Like every bride, you want your wedding to be unique. Here, creative ideas from planners and couples to inspire you.
By: Kristen Finello-
One of the simplest ways to personalize your wedding is to select a signature color palette and weave it throughout the event from invitations to favors. Consider the colors that have special significance to you or that reflect some aspect of your relationship —the greens of the summer day when you picnicked after getting engaged, the shades of red at the Valentine dinner where he proposed.
Tip 1: Select a signature color palette and weave it throughout the event.
- Choose a wedding location that reflects the two of you. If you met at a party at a lake, a waterfront venue would be nice. College sweethearts? Tie the knot at your alma mater.
- Have a graphic artist create a custom wedding logo that you can use on printed materials and other elements of your wedding to create a cohesive look. (If you’re artistic you can do this yourself. Another option: Purchase a logo at marrymonograms.com.)
- Celebrate the season. For her November 2008 wedding, Francesca Di Meglio of Fort Lee, New Jersey, went with a Thanksgiving theme that included invitations embossed with a cornucopia motif and centerpieces featuring fall fruits and flowers.
- Express a nature-friendly point of view by hosting a green wedding.
- Combine religious traditions. Mark Kingsdorf, owner of The Queen of Hearts Wedding Consultants in Philadelphia, had a couple who honored their Catholic/Jewish/Muslim backgrounds with a church ceremony, a reading from the Koran and the Jewish tradition of breaking a glass.
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Have guests coming from other countries? Print your invitations in their native language, suggests Heather Sharpe, founder of Destination Weddings Northwest in Seattle.
Tip 3: Create a custom wedding logo that you can use on printed materials and decor. - For a more intimate feel at your ceremony, arrange your guests in a circle around you rather than in rows, says Sharpe. This works particularly well in a rural outdoor space.
- Searching out talent among friends and relatives can open doors to wonderful moments in your ceremony. A cousin who’s a poet may want to read a work of her own or recite a Shakespearean sonnet, a musician may choose to perform a love song.
- To include her husband-to-be’s three nieces in the wedding ceremony, Di Meglio asked them to escort him down the aisle.
- Honor your heritage or your groom’s by wearing traditional clothing such as Irish or Scottish kilts or Indian saris.
- Acknowledge the absence of a deceased loved one by placing a flower on a seat reserved for him or her at the ceremony.
- Another way to honor a deceased family member: Place a small photo of the person in your bouquet, says Sharpe.
- Let the language of your ceremony really speak about you. “For a couple who loves tennis, the officiant ended the wedding ceremony by proclaiming, ‘Let the match begin!’” Sharpe recalls.
- For a one-of-a-kind touch, wear your mother’s—or your grandmother’s—wedding gown. Or wear an heirloom brooch or pair of earrings that you inherited.
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If an heirloom dress is in poor condition, snip off a piece of fabric and use it to wrap the stems of your bouquet, suggests event planner Rená Puebla of Coast Concierge Service Event and Production Company in Orange County, California.
Tip 18: A horse and carriage go togther like love and marriage, especially at a seaside wedding.
- Another use for vintage fabric: Drape it on the escort card table for an elegant, custom look.
- Primp your ride. Kingsdorf’s brides have rocked every mode of transportation from antique cars to horse-drawn carriages to a 1957 pink Cadillac. Looking for a specific model? Contact local car clubs.
- Tell it to the world! Hire a skywriter to spell out “Congratulations, Kate and Michael!” during an outdoor cocktail hour.
- Set up flat screens during cocktails and show photo collages of you and your groom from childhood to adulthood, says Puebla. Don’t hesitate to go for light, sweet moments that are likely to bring a tear to guests’ eyes.
- Ask your camera people to set up a live feed of the bridal party’s photo session for guests to enjoy over cocktails and appetizers. This way, no one is excluded from what the stars of the day are doing.
- If you’re planning an after-party furnished with comfortable sofas and armchairs, personalize them with monogrammed pillows in your wedding colors, suggests Bonnie Walker of Bonnie Walker Events in New York City.
- If you’re unexcited at the thought of having a keyboardist at your cocktail hour, hire a musician who’s more to your taste. One of Walker’s couples, who met at Mardi Gras, hired the saxophonist they saw perform in concert there.
- Display wedding pictures of family members on the escort-card table or on end tables in your cocktail-hour area.
- Instead of using your venue’s linens, purchase napkins in silk or linen or organic cotton and have them monogrammed with your initials.
Next: More creative ideas for your wedding
