How to Achieve a Luxury San Diego Event Design

Throwing a high-end wedding is hard to do if you’re not among the bourgeoise of LA or New York. But don’t be mistaken. Ivory and Lace Creative Weddings is here to help you learn How to Achieve Luxury San Diego Event Design.

When planning a celebrity inspired wedding, keep in mind how they think. They say that the rich and famous prioritize their spending not on necessity, but on experience and presentation. In order to have an “expensive” feeling event, the soiree must have a certain level of high-class ambiance. We want to submerge your guest in rich textures, flavors, and activities—leaving them wowed and well entertained. Here are some steps to help you achieve a lavish looking event.

Flexing the Luxury Budget on Event Design

Celebrity level events generally require a celebrity level price tag. But don’t be scared of that dreaded number at the bottom of the invoice—embrace it. Creative minds who are successful in their field COST MONEY. It’s the American philosophy of consumerism. The better quality it is, the higher it costs. But having a bloated budget doesn’t automatically equate to a luxurious wedding.

This is where a trained wedding planner can help you get creative. Planners, like those here at Ivory & Lace Creative Weddings, are skilled at looking over your options and ingeniously flexing the power of that budget to give you the best bang for your buck. It’s very common for a couple to have no idea about how to find the best vendors and resources when beginning the planning process.

I like to joke that we as wedding planners are the Sherpas that take couples up the mountain that is their wedding.

Utilizing a wedding planner can help in the long run—by saving you money where it counts! They are skilled at knowing how event production works, the logistics and functionality of it all. Here is where they will exercise their knowledge, get you discounted rates, eliminate wasteful spending or redundancy, and educate you on why things cost what they cost. Helpful tip: convenience costs double. 

Finding the Perfect High-End San Diego Wedding Venue

In order to achieve a luxury San Diego wedding design, you must find a luxury venue. The tried and true way of finding a nice venue is by researching it online, experiencing it in person, and talking with the staff. High-end venues have expertly trained employees experienced in how to treat each guest like royalty. The level of promptness, care, and attention to detail is key when sousing out the level of service quality of a venue or vendor. Another advantage of using a luxury venue is their common connections to other luxury vendors. Like attracts like. So, if you’re trying to keep on the glamourous gig train, look into the preferred vendors list of the higher end venues. 

Not finding a ritzy ballroom venue you like? Tired of castles and resorts? Don’t be afraid to take an empty or different space and put your stamp on it. There’s nothing a wedding planner loves more than a good design challenge. When I talk to venue coordinators and salesmen, I always ask them “what are you bored of seeing in your space?” We are creative professionals who get so jazzed about unique couples with the budget to explore new possibilities, design wise. 

Determining Your Glamorous San Diego Wedding Event Style

Once you and your High-End San Diego planner have found the right luxury San Diego venue, it’s time to decipher your perfect style. What kind of luxury do you want to invoke? Take inspiration from favorite fashion designers, favorite perfumes, common fabric textures in your home. You are usually surrounded by clues of what your taste is by the everyday items in your house.

Granted, these items may need to be elevated to its full potential in order to make a cohesive glamourous event design. Sometimes all you need is one item to really create the trajectory of the entire event design. Take for example the wedding dress. I often find brides mimicking the tone and feel of the dress throughout their event—romantic lace and pearls may spark a fairytale vibe for your design or incorporating pearls in some other way may be a nice touch to tie certain elements together. 

Luxury San Diego Event Design is All About the Details!

When planning an extravagant affair, no detail is too small. The more thought and planning put into the design, the better the outcome.

Now we’re not saying you need to fret and overthink EVERY ASPECT of your wedding. But dedicating conscious thought and purpose into elements such as stationary, favors, and provisions is a great way to boost the extravagant feeling of the event.

When you anticipate the need of your guests, before your guests even think of the problem themselves, you are already halfway there!

I once had a wedding where the bride and groom were set to be married in Colorado on a December morning in the middle of a snowstorm. Luckily, the snow fall ceased long enough for the ceremony to take place—setting the scene for the perfect winter wonderland wedding. But because we knew what we were getting in to before we reached the actual event, we were prepared with hot toddies, mulled cider, individualized blankets, and handwarmers for all the guests. These details greatly increased the experience of a potentially cold and miserable ceremony. 

Don’t Forget! Make Memories Through Experiences, Not Pomp

Another way to captivate your guests and really wow them is to utilize the power of experiences over tradition. Just because something has worked well a certain way for millennia, doesn’t mean it’s interesting.

When planning a wedding, couples are generally educated in the basics and expect to book a band or a DJ for their event’s entertainment. But did you know that you could book alternative or supplemental artists to enhance the experience of the night? Acrobats, fire dancers, celebrity guests, you name it!

One of the most successful elements I’ve ever helped incorporate into a wedding was the implementation of Polynesian dancers. My bride informed me ahead of time that her soon to be in-laws et al were not big dancers and was concerned that no dj could coax them out of their awkward rigidity. So, I advised they bring the focus away from participating in the dancing, but rather watching professional dancing. Since the bride was part Polynesian herself, she thought this was an excellent idea and loved the tie into her own heritage. 

Photo by Kortnee Kate;

The Hostess with the Mostess!

Encouraging guests to interact with each other or their surroundings is a surefire way to help create a unique and lasting memory for each person. Being a good hostess means catering to the needs of everyone, keeping the flow of the event, and reading and directing the energy in the room. A talented hostess can shift an awkward, silent, or tense vibe into a lively, pleasing event with ease. Be charming, and helpful to each of the guests, as well as the staff. The bride and groom shouldn’t have to play host on their wedding. This is the job of the coordinator or planner. It is our goal at Ivory & Lace Creative Weddings that our couples feel taken care of and enjoy the event as if they were guests at their own wedding. Leave the heavy lifting to the professionals!

Looking for more advice about wedding planning? Check out our blog on the best questions to ask a wedding planner here!