Putting a personal stamp on your special day goes without saying. And by sprinkling your day with inspirational and personal slants, you can more fun into what can be still be traditional nuptials, but with a twist. Here we suggest 25 ideas on how to do just that.
1. For some inspirational wedding invites, how about sending out chocolate bars wrapped with golden tickets inside.
2. Think about the setting and incorporate elements from them into your day – for example, a countryside wedding could feature hay bales for seating.
3. Create an aisle runner with a difference: you could have pictures of both of you as youngsters through to your first date. A summer ceremony could feature artificial grass or for a budget option, just snake some bright linen fabric on the floor.
4. How about having a poem read by a guest or one of the attendees: something personal to both of you.
5. Mini flags, pinwheels, sparklers or rose petals can all make good substitutes for confetti.
6. Music need not be a traditional wedding band: think steels drum, bagpipes, jazz quartets, gospel choirs, sitar players and flamenco dancers.
7. If budgets are a little pinched, offer a glass of ginger beer, or homemade pink lemonade and mint punch.
8. Freeze poppies inside ice cubes and use these to chill the champers on, or use them in cocktails.
9. For a summer wedding try gingham red and white tablecloths, wheatgrass in long tubs lined with miniature white picket fencing and serve alongside Pimm’s at the table.
10. Provide centrepieces with a difference. If your wedding features a seaside theme for example, you could fill a vase with sand, seashells and a starfish. You could even use reminders from journeys your have taken together: think small wooden lighthouses, a model of red phone boxes or an ice sculpture of a mountain.
11. If you have a garden setting, tie little trinkets from tree branches. These could include small glass baubles to capture and reflect light, lanterns for evening time, small wooden hearts or small birdcages. Encourage guests to write messages on wooden hearts and hand them with ribbons from a branch.
12. Instead of name cards, why not write names guests’ names on pebbles.
13. People don’t always consider lighting but it’s so important. You could change lighting and related colours of lighting according to the mood / events of the evening.
14. Incorporate your hobbies into your day: if you enjoy skiing, a winter wedding could see you tying-the-knot on or near the piste. If you prefer sailing, a nautical theme could see you both escaping to your honeymoon on a sailing boat. If you’re the outdoor type, you could escape on a tandem bike or golf cart.
15. Rent a photo booth for guests to place their snaps in a scrapbook book. Include lots of pens so that they can write some words, too.
16. If things are heating up on the dance floor, provide guests with liquor icicles for cooling down with. Don’t forget the children, but make sure these are booze free!
17. Wedding cakes cause a lot of flapping. Instead of one flavour, have three tiers, each with a different flavour. Alternatively, try cupcakes or stacked towers of chocolate truffles.
18. Colour your cocktails according to the wedding theme: any colour, sunsets, blue, red, pinks and oranges can be created. Use flamboyant decorations: umbrellas, fancy straws, edible flowers and so on.
19. When it comes to favours, try mini cupcakes in cellophane bags, or jelly beans in small glass spice jars tied with ribbon, or a chocolate truffle in a cardboard box with the date of the wedding printed on the side.
20. As the evening unfolds, you could charm guests with a beautiful firework display – this could also be set to some music.
21. Make your first dance memorable – start off slow and gentle then break into some high-octane numbers which you and your partner have already secretly practised in the run up to your big day.
22. Write your own vows. More and more people are doing this or making amendments to the originals, but you will have to check the venue will accept this first.
23. Use rosemary or lavender to add a little scented panache to your aisles, tying them to the end.
24. Sometimes the little ones are forgotten about. Provide colouring crayons and balloons to keep them occupied. Perhaps consider hiring a children’s entertainer or even a magician for a couple of hours to keep young and old entertained.
25. If there are grounds on the wedding venue, you could provide some games. Not only for children, such a giant connect four or a makeshift maze or hopscotch or Twister, but you could provide croquet and boules for adults.