THIS HOTEL IS BRINGING LEOPARD PRINT BACK IN A BIG WAY & YOU CAN NOW GET MARRIED THERE!

Photographers Amanda and Lidia had seen Lon Michels’s work at Saint Kate Arts Hotel during their grand opening in June. Inspired by the frenetic energy and colors in the room, they decided to use it as inspiration for a wedding design. Every surface in the room is covered in different colored hand-painted leopard print. There’s no fighting with this environment, you just have to embrace it!

“When we got approval to use the Lon Michels Canvas room at the Saint Kate hotel for a photo shoot, their proposed shoot date was only 7 days away! We had to move fast to pull it together.” Amanda told us.

“Lidia agreed to model for me and she wore her own wedding dress by Maggie Sottero. I spent that night on Pinterest pulling together a color palette and inspirational images for the shoot and I contacted two of my favorite industry partners, Emily Neubauer from Belle Fiori Florist and Debbie Pape from Paper Envy. “Wanna do something wild? It’s very colorful, a little bit rockabilly, and all leopard print, all the time. Oh yeah, and it’s happening next Tuesday.”

“I started collecting lots of images of floral designs and stationery samples that I thought would be a good complement to the room, then culled them down as I made tighter stylistic decisions. With only a few days to finish designing so the professionals could do their amazing work, there wasn’t much time for back and forth! Together we selected colors, textures, and fonts for the florals and stationery. One of my favorite details was the inclusion of the antlers in the bridal bouquet, inspired by the painted deer mounts in the Lon Michels room. I purchased the resin antlers at a craft store and painted them in a color similar to the leather jacket. I’m so thrilled with the way Emily was able to incorporate the shape and texture of the antlers and balance them with the florals in the bouquet. I also through Emily a curve ball by asking at the last minute for a floral for our little friend Bella, our makeup artist’s morkie who came along to the shoot.”

“Once I’d decided on the color palette (Coral, red, yellow, magenta, and teal), I started sourcing accessories and props. I found brand new magenta Converse sneakers on Shopgoodwill.com ($9.49 + shipping), which arrived in just 4 days. At local Goodwill stores, I found the coral leather jacket ($7.99) and all the colorful dishes and vases we used in the shoot ($.99 – 2.99). I purchased leather paint and watched some YouTube tutorials, and spent a few hours on Sunday night painting leopard print on the jacket.”

“The most challenging DIY part of the shoot were the colorful, hand-painted French macaron cookies. I visited several local bakeries in the Milwaukee area to collect the array of colors I was looking for. I had never painted cookies before, and these ones are especially delicate. And since it was the night before the shoot, we were out of time! Luckily there were only a couple casualties, which my husband and I gladly ate,” Amanda laughed.

“Lon Michels also has a sculptural installation in the gallery area of the Saint Kate lobby, so we wrapped up our shoot with a few more shots there. Saint Kate is an amazing wedding venue with a wide variety of contemporary styles represented. It would be an amazing destination for artsy couples, or anyone who wants to give their wedding guests an incredible, unique experience.”

Beauty: YML artistry I Dress Designer: Maggie Sottero I Invitation Designer: Paper Envy I Floral Designer: Belle Fiori, Ltd. I Event Venue: Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel I Photographer: Front Room Photography I Submitted via Two Bright Lights I