Guest Blog Post Vintage Laundress {Please share my umbrella} 15 comments

Back in 2007, I tore an article out of Southern Accents magazine featuring a beautifully styled wedding. The wedding was that of Kiery Braithwaite, daughter of Atlanta interior designer Nancy Braithwaite. One of the photographs featured was of Kiery and her bridesmaids holding red umbrellas. Nancy and her daughter had decided to use red as an accent color, and since it was an outdoor wedding reception, they offered red umbrellas to shelter guests from the rain. I was just really intrigued by that idea and wondered if that same idea could be possible using vintage umbrellas.

Well, if you take a look at any of the thousands of wedding blogs and wedding magazines, you’re likely to have come across some of the colorful, vintage parasols from a business called Bella Umbrella. A vintage parasol can be a charming addition to your festivities no matter the theme or mood. On bright sunny days they will keep your guests and wedding party cool and comfortable, and during unexpected showers they provide much needed shelter. The umbrella rental and sales business was started by owner Jodell Egbert by chance. She was planning her own wedding and wanted some color and some cover for her guests in case of rain. She bought 75 vintage umbrellas from a collector and handed them out to her guests. The palate of color created by the umbrellas offered a dramatic backdrop to her ceremony, she says.
Egbert, who had worked as a floral designer, was hooked. She began to collect umbrellas and soon had about 100. She didn’t want to sell her collection, but with her floral work in weddings, she recognized a potential market and began to rent the vintage parasols. For more rental information look here. Egbert has also made a name for herself with stylists, fashion designers and magazines, as seen in this Harper’s Bazaar shot of actress Kirsten Dunst strolling through a garden, shading herself with a vintage parasol from Bella Umbrella.

And lastly, umbrellas have long been used by ladies to draw the attention of men. A flirtatious twirl of a vintage umbrella by an enchanting bride is as hypnotizing to her groom as any watch swinging on a chain - I can think of no more appropriate time or place to bring on the flirt! See you next "Vintage Wednesday!"

I live in Seattle and I know all about umbrellas! IAnd umbrellas make for beautiful wedding photographs. Like this one from Christy (another of our wedding experts) that was on JuneBug Weddings! 

Bus stop, wet day, she’s there I say
Please share my umbrella!

Good news for Seattle brides. Thank you Le Ann!

gift girl

LeAnn Stephenson is an Austin-based vintage collector and textile enthusiast and founder of The Vintage Laundry. She stocks an online Etsy store, as well as writing a blog called The Vintage Laundress.