I promise not to remind you every week of the fact that my sister recently got engaged. Pairing my role as maid of honor with my natural love of event planning, let’s just say I’m taking this job and all of it’s research quite seriously.
There are an endless number of ways to make your wedding a bit less cookie-cutter to showcase both personalities.
The last thing people want is for their guests to perceive the ceremony and reception to be dull and boring. Below are a few ways to defy the conventional to make you and your partner’s special day, perfect for you.
Take a Hand-On Approach to Planning
Hiring a wedding planner (or planner slash sister hehe) may be the best option if you want to avoid much of the stress involved with planning a wedding.
But you will have to also accept that you won’t be overseeing every single details if you hand over the reigns to someone else. If you are quite particular and want to ensure everything is exactly how you imagined with all your own personal touches, you want to consider if you have the time to plan and design the wedding yourself.
There is a lot of work to do if you choose this option but it will allow you to get your personal vision just right. Alternatively, you could choose a wedding planner who will work very closely with you to get it how you want it.
Think Beyond the Visual.
We often focus so much of our efforts on what guests will see and neglect another important sense; smell. Subtly incorporating your favorite universally pleasing scent is just another way to add a touch of your own. Soothing lavender, or a herb that ties in with a more rustic theme like rosemary, sage or thyme.
Let them eat a different cake.
The cake is often one of the most central pieces at the wedding reception. So, why do so many wedding cakes tend to be a replica of the same plain white fondant currently floating around on Pinterest?
While a white tiered cake may be a safe option, it isn’t particularly interesting.
If you’re open to trying something different, work with your favorite baker to create something more personalized to both you and your significant other. Your cake can be somewhat of focal point if you wish it to be, something to be remembered (and perhaps talked about.)
Think about the colors, flavors and shapes that appeal most to you. Find inspiration wherever possible and certainly beyond the bridal magazines every bride is currently thumbing through.
Write Your Own Vows.
The perfect way to add a personal touch to your wedding is to write your own wedding vows. For many this is not easy to do, the writing portion or expressing your feelings but if you put your heart into it it can be truly special.
I remember when my sister told me about her and her fiance’s first dance song. Listening to it, I thought about how the two of them shared a mutual love over music (and many other things) and they quickly just knew, this was the song.
Stepping away from music for a moment, if there were one thing about your wedding that should be personal, it should be the commitment that you make to your partner, right?
You can say whatever you want to say making it personal and specific to your relationship. That way it will be authentic and more heartfelt than the generic script that we all hear at the vast majority of wedding ceremonies. If you choose to do this, make sure it’s something that both the bride and the groom have prepared.
All of the Invitation Personalization.
If you want a simple and quick way to add a more personalized touch to your wedding, go the extra mile in designing your invitations. A very easy task, but it can make such a difference. It’s an opportunity to begin that matrimonial blend; showcasing your engagement photo, or a logo you made together with your new monogram, anything that is special to you.
You could even go as far as creating your own invitations (not being a DIYer and avoiding having my sisters invitations look as if they were pasted together by a five year old I am not going down that road.)
You can have a look at the personalised wedding invitations from Paper Themes. They give you the basic theme and design and allow you to personalize them in the way that you want to. It’s a quick and simple way to put your own twist on them.
Don’t Leave People Waiting Around.
The worst thing about most conventional weddings is that they leave people sitting around for a long time after the ceremony and between the cocktail hour while the wedding party takes photos.
If you want to do something radically different, change up your timeline! People hate being left hanging around waiting for what is going to happen next.
It may be your perfect day, but considering the feelings and experience of your guests will ensure an amazing day for everyone. So try to plan out the day as extensively as possible, making sure that people are kept busy throughout the day. There should always be something going on if you want your guests to have a good time and remain engaged (no pun intended.)
Drop the Conventions You Don’t Want
There are plenty of traditions attached to weddings but there’s no reason you should stick rigidly to all or any of them.
Keep the ones you think suit you and drop the rest. Many people feel pressure to conform to these older, sometimes outdated traditions, but it’s your wedding and you should do things your way.
The perfect weddings are the ones that strike the right balance between traditional and the modern elements that the bride and groom want to add.
