It’s a timeless source of inspiration: Nature’s beauty and bounty, in every season, has inspired our creativity for centuries. So it was only natural that two of the Susquehanna Valley’s prominent wedding planners recently focused on winter, spring, summer, and fall to develop seasonal wedding vignettes. Rachele Sohn of the Hilton Harrisburg and Susan Moran of That’s It! Wedding Concepts, Mechanicsburg, assembled a team of wedding vendors (everyone they approached said yes!) to brainstorm and contribute their talents to four fully-developed seasonal themes.
Their inspiration? Four impressionist paintings, representing each season, supplied color and design direction. Similarly, Sohn and Moran encourage brides-to-be to think outside the box and focus on unique, fun themes reflecting their personalities when wedding planning. They hope the vignettes spark ideas and creativity among couples and families planning 2018 weddings and beyond.
“We didn’t want to do straightforward, cliché vignettes representing the seasons,” Moran explains. “We encourage our clients to brand their wedding and make it their own—to branch off and do things that are unique. We have a body of vendors that are second to none—excellent, talented, caring, and visionary people.”
Sohn says her venue—the Hilton Harrrisburg’s recently renovated ballroom—provided “a blank canvas” for each photo shoot. “All four of the vignettes were put together in the same corner of the ballroom. Rather than letting a venue dictate the theme, [a bride and groom] can take a blank canvas like the ballroom and make it their own.”
Think hotel ballrooms are boring? Think again. Hotels can produce a wedding—with all the amenities, including guest rooms—oftentimes at a much lesser cost than hauling everything into a barn, for example.
So put Vivaldi’s "Four Seasons" on, be inspired, and enjoy the following interpretations of winter, spring, summer, and fall weddings.
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Winter: Magical
- Key Colors: Multi-tones of white and silver; crystal
- All the Feels: Magical, ethereal, sparkling
- Theme Details: Crystals, tree branches, touches of Dusty Miller
The most literal vignette of all four seasons, winter’s palette builds on nature’s wintry scenes. “Instead of going with a traditional Christmas wedding, we did an interpretation of winter,” says Sohn. The theme comes to life with silver linens featuring patterned tree branches, with additional branches stretching across the cake. Tall, ornate centerpieces and flowers are “unstructured and free-flowing, as if you went out and gathered them outside,” says Moran.
Silvery tones carried throughout the room thanks to Event Central’s chairs. “Something as simple as a chair doesn’t always get attention, but they are a main staple that can enhance the look of a wedding—in this case, the silver Chiavari chairs,” Sohn says.
Touches of crystal and glass hint at winter’s icy sparkle—with the ease of an indoor venue. “There is a natural sparkle to snow,” says Sohn. “That’s picked up in the lighting and the crystal garland. There’s nothing prettier than a fresh winter snow.”
Venue: The Hilton Harrisburg Catering Manager & Wedding Specialist: Rachele Sohn, The Hilton Harrisburg Event Planner: Susan Moran, That’s It! Wedding Concepts Photographer: Jeff Benzon/New Chapter Photography Linen: Special Occasions & Queen Street Linens Farm Tables/Chair/Flatware: Event Central Florist: The Garden Path Cake: House of Clarendon Stationery: Persnickety Lighting: Klock Entertainment Tables/Glassware/Flatware: The Hilton Harrisburg
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Spring: Modern Boho
- Key Colors: Green, ivory
- All the Feels: Lush, modern, boho, eclectic, earthy
- Theme Details: Ferns, palms, aloe, mixed metals, crochet
Bringing the outside in, Sohn and Moran created a lush garden landscape inside the Hilton Harrisburg. “People don’t often think of doing a garden-esque theme, indoors…but it created a modern, boho, eclectic vibe,” says Sohn.
Every single table was covered with various shades of green and ivory linen by Lancaster’s Special Occasions & Queen Street Linens for a monochromatic, color palette. “As a whole, it worked collectively. Design-wise, it creates depth and interest,” Moran adds. Sheer white drapes contributed to the light, spring-time ambiance.
Everything old is new again: The earthy design elements are sparked by 1970s fashion trends popular once again—crochet, boho, and nomadic themes.
Early in the design process, Sohn, Moran and all of their collaborators decided not to feature brides and grooms, or any people for that matter, in the vignettes. By providing the same wedding design elements across all four of the seasons’ vignettes, they decided it would be easier for brides and grooms to imagine themselves within those vignettes, identifying with a season’s look or feel, or deciding to incorporate specific details into their own wedding planning.
Specific culinary elements are woven into each vignette; for spring, the planners envisioned a dessert buffet—a classy yet informal touch. Moran says it’s symbolic of spring’s overall theme—“relaxed, earthy elegance.”
Venue: The Hilton Harrisburg Catering Manager & Wedding Specialist: Rachele Sohn, The Hilton Harrisburg Event Planner: Susan Moran, That’s It! Wedding Concepts Photographer: Jeff Benzon/New Chapter Photography Linen: Special Occasions & Queen Street Linens Chairs/Flatware: Event Central Florist: Petals with StyleCake: The Couture Cakery Stationery: Persnickety Lighting/Drapery: Klock Entertainment Tables/Glassware: The Hilton Harrisburg
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Summer: Jewel Tones
- Key Colors: Fiery oranges, majestic purples, gold
- All the Feels: Elegant, exotic, vibrant, warm
- Theme Details: Textured linens, seashells, succulents
It’s impossible to talk about summer’s vignette without using the word “pop.” First, there are the “pops of colors” in summer’s rich, jewel-toned color palette, including the fuchsia lighting scheme. “When it comes to floral choices, there are unexpected, bright pops of colors and textures, mixing in succulents and seashells—all together, it works,” says Sohn.
Instead of using traditional round tables, the planners created a table layout with a twist: a Z-shaped, zig-zagging table design to allow for greater seating capacity. Atop the tables, the settings provided additional “pop.”
“Rather than using flat linens, we used linens that are ornate with patterns. The textured, feathery linen on top gives it an extra pop,” Sohn describes. “Using gorgeous color, Martine from House of Clarendon mimicked the texture of the linens in the cakes as well,” she continues.
Persickety’s summer paper products include a variety of different stationery colors, rather than utilizing one uniform color. “In the design of a wedding, we always mention linen, but the paper suite is also an important detail. It can be subtle or an extremely pivotal extension of the theme of the wedding invitation,” says Moran.
Moran summarizes the summer vignette: “What’s fun about this one is having the unexpected touches.”
Venue: The Hilton Harrisburg Catering Manager & Wedding Specialist: Rachele Sohn, The Hilton Harrisburg Event Planner: Susan Moran, That’s It! Wedding Concepts Photographer: Jeff Benzon/New Chapter Photography Linen: Special Occasions & Queen Street Linens Chairs/Flatware/Accent China: Event Central Florist: The Garden Path Cake: House of Clarendon Stationery: Persnickety Lighting: Klock Entertainment Tables/Glassware/Flatware: The Hilton Harrisburg
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Fall: Amber Glow
- Key Colors: Black and white; accents of amber gold
- All the Feels: Warm hospitality, earthy elegance
- Theme Details: Harvest fruit, farm tables, tall black candlesticks
June brides, step aside—October is the new June for weddings. Fall is now the most popular season for weddings in Central Pennsylvania, “Because it’s a magical time,” Sohn and Moran agree.
Attempting to capture the magic of fall foliage, bountiful harvests, and rustic elegance, Sohn and Moran built their fall vignette around farm tables. “No one thinks about putting farm tables in a ballroom,” says Sohn with a laugh, “But we wanted to make it feel as though you’re walking into a barn. Klock Entertainment did a great job with the lighting, using café-style string lighting, and creating an amber glow.”
While the lighting mimicked candlelight, actual tall black and white candlesticks on the tabletops reinforced the warm ambiance. Petals with Style featured fall’s rich tones in the florals, enhanced by touches of fall’s bounty—fresh black grapes, figs, pomegranates, and apples.
“When you think of fall, a lot of people think ‘orange,’ and we didn’t want to do that,” says Sohn. “The black and white linens have just a touch of orange threading. Jasmine at The Couture Cakery picked up on the theme—each level of her cake was black and white, with hints of amber and gold.”
In this vignette, the paper suite went a more organic route by using pieces of slate with chalk paint.
“We tried to hint at the cuisine that could match each vignette,” Moran explains. “The ambiance of this shoot led to a farm-to-table feel, so we included cheeseboards, as if the bounty of the harvest was being used on a farm.”
Summarizing fall’s look, combining the elegance of a ballroom with agricultural earthiness, Moran calls it “Rustic luxe.”
Venue: The Hilton Harrisburg Catering Manager & Wedding Specialist: Rachele Sohn, The Hilton Harrisburg Event Planner: Susan Moran, That’s It! Wedding Concepts Photographer: Jeff Benzon/New Chapter Photography Linen: Special Occasions & Queen Street Linens Farm Tables/Chairs/Flatware/Accent China: Event Central Florist: Petals with Style Cake: The Couture Cakery Stationery: Persnickety Lighting: Klock Entertainment Round Tables/Glassware/Flatware: The Hilton Harrisburg
