, and they are emblematic of royalty (American Royalty)! Lastly, the bottom left is a Christian Lacroix from 2005, I loved how delicate and feminine it was, but the layering in the skirt and the ribbons felt very Victorian.
ACCESSORIES
I like Taylor considering a tiny nod to some of her “eras” in the accessories. We have snake heels for Reputation, shells & oyster accessories for 1989, A victorian-esque choker pearl necklace for Tortured poets. And, all of which fit into this Newport/gilded age theme. Let’s have Daniel Roseberry make her some beautiful snake shoes with pearls, oysters, and sterling silver earrings to match :)
DISPLAYS & TABLES
I am a big believer in neutral everything at a wedding to let the flowers really shine. And, if we are going with this sort of treasure hunt element, I really love the introduction of Lover’s Eye motifs everywhere. Maybe it’s the bride and grooms eyes painted? Kind of like they are always watching…But also, a romantic nod to each other.
For the centerpieces, there is a sculptor by the name of Ann Carrington. She has amazing bouquets made of metal and ships made of pearls. I wish I had better language to describe what she does, you will just have to look for yourself.
I think the tables would be very classic, with a cream tablecloths (what if they were silk!) and sterling silver everything. I always love an embroidered napkin, and because this wedding has no budget, why don’t we engrave some silver wine goblets as well?
The people that can help : Centa Project, Laila Gohar, Andrea Sham. If anyone can have a food stylist at their wedding, it’s Taylor Swift.
For an amazing cake, the talented Aimee France!
i love this concept. i think it needs more of travis’s influence, im not getting much of him in this but im also totally joking. i dont really know anything about him so it would be hard to pin down his aesthetic as anything other than football LOL
This was a complete delight!! It feels completely spot on, too.