Injecting your personality as a couple is a sure fire way of making your wedding personal and unique. After trawling the internet for hours and reading many, many bridal magazines, I have come across all sorts of different ways to add detail that give a wedding day the personal touch. Here are some of the best ideas I have found, and some of my own too.
- Use photos of you as a couple in your venue. Perhaps incorporate them into your seating plan or simply frame them and hang them at different heights along a more plainly decorated wall. Using black and white photos adds a little something extra. Download some free photo editing software from the internet and start experimenting. I like Picasa 3.
- If you have already decided on a theme for your wedding, maximise every opportunity to make the most of it. For example, if you are a fan of the Beatles, what about styling your groom and ushers in retro cut suits, or naming your tables after Beatles songs.
- Work with what your venue has to offer. Bunting wouldn't work in a grand dining room of a manor house, but it would work perfectly in a marquee or in an enchanted garden reception. See instructions for making bunting on the Home page. Simply click on the label link to find it.
- Collect different cups and saucers from charity shops and car boot sales to make your own candles and place on the tables for your guests to enjoy a candle lit dinner with a difference. You could also use cups and saucers to create small flower arrangements and place on windowsills or around your cake table rather than fork out lots of money for larger arrangements.
- Find the thought of a guest book a little conventional? Invite your guests to write a message for you on different coloured card and display on a board covered with fabric and cris-crossed with ribbon. You could re-use this board after the wedding at home for notes or photos. Personally, I love the idea of using a vintage typewriter. I'm currently on the hunt for a working one. Ebay is a good place to start if you are thinking along this line.
- Add a little something extra to your centre-piece by placing the flower arrangements on top of a mirror. If this is a little costly, a good alternative is to use a cake board, find at www.craftcompany.co.uk. You could go one step further and cover the cake board with wrapping paper that matches your colour scheme.
- A close friend of mine got married earlier in the year to an Irishman over in Cork. Proud of her British heritage, she decided to ditch the traditional ivory bridal shoes, and instead opted for Union Jack shoes. Love it! Find these by Irregular Choice at Schuh for £54.99.
- If the space in your venue allows it, set up a photo corner for your guests to snap themselves in. All you'll need is a backdrop - perhaps a sheet of fabric which compliments your colour scheme - and a polaroid camera. You'll get instant results which you could add to a scrap book of the day. For extra fun, what about hiring a costume/fancy dress box?
