We asked the ultimate experts-real brides and grooms-to share some of their most original and inspiring ideas.
By: Rachel GriffithsLocation, Location, Location
1. As the setting for her summer wedding to Shawn Krause, Fiona Sarn picked the tiny boarding school she'd attended in Arizona. Guests at the weekend event had the run of the hiking trails and school pool, and party-goers on a budget could stay in the dorms for free!
2. Sometimes your favorite hobby inspires the perfect location. Champion skiers Brooke Coleman and Patrick Connors held their wedding in her mother's garden, with a view of the Park City, Utah, ski slopes.
3. Julie Hormaechea, who works in the arts, and Jeff Jewhurst, who works for the National Park Service, tied the knot at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA. "Getting married in an arts center on Park Service land—it couldn't have been a more perfect union!" says the bride.
4. When wedding coordinator Kate Badger married Barrett Little in Charleston, South Carolina, she set the scene for romance by holding the event on the grounds of the plantation where Barrett had proposed.
5. Melissa Barrett wanted her wedding to stay true to her Vermont roots. She and her groom, Dave Phillips, were married in a field of wildflowers beneath the scenic Green Mountains, and danced the night away with guests in a rustic red barn.
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6. "Both of you should get a massage on the morning of the wedding," recommends Santa Fe bride Sirie Palmos, who scheduled his-and-hers appointments. As soon as the massages were over, she dashed off to have her makeup done with her bridesmaids.
7. Catrien van Assendelft and her groom, John Griffiths, organized a prewedding morning at the local lake, with swimming and sunbathing. Guests got to cheer on Catrien's brothers in a kayaking race.
8. Groom (and triathlete) Sebastian Ziesler spent the morning of his wedding day with his groomsmen on a strenuous 20-mile bike ride in the hills of Northern California.
