Golden proportions for a grand occasion
My wife and I are very like minded… Imagine that! So when we began wedding planning, making decisions was second nature. We agreed on the setting of the venue, an outdoor pavilion at Millennium Park. Food? No problem. A classic protein, vegetable and starch. Theme and attire? A wide spread of muted tones to accentuate just how diverse each member of our wedding party was. What about the wedding arch? We both agreed renting one was a waste of money, but we also were worried about its use after it has served its purpose at our wedding. Why not build something more robust? Why not build something to live on after our wedding day? Let the process begin!
Ugly #1
Ugly #2
I began designing with very little parameters. Design a wedding arch that can then live in our garden after we have been married. It should probably be taller than us so that our photos don’t look strange. That was all my wife asked. After some atrocious designs, I was then reminded of a fundamental way of thinking made to me by a friend, Gayle Debruyn of KCAD. She once stated to me and my fellow colleagues that “design needs constraints” without constraints, you have no real guard rails or direction to move forward. I have learned without constraints, I will spin my wheels without any real action forward on a project. I then chose more constraints to design around. the first being equal proportions to represent the equal partnership my wife and I were entering. the second, sticking to golden proportions using the golden ratio. After this enlightenment I had designed something I could be proud of.
By the end of it, every measurement could be traced back to a golden dilation from the 10’ I set as my height constraint. The only place a golden number wasn’t used, was where I chose to make things equal, such as the placement of cross members to hold the two triangles together, Which were by definition… Golden triangles.
Our Wedding arch, consisting of rough sawn red cedar. Finished with Fire and Tung Oil to weather it through the seasons.
Our wedding arch in its current resting space, as the entrance to the home we have made. Pictured here it is supporting morning glory and moon flowers.
The calm after the storm. It’s good luck to get married in the middle of a series of storms right?
It’s lighter than it looks!
This project really enlightened me. It lead to a whole new understanding of function and form and the relationship they share. These relationships are always changing, just like ours. If you focus too much one, you can lose sight of the other. It’s all about balancing the two to create an equilibrium.
Side note:
If you live on the west side of Grand Rapids, MI you may remember the storms that tore through the neighborhood on the weekend of July 20th. Specifically on the 21st. A straight-line wind knocked out power to most of the west side and crippled all travel in and out of the neighborhoods. Before My wife and I ran to the basement, I witnessed this very wedding arch, airborne traveling towards my neighbors house. It was at this point that I decided I should heed my future wife’s warning and retreat to the basement. Luckily, the arch was still intact for our wedding the next day.
Wedding photos courtesy of https://www.ksuzannephotography.com/ She does great work :-)
