A Mid Century Mod Editorial in Palm Springs, California

February 21, 2021

Retro colors, mid-century modern decor, peace and love, all proverbial associations with the 1970s. The inspiration behind this 70s style wedding ultimately began at the heart of our love for mid-century modern design. We saw a photo of this beautiful, chic-bride who had flowers pinned down her long hair, bursts of pinks, orange, and blue, and our vision of this editorial came to life. We needed to incorporate the cornerstones of this decade, including trendy bright colors, simple lines, emblematic wallpaper, and, of course, mid-century modern architecture. We knew the perfect setting for this wedding would need to include a variety of elements, such as an outside setting that would correspond with the oceanic pink color palette we had in mind. Palm Springs was the
perfect place for this particular editorial because of it’s noteworthy retro and vintage themes.

Palm Springs is also infamous for it’s mid century architecture. Many of the homes in this area embrace it’s dramatic geography, the epicenter of mid-century modern design, making Palm Springs the perfect location with its mountainous landscape. We decided to use a private home in Palm Springs that comprised these elements: mountains, the desert, pools, and palm trees. The home’s design consisted of clean, straight-lines, making it easy for us to utilize our specific visions for the ceremony and reception areas. The most inspirational component of the mid-century modern movement, and Palm Springs, is the use of indoor and outdoor spaces, capturing a lifestyle of, both, sophistication and informality. As life began to transform post-world war, Palm Springs architecture made a shift towards more adaptable living spaces, given the extreme desert environment, and innovative use of materials. The architecture of this era was truly unique, as it used unconventional materials, for that time period, such as glass, wood, vinyl, and nylon. To put it eloquently, we loved the idea of this movement and our chosen setting because it’s totally illustrious of vintage meets modern.

After deciding the perfect setting for the wedding, we chose the most iconic and arguably most notable couple of this era, Elvis and Priscilla Presley. The Presley’s wedding was at the heart of the Mid-Century Modern movement and we wanted to make a tribute to them as a couple, as well as to the style of their wedding attire and elegance. Every detail of their wedding was considered, from the sheer size of the wedding to hairstyles. Elvis and Priscilla Presley even later honeymooned in Palm Springs, making the setting an even bigger tribute to their wedding and matrimony. The couple had a micro-wedding in Las Vegas, NV in 1967, where few close friends and family were invited. Like our wedding, we were inspired by their small-intimate styled wedding, which assisted in our decision making to have the wedding at a private home.

In making a tribute to this iconic couple, we would also need to have our bride and groom resemble Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding looks. Priscilla wore a self-designed silk chiffon wedding gown, which we used as a model for our bride’s gown. Instead of a silk chiffon dress, our bride wore a lace chiffon, form-fitting dress, elegant yet simple, just as Pricilla’s dress. Our bride’s makeup and hair was an exact replica of Priscilla’s look, pronounced cat-eyeliner, nude tones for her eyeshadow, and Priscilla’s signature glam bump and hollywood waves. We added our own twist to our bride’s hairstyle by adding flowers to her long waves, giving her a little pop of color. Our floral design creative director incorporated a juliette rose, blue delphiniums and butterfly ranunculus flowers in our bride’s hairdo. Each flower bursting with vibrant blues, orange and yellows, exemplifying her beauty even more. For our groom’s attire, we used elements of Elvis’ abstract, modern, tux. However, instead of a black, emblematic tux as Elvis wore, we decided on a pink velvet suit that would aesthetically match the color palette. Our groom’s hairstyle would also replicate Elvis’ legendary pompadour hairstyle, with slicked over hair accenting his right side. Combining Elvis and Priscilla’s style and design elements created the perfect bride and groom looks for our wedding vision.

After creating the perfect look for our bride and groom, we directed our efforts to the color palette for the wedding. The colors would be the most important aspect of the wedding, because the colors set the tone for the wedding ceremony, reception, and photos. Our setting, Palm Springs, would set the base for our color scheme, but the flowers would be the icing on the cake. We chose bright and vibrant colors for the flowers to stay on the retro, innovative theme of the 1970s. The 70s are most conspicuous for trendy colors, consisting of bright greens, turquoise, sunshine yellows, oranges, and pinks. The pool gave us the desired turquoise blue, and we subtly used blue delphiniums in our bride’s hair, bouquet, and table arrangements. Being surrounded by palm trees, hedges, and the flower’s greenery aided our efforts to include trendy greens in our retro color ambiance. The bride’s bouquet brought all of our retro mid-century modern dreams true with its vivacious pink hues, specifically the captivating pink peonies, and pink velvet and blue tulle ribbon. Perhaps our favorite aspect of the flower arrangements and bridal bouquet were the statement coral charm peonies and juliette roses. The use of these bright pinks not only brought the wedding photos to life, but yielded the overall romantic vibrance we aimed to achieve in this wedding.

We felt all the retro love in the set-up of the wedding ceremony area. The backdrop’s wallpaper for the ceremony was an emblematic statement and ode to our 70s vibe. Wallpaper was a staple of the 1970s and we couldn’t have a 70s inspired wedding without the incorporation of wallpaper. We decided to use a sunshine yellow and ivory patterned wallpaper to liven up the ceremony. This wallpaper was the perfect highlight for our couple, halting all the attention towards the bride and groom. The dark green color of the hedge behind the altar wallpaper accented bride and groom, making the yellow wallpaper draw even more focus towards the couple. Both the floral arrangements and the bouquet included a variety of flowers, specifically consisting of intrigue dahlias, juliette roses, butterfly ranunculus’, blue delphiniums, yellow yarrow, anthuriums, coral charm peonies, and hints of smoke bush. The floral arrangements that lined that altar truly accentuated the couple.

Moving to the reception table area, we used all the electrifying colors to compliment the oceanic pink palette. To illustrate even more vibrance we incorporated various fruits, including papayas, oranges, and grapefruits, that turned out to be delightful accessories in the table’s centerpiece. The centerpiece materials lay on a darker pink table runner with an emblematic design, creating depth for the flowers, fruits and glassware. Our tableware included translucent-glass plates, rose gold flatware, yellow-mustard tablecloth, and baby blue napkins, staying on theme with our mid-century modern design vision. Bringing the whole table together were the pink velvet chairs. These chairs scream 70s retro-vintage with their velvet and simplistic design, making them the perfect staple for the reception table.

The final element of our 70s inspired wedding were the invitations, the rings, and the wedding cake! Both, the invitations and the rings, are one-of-a-kind. The invitations were hand-painted and specifically designed for this wedding. We decided on pink, orange, and yellow as the color scheme for the wedding stationary, as these were the predominant colors of the 70s. The stationary sets the precedent for our wedding style and a preview into our overall vision. When photographing these pieces of the wedding, we decided to incorporate all the textures and design elements we used in the actual wedding, such as the fruits, the velvet ribbon on the bridal bouquet, and each of the flowers used in the arrangements. When combining all of these elements together, we get all the juicy energy of the 1970s and the most mid-century modern-chic wedding ever imagined. Lastly, the wedding cake was a two-tier, clean-cut white cake, with hints of bright pink, blue, and orange four-pointed stars. We accentuated the cake with the same neon pink peonies used in the bride’s bouquet to make the cake simply come to life.

Working on this wedding editorial was so much fun, as we all experimented with a variety of aspects that were part of an extraordinary era. Using mid-century modern design as the basis for the wedding made utilizing vibrant colors in the floral design elements and stylistic details a dream come true. Our bride and groom had the most timeless and vintage Palm Springs 70s-themed wedding, embodying the exact image of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. By the end of the wedding production, we knew it would be a happily ever after for sure.