HGTV Design Star: Wedding Reception Challenge

This week the designers had two days to design a real life wedding reception!

First, we need to get something out of the way:

Cathy’s wedding was featured in three national magazines.

If you didn’t catch that the first time, she repeated it four more times in the episode. I counted.

I held my breath when the bride said she likes Victorian and the groom likes crooner, Rat Pack-esque style. Add to that the bride’s favorite and unVictorian color scheme of hot pink and orange and I worried if anyone could pull it off.

Surprisingly they did, especially in the groom’s lounge. I initially had to agree with Karl that using all worn leather “Man” furniture would clash with the dainty Victorian style. I was glad to see the comprise of all white leather Victorian furniture in the bar seating area. It was the perfect marriage of the both the couple’s design styles – bravo!

 Wheel this right on over to my house when you are finished with it. Photo courtesy of HGTV

Curtaining off the groom’s lounge allowed Kevin to diverge from the Victorian and give the room a mod mid-century look. Sassy brought it this week.

What Worked

Mark’s lighting. Lighting is the most important element in every room and is often the most overlooked and forgotten. Mark’s lighting plot set the romantic tone throughout the room. Mark used lighting to direct the visitor’s eye toward the most important focal points in the room the couple, the cake, the dance floor. Did you notice how he changed the lighting to give the groom’s lounge a different feel from the main ballroom? Mark’s Chandler is To. Die. For. He deserves the win this week.

Romantic with a pop of color! Photo courtesy of HGTV

Kellie and Meg’s swag treatment. Next to the lighting, I think the dance floor swag was the most romantic thing in the room. It defined the dance floor in what was a big white box. I don’t get where the judges were at by saying Kellie wasn’t “there” this week. Karl – defensive much? True hanging the swags couldn’t have been easy, but really, you don’t need to jump on your teammates that you “solved all the problems” when they mentioned that you hung the swags? That attitude is going to come back to haunt you at the judge’s table.

Kevin’s mod furniture. Sassy took a risk and went with mid century “Man” furniture in the groom’s lounge. It worked because curtains defined the space from the Victorianarama in the main reception area. A light hand with the accessories this week put Sassy in the top two.

 I'm not sure for the need of a groom's lounge at a wedding reception but it works. Photo courtesy of HGTV

Mark’s skateboard treatment. Clever and architectural. I’m sure the groom appreciated something that represented him at his wedding reception. All too often, people think of the groom as the bride’s accessory and tailor everything in a wedding to the bride.

What Didn’t Work

The sign in table. I agree the tablecloth had to go. Vern seemed very annoyed with the signing table not having enough purposeful accessories like the floor lantern (liked that by the way.) You can’t have a ton of accessories on a sign in table and still have room for a crowd of people to sign in. I’m scratching my head as to what other purposeful accessories should have been on the table – a ballpoint pen with a giant feather sticking out of it?

Karl’s flowers. I knew Karl was in trouble when he said he didn’t know what he was doing when arranging flowers and “just stuck flowers in vases.”

Yikes! Photo courtesy of HGTV

Cathy’s table settings. For someone who feels she must mention FIVE TIMES her wedding was in three national magazines, I do not see how with the tables Bossypants designed tonight. I appreciate the Louis Ghost chairs. While my green side says, “hmm plastic chair” design wise it is another marriage of her Victorian, his modern style, and a good choice here. Overall, it was safe and nothing special. It could have been dramatic on the level of the swags but was not.

Hopefully the happiness of the couple perked this sad little corner up. Snore! Photo courtesy of HGTV

The blandness of Sweetheart’s table could send the couple to divorce court. There are several big huge focal points at a wedding reception like the cake and the wedding couple. I felt for Meg when she tried more than once to get Cathy to talk to her about flowers for the Sweetheart’s table and Bossypants blew her off. A slight tip of the hat to Meg for putting something on the table for the bride. It was also a nice strategy to show that Cathy dropped the ball, can’t play with others, and tries to shift the blame when she’s caught not doing what she should. Cathy’s camera challenge couldn’t save her this week. Bossypants is  gone.

Next week the designers HGTV a lucky, lucky homeowner!

What did you think of this week’s episode? Any favorites? How do you feel about who won and lost?

Did you enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Condo Blues RSS Feed  or to Condo Blues by Email.