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There is something so soulful about our engagement ring of the week that when we laid our eyes upon it we were immediately struck with a vision of Lady Day singing the blues. The emotion with which Billie Holiday sang some of the most hauntingly beautiful jazz standards of all time moved us to curate the below jazz age themed wedding inspiration that we think will transform any wedding day into “A Fine Romance”.
Our engagement ring of the week’s dazzling cushion cut sapphire flanked by old mine cut diamonds in an arrow design strikes straight to the heart in much the same way as one of Billie’s most famous torch songs “Am I Blue“.
Originally an accessory born of necessity after a curling iron incident in a dressing room pre-performance, Billie Holiday’s signature gardenias worn on the left conveyed sensuality, glamour, and fragility. The blossoms make for a lush, light and romantic bridal bouquet.
In the mid-30s songstresses like Holiday and screenstars like Jean Harlow were smoldering in bias cut silk gowns for a close, seductive fit. We love the slinky way these gowns move and think a bridal gown in this style is simultaneously sexy and chic.
Not only was a full red lip with elongated bow wildly popular in the mid-30s, but by the wartime era of the 1940s, it was actually declared “good for the morale of the nation” as it was a demonstration of women’s ability to maintain their femininity while carrying out men’s work. Pair a bold red lip with a natural face and smooth loose waves for a vampy bridal look.
For an intimate affair akin to the night clubs of Harlem and Greenwich Village where Billie Holiday first performed, pair a lively jazz trio with a moody subterranean venue where guests can snuggle up in plush leather booths and do The Lindy Hop all night long (p.s. Take two minutes and watch probably the most amazing Lindy Hop sequence ever filmed by Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers in the film Helzapoppin’!).
And, of course, make sure you have a handful of Bille Holliday’s standards queued up for your wedding playlist. You’re pretty much spoiled for choice when perusing her catalog, as even her contemporaries within the jazz canon considered her one of the greats. Frank Sinatra went so far as to name her as his single greatest influence; “with few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.”
