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When I first told my mother, who has better taste than anyone, that I wanted to put together a Breakfast at Tiffany’s Wedding Style Guide, she was horrified. “You can’t,” she said. “It’s tacky.” She’s right. Breakfast at Tiffany’s and its iconic backdrop Tiffany & Co. have paid dearly for their popularity among sparkle-seeking brides, with party supply emporiums churning out mountains of Tiffany-inspired baubles and tchotchkies disguised as decor faster than you can say “Elsa Peretti”. The result is often painful to look at: surfaces swathed in florescent blue fabric; super-sized martini glasses overflowing with plastic diamonds and pearls; stacks of “Tiffany” boxes as far as the eye can see, forming every possible structure from cake stand to card deposit.
Holly Golightly may have eaten an artisanal pastry while gazing in the windows of the famed jewelry store, but Breakfast at Tiffany’s weddings have become like Egg McMuffins: mass produced, unoriginal, and ironically devoid of that delectable glamour first invoked in the movie. Enough is enough. It’s time to polish off the dulling Breakfast at Tiffany’s theme and make it shiny again.
The Idea
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If you’re considering a Breakfast at Tiffany’s wedding, it’s safe to say you’re also most likely pursuing the most glamourous wedding of all time. Fantastic. You’re in the right spot, since glamour is a founding principal of Wedding Style File. However, before I begin dishing out the details (which are in no short supply), I want to put Breakfast at Tiffany’s on pause and talk about another film, Midnight in Paris. I know, it’s the complete opposite hour of the day, on the complete opposite side of the ocean, but the premise of Midnight in Paris is worth taking note of. Every night at midnight, on a nondescript street in Paris, a 1928 Peugeot whisks passengers back to the Roaring 20′s to indulge in an evening of mischief and merriment among the city’s revered Lost Generation. They can return to their own decade in the morning.
Your Breakfast at Tiffany’s wedding is not only an opportunity to demonstrate your fondness of little blue boxes, but similarly transport your guests back to Old New York, as if a vintage checkered cab with the same mystic powers picked them up somewhere along Fifth Avenue. Isn’t that why we’re all so nuts about Breakfast at Tiffany’s in the first place? Because we can temporarily escape to the late 1950′s/early 1960′s, the heyday of classic American glamour, little black dresses and martinis. That’s when the movie cemented Tiffany & Co. as a cultural landmark; the same era you’ll be able to evoke if you execute this theme correctly. Not to worry! We’ll be holding your pretty manicured hand all the way.
The Rules
- Take out a pen and a piece of paper. Write down the words “Wedding at Tiffany’s”. Now scrawl your married name and add “& Co.” on the end. Have you done that? Good. Because this is the last time you are going to see either. One of the traps that brides can fall into with this theme is overdoing it. I know that sounds shocking coming from someone whose mantra is “more is more”, but there’s a difference between laying on those delicious little details and just being silly, especially with a theme that will be obvious to guests as soon as they catch a glimpse of your robin egg blue reply cards. You don’t need cardboard cutouts of Holly Golightly’s cat to nudge them along; they’ll get it. You want their jaws to drop, not eyes to roll.
- Use blue boxes with restraint. Capturing the glamour of Tiffany’s and, by extension, Old New York, will not be possible if it looks like your wedding is literally being sponsored by the jewelry store. You want star power, not Star Jones.
- No blue boas! With such a delightful theme as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, it can be tempting to squirrel up as many props as possible. Be careful: a little bit of kitsch can add that element of old-timey fun, but too much, and you’ll evoke your cousin’s bridal shower thrown by her sorority sisters.
Check back tomorrow for Part 2: The Fashion!
[...] Part 1: The Theme [...]