What is a themed wedding?
A themed wedding is a great opportunity to really stamp your personalities and personal style onto your big day. It doesn’t have to be a fancy dress party, although there’s absolutely nothing stopping you if you want to take that route! Having a theme for your wedding can definitely help you from the planning stage onwards because it gives you a focus for your ideas, decisions and purchases. But where do you start?
First of all, think about what theme will truly reflect you both and your personalities. Are you informal, traditional, animal-mad, star trek fans, movie buffs? Or perhaps your passion lies in nature and the great outdoors? Whatever your preferences, they will give you a guiding hand in deciding on your themed wedding ideas.
There is a world of wedding options out there and it can be really overwhelming when you start to think about your big day. Having a themed wedding will enable you to achieve a more harmonious approach and avoid a clash of style and tone, not to mention saving you money when it comes to those all-important purchasing decisions. Here are some ideas on how to achieve the themed wedding of your dreams…
- Decide on a colour theme
Two main colours and an accent colour will usually work well. These colours can be used for bridesmaids dresses, waistcoats and ties, napkins, stationery and almost any accessories you can think of. Most couples will usually opt for softer colours for their main theme with a stronger accent colour, for example they may have blush pink and sage green as their main colours with a stronger gold or navy blue as the accent colour. When deciding on your theme colours do take into account the colour scheme of your venue – both the ceremony room and the reception room.
2. Decide on an overall style
Your overall style will inform the decisions you make about suppliers, extras, your ceremony, your venue, in fact just about every decision you make will be affected by the style of your themed wedding. A good starting point is to choose just one word to sum up your themed wedding style. For example, traditional, modern, fun, rustic, theatrical, simple, lavish, glitzy, glamorous, inclusive, quirky, unconventional, sustainable, vegan.
If you are going for a woodland wedding, for example, you can search specifically for certain venues within a particular location that specialise in woodland weddings. This can be really helpful and is valuable when deciding on what your priorities are, rather than being swayed by magazines and other people’s choices. It also saves time because it helps you search for what you want!
3. Dare to be different
Just because you’ve never been to a movie-themed wedding doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Wedding planners are an invaluable resource for a themed wedding because they have probably been there and done it before. And even if they haven’t, their experience will help them to guide you in the right direction. They will know what questions to ask you, what suppliers to recommend and even to gently dissuade you if they feel something just isn’t likely to work, and they will suggest an alternative.
Examples of less conventional themed weddings are Star Wars weddings (other sci-fi themes are also popular), drag queen weddings, movie themed weddings (the list is endless, take your pick), fancy dress themed weddings, and indeed anything you’d like to think of! Be creative, throw away the rule book and let your imagination run wild.
4. Be consistent
When making decisions on what to include in your wedding, keep going back to your theme. This will help you to achieve a consistent approach in terms of the overall style. ‘Does this fit in with our theme?’ Is a great question to ask yourselves when choosing suppliers, added extras or incorporating new ideas. For example, if you are having a vegan themed wedding it’s quite straightforward to select the right caterer and menu but you may need to ask questions of other suppliers (stationery, flowers) if ethically sourced and sustainable products are a non-negotiable factor for you.
Whatever your theme, I’d love to chat with you about your wedding ceremony. Get in touch and we can start planning your special day.