50 ways to personalize your wedding
Google dictionary defines personality as the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character. What an amazing gift that we are all different and have unique abilities, likes and talents about us, whether they developed from nature or nurture. I totally believe this should be reflected in your wedding. The combination of who you two are, and in some cases your families can be presented in ways you may never have thought about before. Stand out amongst the 2.50 million weddings that take place each year in the United States by adding personalized touches that will wow your guests and reflect yourselves, after all, this day is about YOU.
I wanted to give a large list with enough variety because I realize that not all of these ideas are everyone’s cup of tea, some of these aren’t in every couple’s budgets and some people may never have really thought about or considered personalizing touches to their wedding beyond displaying a last name or monogram, but those people are actually the minority. A wedding survey done by The Knot in 2017 reports that personalization is the top priority of betrothed couples while planning their wedding. I think we will continue to see more and more personalization in weddings as couples strive to make their weddings more memorable and eventful now more than any other time in history.
Enjoy the list:
1. Create wine bottle labels for the bar display (idea: put your engagement photos on the labels)
2. Write your own ceremony script and vows, or employ close friends or family to help
3. Purchase a personalized aisle runner (idea: have it tell your wedding story with first time you met at the start and end with your wedding date at the altar, note this story can be beyond just dates
4. Serve Jones Soda with custom labels (idea: use your photos or favorite love quotes)
5. Use an unordinary ring bearer vessel (idea: is the groom a baseball player? Use a catcher’s mitt)
6. Make a wedding hashtag (so people who take photos on their phones can upload them with the hashtag, this will organize them all to one place on social media)
7. Publish a wedding program (idea: make it newspaper format)
8. Throw a themed wedding, especially one that encourages guests to dress up too (idea: Halloween, Roaring 20s, masquerade ball, Rockabilly)
9. In place of a unity candle or sand, pot a favorite species of plant together and watch it grow throughout your life
10. Provide signature snacks (idea: his favorite treat and her favorite snack)
11. Display other family members wedding photographs (idea: parents and grandparents wedding photos displayed in the same colored frames)
12. Design a one of a kind cake topper
13. Include your dog(s) in the ceremony
14. If your pet(s) is unable to be at the ceremony, display a picture of it/them (idea: dress up your pet(s), take a photo, place in frame and write something wedding related on the frame such as “best man” or “maid of honor”)
15. Represent family members who are unable to attend (idea: have a photo display for deceased family members, empty chairs reserved for them or small photos on charms that attach to the bouquet)
16. Hang photos of yourselves along the aisle seats starting form baby to most recent like a timeline of who you have grown into on your wedding day
17. Create custom Converse sneakers to wear for dancing
18. Serve signature drinks (idea: he likes coca cola and she loves lavender lemonade)
19. Ask a friend to become ordained so they can marry you
20. Name your dinner tables after something relevant in your life (idea: places you have travelled to, important numbers and their meanings, photos of you two at the ages which correspond to table number)
21. Have your immediate family dress in the same color scheme
22. If either of you were a flower girl or ring bearer in a wedding as a child, display the photos
23. Incorporate your mother’s wedding attire (idea: have it refashioned to modern styles or to fit you and wear it, or wear her veil or shoes)
24. Have a custom wedding dress tag made and sewn into the gown
25. Display your family trees
26. Invite your favorite celebrities and display their responses
27. Serve personalized fortune cookies or candies such as M&Ms
28. Have his cuff links or her ring engraved, reveal the surprise on the wedding day
29. Share funny or cute moments from your relationship with guests by writing them on cards and putting on place settings
30. Incorporate your hobbies, crafts and talents into your wedding (idea: if you are a photographer, make postcards out of your photos and give as the favor)
31. Incorporate your heritage into the event (idea: display a flag from your country of origin or participate in a cultural tradition)
32. Have a silly photo display (idea: Photoshop your faces into famous movie posters or album covers)
33. Turn your engagement photos into a book and have it on display
34. Add a hint of personality to your cake (idea: if your cake is more traditional than silly, add a hint of something you love- perhaps an object used in a hobby or a favorite character peeking out from under the cake)
35. Share and display and wedding stories you have (idea: I was a flower girl when I was two years old, I thought I was the bride and I walked down the aisle crying screaming “I don’t want to get married”! I displayed the photo and printed the story in a frame)
36. Add personal family touches (idea: sew a piece of a deceased family members clothing into the dress or tie or have a family member write a surprise note on somewhere inconspicuous such as the bottom of a shoe)
37. Provide personalized cocktail napkins (idea: they could have writing on them or a photo)
38. Have a tangible, museum-esque, display of items from your relationship (idea: love notes, gifts, sentimental things)
39. Incorporate a dish from a cherished family recipe, give the recipe out as a favor
40. Create a comic or cartoon and display it
41. Have escort cards with cheesy, one liner jokes on them
42. Honor each wedding party member by giving them a minute or two of spotlight (idea: have them choose a “walkout song” [when a baseball player walks up for bat they have a song played], play it while they walk to their seat at the head table and then give them the mic to let them say a few words about the newlyweds- sort of a spin on the traditional speeches/ toasts)
43. Let whoever walks you down the aisle pick the song they will do their first dance to with you (idea: don’t let them tell you what it is so it’s a surprise day of)
44. Embrace brides men and grooms girls (idea: just have opposite sex wedding party members dress in same color palette to match)
45. Surprise each other (idea: give him a boudoir photo book, buy her a special piece of jewelry to wear or write each other a love letter to read silently at the alter or before walking out [great photo opportunities])
46. Incorporate unexpected members of the wedding party (idea: grandmas as flower girls)
47. Have a slideshow with your couples photo rolling on continuous loop somewhere at the venue
48. If you use a wedding hashtag, print it out on business card sized paper and put on each table setting
49. Display the first photo taken of you as a couple next to a current one
50. Make sure to individually thank each of your guests for coming and contributing to your wedding day
What did you do to add personal touches on your wedding? Please share in the comments!