Walk into the Modern Love Event, and you understand immediately that this is not a wedding show. There are no booths. No clipboards. No branded tote bags stuffed with business cards. What there is: candlelight, a live violinist threading through the crowd, a coffee cart from Bloom Coffee Cart, a dessert spread from Doris Bakery, catering from Juniper Green Kitchen and Dream Events and Catering, and models moving through the space in gowns from The Dress Theory — Nashville’s own bridal boutique for the bride who knows exactly what she wants.
The Modern Love Event is what wedding inspiration looks like when the industry’s best are given full creative permission to play. Each year, a rotating cast of Nashville’s top designers transforms a new venue into a series of immersive, fully realized spaces — this year, the stunning Saint Elle provided the backdrop. Not concept boards or mood decks, but actual environments you can walk into and feel. Florals you can study up close. Tablescapes you can pull up a chair to. Photographers, florists, and designers you can meet in person, mid-conversation, in the middle of the world they built.
This year, four designers took the floor: Kelsey Rae Designs, Wild Heart Events, Sarah Oakland, and Jess McKinney Events. Between them: four completely distinct aesthetics, a vendor team that reads like a Nashville wedding dream list, and enough trend-forward ideas to fuel a full season of planning. Capturing every detail were The Brocoffs, We Are the Boyds, The Copper Collective, and Kimberly Kimble Photography — four of Nashville’s best, each bringing their own eye to the evening.
Whether you’re deep in wedding planning mode or you’re a vendor watching where the industry is headed, this one is worth your full attention.
Kelsey Rae Designs: Trophy Wall
The brief was the ’70s. The result was something that felt like a fever dream between a vintage rec room and a high-fashion editorial — and that tension is exactly what made it work.
Kelsey Rae Designs anchored the space with a classic wood-paneled backdrop from Renowned Event Designs, the kind of detail that immediately signals era without requiring a single explanation. From there, the design committed fully to maximalism: graphic vinyl flooring wrapped up and over the table itself, turning a surface into a sculptural statement. Mirrored cube seating and chrome accents from West Era Rentals added a reflective, almost architectural quality — the kind of shine that photographs like a dream and reads even better in person.
The pattern play was deliberate. Graphic and bold enough to read as unmistakably ’70s, neutral enough to let everything else breathe. And The Florista took that breathing room and did something genuinely unexpected with it: an installation built entirely from carnations. Climbing the wood-paneled wall, arching overhead, spilling onto the table and floor — a reminder that the most underestimated flower in the industry can stop a room when handled with intention.
Something Lettered brought the finishing touch: a checkered pattern etched directly onto chrome, wavy menus that mirrored the cube seating and the custom chrome-painted trophies throughout the space. The cohesion was the point — and it landed.
The takeaway for couples: Maximalism works when every element is in conversation with the others. The vinyl flooring, the chrome trophies, the carnation wall — nothing was random. If you’re drawn to bold, pattern-forward tablescapes, this is the blueprint.
photos for this section are by The Brocoffs
Wild Heart Events: Chocolate, Chartreuse & Chrome
Some designers find a color palette and work within it. Wild Heart Events finds a color palette and uses it as a dare.
Rich chocolate anchored this space — deep, grounding, and unexpected as a foundation for something this maximalist. Against it: chartreuse and rose, added not as accents but as full participants. The layering was methodical — a custom chainette fringe linen from Nuage Designs paired with polka dot napkins and hand-painted pomme plates, each element contributing texture and pattern without canceling the others out.
Chrome martini towers added the trending silver moment that’s everywhere this season, styled with the kind of specific intention that separates a trend from a throwaway. And the cake — a silver three-tiered confection from Doris Bakery, bejeweled to an unreasonable degree — was the kind of centerpiece that makes guests stop mid-conversation.
The florals from Atelier Azzizam pushed past the expected entirely. Anthuriums, Japanese Snakeball Allium, and Lotus Pods brought sculptural weight to the arrangements. And in one of the evening’s most memorable details, Cymbidium Orchid heads were wired and used as tiebacks for peek-a-boo drapes — a detail so specific and clever it’s the kind of thing you file away and reference for years.
The takeaway for couples: Silver and chrome are having a major moment right now, and this space showed exactly how to use them without tipping into cold or corporate. The warmth came from the chocolate base and the unexpected florals. Balance is everything.
photos for this section are by The Brocoffs
Sarah Oakland: The Tapestry Room
This one started with a piece of fabric found at a local shop and a recent rewatch of Wuthering Heights.
Sarah Oakland is the kind of designer who traces her inspiration to its actual source rather than gesturing at a vibe, and this space showed that clearly. A landscape tapestry became the jumping-off point for a ceremony design that leaned fully into texture, layering, and a romantic maximalism that felt grounded rather than excessive. She was intentional about making it feel replicable, too — this wasn’t inspiration you admire from a distance. It was inspiration you could actually use.
Dramatic draping from Renowned Event Designs set the architecture of the space, including a tapestry “window” detail that gave the room a sense of dimension and discovery. The floral meadows at the altar from Layered Vintage created the kind of photo moment that earns its own caption. Lounge seating and beaded chandeliers from West Era Rentals, plus table lighting from HOSTE/co, brought warmth and intimacy to a space that could have easily tipped into drama for drama’s sake.
Pocket programs from White Ink Calligraphy included a quote from the Brontë novel. The design wasn’t about Wuthering Heights — but it was clearly made by someone who had just watched it and felt something. That distinction is everything.
The takeaway for couples: Your ceremony design can tell a story before a single vow is spoken. A tapestry backdrop, a floral meadow at the altar, a literary quote tucked into the program — these are the layered details guests feel even when they can’t articulate why.
Jess McKinney Events: The Speakeasy
There was a piano in the room. Most designers would have worked around it. Jess McKinney Events built the entire concept on top of it.
The result was a speakeasy — not as a theme, but as a feeling. A hidden corner of a celebration that guests discover rather than arrive at, intimate and transportive in the way only a well-designed small space can be. Live music from DBE Artists played throughout, and the interplay between the performance and the design was anything but accidental.
Chocolate brown satin draping from Renowned Event Designs did the heavy architectural lifting, enveloping the space in a moodiness that read immediately. Velvet green lounge chairs and a bistro table from West Era Rentals created the intimate seating moment — the kind of arrangement that signals linger here. Arched shelving styled with unique glassware gave the bar that collected, curated feel that looks effortless and absolutely isn’t.
The hanging floral installation from Lillian’s Floral Studio, woven through the drapery at the front of the space, was where everything came together. Movement, softness, just enough drama — pulling the color palette through the entire design without overwhelming it. Add candlelight throughout, and the space stopped feeling like a designed environment and started feeling like somewhere you actually wanted to stay.
The takeaway for couples: If you’re dreaming of a wedding that feels like a series of discovered moments rather than one big room, this is the reference. A moody lounge tucked inside your reception, a live musician as the anchor, florals that move — it’s a feeling, and it’s very much achievable.
The Rest of the Evening: Dresses, Cake, and a Little Live Music
The designer spaces are only part of what makes the Modern Love Event worth attending. Between them, the evening itself does its own kind of work.
Models from The Dress Theory moved through the crowd throughout the night wearing gowns from the boutique’s current collection, which is a genuinely better way to see a wedding dress than under fluorescent lights in a fitting room. You see how fabric moves, how a silhouette photographs, how a dress actually lives on a body in a room full of people. If you’re in the thick of dress shopping and haven’t visited The Dress Theory yet, consider this your sign.
Entertainment from DBE Artists set the tone from the moment you walked in — a violinist threading through the crowd during cocktail hour, a pianist anchoring the room as the evening settled in. The kind of live music that doesn’t demand your attention but completely changes the energy of a space. If you’ve been on the fence about live music at your wedding, hearing it in an environment like this is the fastest way to get off it.
And then there was the cake. Doris Bakery brought a showstopper — the silver bejeweled three-tiered cake from the Wild Heart Events space was one of the most-photographed moments of the night, and for good reason. It’s the kind of piece that makes you rethink what a wedding cake can be.
Drinks, bites from Juniper Green Kitchen and Dream Events and Catering, coffee from Bloom Coffee Cart, hair and makeup looks from Canvas and Coif — the whole evening was designed to feel like a wedding, not a showcase. That’s the point. And it worked.
Biggest thanks to all the Nashville vendors who made this event such a success!
planners/designers: Wild Heart Events, Kelsey Rae Designs, Jess McKinney Events, Sarah Oakland | photographers: The Brocoffs, We are the Boyds, The Copper Collective, Kimberly Kimble Photography | content creator: Love and Light Content | dresses: The Dress Theory | venue: Saint Elle | rentals: West Era Rentals | linens: Nuage Designs | draping/custom builds: Renowned event designs | florals: Layered Vintage, The Florista, Lillian’s Floral Studio, Atelier Azzizam | catering: Juniper Green Kitchen, Dream Events and Catering | coffee cart: Bloom Coffee Cart | desserts: Doris Bakery | DJ: Second Song – Nick Messerly | Entertainment: DBE Artists | HMU: Canvas and Coif | Signage/stationery: Red Revelry, Something Lettered, White Ink Calligraphy | candle rentals: Nashville Candle Rentals
