Kay Kestler started wearing her mother’s pearls at the age of three. Forever drawn to the finer things, her career includes acting as a marketer for premiere brands as notable as Chanel and YSL, working with the leading designer in beauty products, Estee Lauder, and styling amid the creative fashions of Neiman Marcus. In 2007, she identified the need for a niche luxury wedding market and Strictly Weddings was born. Her company, which streamlines the process for brides by identifying top tier wedding vendors, has seen unprecedented success and we are beyond grateful she has agreed to share a bit of her insight with us!

Given her hugely successful website, growing blog presence and over 700,000 Facebook fans, we had to ask Kay how she managed to create such a strong brand presence for Strictly Weddings. “The first step was accepting that print publications were incredibly limited in scope for amassing a significant audience,” says Kay. Therefore, once establishing partnerships with the top wedding professionals in four major US cities, she decided to pour all her energy into Facebook. “I saw it as a scrolling magazine, a platform to share my editorial eye for design with fresh content all day, every day.” This translated to hours of meticulously researched images with the starting point of “if I were a bride, what would I be dreaming of?”

In this feature, Kay describes four wedding looks that never fail to attract serious attention. For examples, we’ve chosen images she has shared of ours that have captured countless hearts (and record breaking clicks)!

Radiant Color

“Vibrant color always draws the eye. It brings energy and life. It translates beautifully on a Facebook wall and all the more in the real world! We’re seeing an increase in brides going for bold color with the purple spectrum – radiant orchid, fuchsia, magenta – still taking the lead as most beloved in luxury wedding color schemes.”

Diaphanous Design

“There is just something about gorgeous diaphanous draping that evokes fantasy. Perhaps the most stunning example is a luxuriously chiffon draped tent wedding. However, just as exciting are never seen before applications such as Kehoe Designs‘ custom crafted columns with sheer fabric underlay.”

All that Sparkles

“Whether we want to admit it or not, there is a bit of the Cinderella dream within us all. And that is why crystal will forever be cherished. Nothing compares to the magic of its sparkle on a richly appointed table. And when Kehoe Designs creates something as magnificent as suspended crystal arches above an aisle, it’s a perfect example of the attraction towards decor that feels mesmerizingly unattainable.”

Forested Splendor

“Blooming branches can create one of the most dramatic statements in wedding design. The impressiveness of their scale and whimsical nature transport to that dreamlike world by which we are all entranced and enthralled.”