Find the real you in your wedding day – Dunhill Tuxedos Bridal Blog

Tradition is nice, celebrating you as a couple is better.  Even for the most traditional brides, keep your something borrowed, blue, new and old and use your imagination to choose elements that are really going to make your wedding unique and special.  Remember, you want this to be a celebration of you and your groom.  Take time in your planning to really explore yourselves as a couple.  Don’t be afraid to include and share things that honor loved ones, favorites, heritages and just things that really make you smile with your guests. The following are some suggestions we have come up with to make the details in your wedding celebrate you.

Place pictures of wedding couples in your family at the entrance or sweet table/cocktail table.

Why not really show your gratitude for your family’s love and support through the years by displaying their own wedding photos.  Leave them in their own original frames to add character and a timeline to the presentation.  Take left over place cards (or folded cardstock) and create standup labels to display name of the couple, the relation and their wedding date.  Place the display at entrances, cocktail tables, and escort tables or by the guest book. This is a great, simple, affordable way to dress up any of those wedding locations.  Imagine how appreciated grandma and grandpa, or even mom and dad will feel when they see that you’ve included their love and memories.

Add an element of your proposal story to your wedding reception

Beach proposal?

Add sand or subtle seashells to the centerpieces, even if you are having an out of season wedding, get creative and have fun with it. Hide a seashell in your flower bouquet to remind you of the special day he asked you to be his wife.  Even if no one else can see it, he and you know what it means. Another idea is to use unity sand instead of an unity candle to remember the beachsque setting.

Memorable restaurant?

Ask the restaurant to create mini versions of the dessert he proposed to you over and offer it as an after dinner snack (around 10:30-11).  Another way to incorporate this is to add these yummy creations to your sweet table.

Famous landmark?

Use pictures of these places for your table number cards. Take the pictures you took at the time of your engagement and digitally insert a number of the table.  If you are not digitally inclined, get number cutouts and glue/paste it on. Make the pictures about 5×7 and go to a local scrapbook store and get paper to create a backing around the picture.  On the back, write the story of your engagement with facts about the landmark.

Serve wedding cake that represents your heritage.

Cannoli crème if you are Italian, papaya filling from the Philippines, Dutch heritage can use almond paste.  Use any of these countries traditions as your cake filling.  If you’re Irish, the top tier should be Irish whiskey cake. If your heritage is not on here, and you have a suggestion, share it with our other brides in our comment box!

Untraditional Guest Books

A guest book is a must have on the traditional wedding checklist, a book for guests to sign in writing a message of congratulations to the bride and groom.

Instead of your formal guest books, pick out a coffee table book of  common interest of the bride and groom to have your guests sign in. If you don’t know what a coffee table book is, it is a larger book of an interest that you leave on your coffee table on display to act almost as a conversation piece or representation of you.  Choose a book of what you love to do (skiing if you like winter sports, bartending if you like to host parties, wine for the vino enthusiasts, etc.)

A big trend now is also to have the framed picture of you two in the center of a matted signable frame.  Make this idea more unique to you by making a collage of pictures of you as well as places traveled as a couple and things you enjoy together.  This picture may act as a time capsule on your 50^th wedding anniversary, especially with the messages of your guests around it.

Do what makes you feel special as the bride and have fun with celebrating you and your groom on your big day.  Until next time…Happy Wedding Planning!