Category — Unique Wedding Ideas

Plain old guest books are just so…2008.  I predict (and you can quote me on this one) a 2009 wedding trend for even more alternative wedding guestbooks.

If you plan to use your guestbook to collect the names of the guests who attend your wedding so that you can send the appropriate people thank you letters…well, it works for that purpose.  But what are you going to do with the guestbook AFTER the wedding?  How much fun will you and your hubbie have studying the list of names in the standard white album embossed with the word “Guestbook” in gold lettering?

Get bold.  Get creative.  Try these alternative wedding guestbook ideas on for size.

The Flip Video Guestbook - I admit it: I’m a sucker for my brand new Flip Mini video camera.  For a little over $200 you can shoot high resolution videos at the touch of a button.  Just hit one button to record.  Even a drunk can handle that!  Which brings me to my point…if you buy (or borrow) a Flip for your wedding, you can ask guests to record a quick video message.  You’ll have quirky video memories to last a lifetime.

Video Booth - If you’re worried about staggering guests wandering away with your new Flip video camera, you can always rent a video booth.  Similar to a photo booth, guests can step inside and shoot a quick video message for you.  Rental cost starts at $795, but you’ll get a DVD of everyone’s videos to take home with you.

Polaroid Guest Book - Have a polaroid camera at your wedding reception and ask guests to take pictures of themselves, place it into a scrap book and sign beside it.  A quick tip: if you decide to do this, make sure you have someone responsible and sober to make sure you get everyone’s picture.  The cocktail hour is usually a good time to do this.

Whatever you do for your wedding, don’t do it just because you’re “supposed” to.  You don’t need to have a wedding guestbook at all.  But if you add a little twist to the traditional guestbook, you’ll have something extra special to remember your wedding day.

I LOVE exploring new ideas to make your wedding unique and personal.  It’s what takes an elegant, fun wedding and transforms it into something that is totally new and different…totally “you.”

But watch out for some of the recommendations on websites and bridal magazines.  They’re out to make money for their advertisers…which means most of the “personalized” ideas they recommend come with a hefty price tag.

Rather than getting personalized (which usually entails monograms, engraving, and costly customization)…I recommend getting personal.

Adding personal touches to your wedding means including details, history, and stories about you and your interests.  Personal touches cost little or no money.  Personalized touches can blow your wedding budget before you even begin.

I’ve sifted out the expensive “personalized” suggestions to leave behind some of my favorite cheap and more meaningful ways to make your wedding unique:

A Touch of Family - Displaying your parents and grandparents wedding photos is a way to pay tribute to your family and share your history with your guests.  It’s especially elegant if you display black and white or sepia-toned photos.  You might even hang family photos in the bathrooms or name your tables after a decade and print a photo from that time on the card.

A Dash of Culture - Incorporate your ethnic traditions into your wedding day.  Turn to flower meanings to spread a symbolic message; for example, ivy is the symbol of eternal love in Greek culture.  You might propose a farewell toast with a dark beer like Guinness in tribute to our Irish heritage.

Your Favorite Food - Tweak your menu to reflect your personal taste.  If you love milkshakes, serve them with dessert.  Or include your favorite childhood candies as favors.  One of our couples even served hamburgers and hot dogs at their wedding to go with a diner theme.

Remember Your Roots - Pay a tribute to your home state.  Ask your entertainer to play a few songs that mention your state in a musical homage.  You might print up the recipe for your Grandma’s favorite chocolate chip cookies and give it to your guests when you serve them at the end of the night.

These are just a few ideas to inspire you with ways to make your wedding unique.  For dozens more suggestions and a step by step guide to deciding which ideas for wedding personalization that ALSO stretch your budget, check out my eBook on planning a wedding on a budget.

Photo by Stephen Durham

The wedding ceremony has a vast, rich tradition.  Or non tradition, as the case may be.

Most Christian ceremonies make up the shortest part of the wedding reception, but they can also be the most meaningful.  This is one part of your wedding day where you can really make a statement about your uniqueness, pay tribute to your family and religious traditions, and touch the hearts of your guests with the commitment of your love.

Will you have your wedding traditional…or do you prefer a non traditional wedding?

Photo by Ted Ollikkala

You don’t need to be bound by traditional wedding ideas such as the ring ceremony and the unity candle.  MySpiritualWedding.com suggests dozens of different and unique ceremony ideas from various traditions…and you can buy the accessories you need in one place.

I learned about MySpiritualWedding.com from my officiant friend the Reverend David James.  As a service to his couples, the Reverend began collecting unique wedding ceremony ideas, traditions and rituals that could be included.  He searched the internet and quickly realized that NO ONE had put these ideas together in one place.

That’s how MySpiritualWedding.com was born.  Since then, he’s added resources to purchase any of the accessories you need to incorporate these unique traditions into your day and articles to explain many of the traditions.

Here are some of my favorite ceremony traditions:

The Sand Ceremony - It’s “sand art” with meaning.  A symbolic representation of the blending of lives between husband, wife and family that occurs with a wedding.

Handfasting Ceremony - Ribbons are twined around the hands of bride and groom in an ancient Celtic tradition that symbolizes the binding of two lives.

Indian Wedding Vase Ceremony - A Native American tradition, the couple drinks from the vase, symbolizing two individuals becoming one.

Blended Family Ceremony - Ceremonies use medallions, rings or necklaces for blended family weddings to include the children in your bond.

What traditions are you including in your ceremony?  Leave me a comment.

Wedding photographs in bridal magazines and wedding websites are creative sources of inspiration for your wedding colors.

I tend to get STUCK in monochromatic color schemes when I’m looking for inspiration.  And the color swatches at Home Depot just don’t cut it.

But what if your wedding colors could be inspired by anything that moves you?   A flower.  A tree.  An autumn sunset.

At ColourLovers.com you can create a palette inspired by anything.   Just insert the url link of any photo on the web…seconds later you’ve got a palette of colors inspired by that image.

I entered this image below of a chicory flower:

Photo by Louise Docker

And created this color palette:

This photograph:

Photo by Louise Docker

Inspired this color palette:

Pretty cool, huh?

Now you can create wedding color ideas galore from any photograph that inspires you.

How did you choose your wedding colors?  Leave me a comment.

When you’re evaluating an idea, wedding theme and color are important factors. But the most important factor is your personality.

Are you bold and outrageous? Shy and low-key? Goofy and surprising? Your theme and ideas for your wedding should match your personality.

If you and FI have opposite personalities, feel free to mix and match for an even more unique wedding effect.

Some places to go for inspiration:

Brunch Wedding - This brunch idea for your wedding is a fantastic money saver–simple, stunning, and something to really impress your guests. This bride chose centerpieces from the farmer’s market, bold, colorful bunches of inexpensive local flowers and wallpaper accents underneath. Guests are treated to mimosas, omelette stations and a individual cheesecake display for dessert. Check out the video for details.

Moo.com - Wedding ideas for all things printable: favors, invitations, save the dates, ice breaker cards, advice cards…you name it. Do it yourself and ready made.

IDEA: If you like the idea of ice breaker cards, make your own. Create multiple choice or fill in the blank questions about you and your fiance. Get creative. The naughtier and goofier, the better. Leave a card on each table and have your master of ceremonies instruct guests to answer as many questions as possible. Award a prize to the winning table, or just let them glory in their victory.

The Wedding Bistro at Bellenza - Featuring great autumn wedding ideas, decorating ideas, favor and gift basket ideas, engagement party and wedding theme ideas. Inspiration galore. I LOVE the section on blue and white weddings, blue themes ranging from casual beach theme to elegant old-fashioned antique. Tie it together with the palest blue sash or accent on your wedding gown and it’s a blue and white wedding dream.

Preston Bailey’s In Style Inspirations - Yes, these celebrity weddings are WAY over the top and insanely expensive: a winter wonderland wedding with birch trees and icicles, icy cool and intense; an autumn wedding with real trees and piles of leaves down the aisle. But take these ridiculously extravagant themes and tone them down for the real world…and you’ve got yourself ideas for your wedding that work.

Find 12 more ideas to make your wedding unique here.

Where did you find the idea behind your wedding inspiration? Leave me a comment.

I know, “elegance on a farm” sounds like an oxymoron.  I mean, when I think “farm,” I’m imagining cows, mud, manure.

But this New York Times article, “Farms Are For Lovers,” proves that while a wedding on a farm is definitely up close and personal with nature–with all its beauties and beasties–it CAN be an elegant dream wedding location.

If you get the heebie jeebies at the thought of mosquitoes or mud puddles on your wedding day…this ISN’T the location for you.  But if you’re a nature lover in search of an elegant, non-traditional wedding location, this might be right up your alley.

First, farms are beautiful.  Think fields of corn, beautiful hills, pastures, woods and babbling creeks.   Set up a tent in a grassy meadow and voila! you’ve got a lovely wedding scene with nature providing the decor.

I provided music for a wedding held in a gorgeous (non-working, smell-free) barn strung with Christmas lights and overlooking miles of horse pasture.  Picturesque and with plenty of shelter from the weather and surroundings that encouraged guests to wander in the fresh air.  The couple brought in a gourmet caterer and had an unforgettable day.

Of course, you’ve got to worry about ALL the details, so a wedding coordinator can be a necessity.  Plus, electricity and…ehmm…bathroom issues…can be complicated.  It’s not for the faint of heart.

You can even save money, though most tented weddings end up costing more than your average “wedding factory,” once you factor in the cost of tent rental, chairs, linens, tables, silverware, lights, etc.

The key is finding a farm that doesn’t do many weddings.  Most farms are eager to make money (who isn’t these days?) and will bend over backwards for you.   Your advantage: you have money and they really need it.

As in so many other things, a “non-wedding” location is often cheaper than one specializing in weddings.  I reveal the best, little known unique wedding locations (some of which you even let you write off the site fee!) that will give you and your guests an unforgettable experience in my book.

Have you found a unique wedding location?  Leave me a comment.

Honeymoon in Kauai by TravOC www.travsite.com

One of the many perks of getting married is…GIFTS!

But how do you ask for the wedding gifts you really want (without coming across as a selfish Bridezilla or violating etiquette wedding traditions) instead of toasters and fondue sets and hideous glazed platters painted with grape vines and cornucopias?

Not that there’s anything WRONG with cornuopias…

One solution is to find a fabulous gift registry, select the items you want, need and love for your married life together, and invite your guests to buy those gifts for you. It’s a no-brainer, really. Plus, you get the added excitement of peeking at your bridal registery to see what’s coming.

It’s okay to admit it: you’re a registry addict. You’re among friends here.

But what if you and your FI have been keeping house for years? You don’t need coffee makers and dish sets or wine goblets. Do you have to accept lame gifts you’ll never use?

Heck, no!

One of my brides found a great wedding registry option that her guests were SO EXCITED to give. Rachel and Seth booked their honeymoon in St. Lucia, then set up a honeymoon registry. Guest could give the gift of honeymoon activities for the newlyweds.

Rachel reported how excited her guests were about the idea. “I bought you breakfast in bed,” her aunt boasted. “We got them a zip-lining day trip,” his uncle chimed in.

(Spoiler: these honeymoon registry gifts are credits you can spend any way you want on your honeymoon, so you’re not stuck zip-lining if you’re afraid of heights.)

Here are a few online sites where you can find your registry:

The Honeymoon

Honeyfund

Honeymoon Wishes

The Honeymoon Gift

Caution: many of these honeymoon registries charge a fee for the service. But it’s a small price to pay for the convenience, and your guests will LOVE it. And you can end up having your dream honeymoon FREE!

I cover more creative ways to save on your honeymoon in my eBook.

So what is your dream honeymoon and how are you making it happen? Leave me a comment.

If you’re looking for ways to make your wedding unique, you have GOT to check out Etsy.

You want–and DESERVE–to have the wedding of your dreams…in a beautiful location surrounded by your closest family and friends…having the time of your lives…a wedding that really represents YOU.

A unique wedding.

But with over 2 million weddings held in the United States each year, how is yours supposed to be unique?

No, you don’t have to have your wedding in a bunker like the couple in this photo…

You just need to use your two most powerful assets…

YOU and your CREATIVITY.

What’s the one thing that no other wedding in the history of weddings has ever had?

You and your fiance. Only your wedding will have your particular set of interests, quirks, and personality traits.

All you need to do is use your creativity to find ways to express it on your wedding day.

Tell your love story. Incorporate pictures from your past. Highlight your hobbies, obsessions, the things you have in common…or the ways you are completely different.

Your special events are a great place to display your unique personality. A couple ideas involving creative centerpiece give aways from our recent weddings:

• Our groom, Rob, is a Texas Hold Em Poker fanatic. So we’re hiding 5 playing cards underneath the centerpiece at each table. Each guest will have 2 cards hidden under their plate. The guest with the best hand takes home the centerpiece. Yee haw!
• Karin and Cooper printed up an index card telling the details of how they met and hid it under the plate of one guest at each table. The guest with the card had to tell the story to the rest of the table, and in return, they got to take home the centerpiece.

Cool, eh? Bet you’ve never seen THAT at a wedding. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Start using your creativity to show off what makes you unique. It’s a sure fire way to a unique wedding your guests will remember forever. Now hop to it!

Your Friend & Wedding Coach,

Stephanie

P.S. I dish on lots more unique reception ideas here. Check it out and then post a comment on my blog.

(Photo by Puja Parakh. See restrictions on use.)