101 Ways to Personalize Your Wedding
What makes a wedding special? It's all in the details, and we've got some exciting ideas to make your celebration memorable.
By: Rachel Griffiths
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Creative "I Dos" -142765
Ceremony seating can tie in with your wedding theme, so consider hay bales for a country wedding or satin cushions for the floor of that urban loft, says Sasha Souza of San Francisco's Sasha Souza Events.
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Creative "I Dos"
Have someone who is near and dear to you do a reading — perhaps a special love poem — or sing an aria from a favorite opera.
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Creative "I Dos"
Will guests be tossing petals post-ceremony? Hang cones or little galvanized metal buckets filled with these pretty items on the backs of ceremony chairs — they'll double as pew décor.
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Creative "I Dos"
"Don't be afraid to be creative with your ceremony music," says Souza, who's arranged "I dos" to everything from a single flamenco guitarist to a full jazz band.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
A super popular, tiny treat guaranteed to tempt guests? Mini-hamburgers, complete with bite-size buns and tomato jam, a tasty condiment made with tomatoes, sugar and lemons.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
Want to be really over-the-top? Conjure up some 1940s glamour with a fountain that gushes champagne, says Callahan.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
Want to spread the good luck? Fortune cookies or spicy wontons with fortunes tucked inside the crispy wrappers should do the trick.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
Tantalize guests with tiny shots of tasty, chilled soup in edible "bowls" such as baked-potato skins or even small, hollowed-out tomatoes.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
Serve hors d'oeuvres with a healthy helping of style. Try a pretty bamboo basket piled high with dumplings or shrimp skewers poking up from wheatgrass flats, Souza suggests, or seafood served on a bar carved from ice.
Photo Credit: Sherman Chu / Wedding Planner: Sasha Souza Events
A Spirited Cocktail Hour
Pinot noir, chardonnay or sangiovese, anyone? Host a cocktail-hour wine-tasting, conducted by the bartender.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
For an update on the classic raw bar, have the wait staff shuck oysters as guests watch. Callahan likes to display seafood in antique wooden crates or small rowboats.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
Your signature drinks stand out when bartenders rim guests' glasses with salt or sugar in your wedding colors.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
For a whimsical look, line your buffet tables with wheatgrass and then put up mini white picket fencing.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
"Each cocktail station should have a unique size and shape," advises Souza, who, these days, favors interesting serpentine and triangular tables.
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A Spirited Cocktail Hour
Chilled, flavorful summer soups look and taste refreshing when served from giant bowls carved out of ice. Another idea: Serve soup in shot glasses.
Photo courtesy of lifegoesstrong.com
A Ravishing Reception
For a picture-perfect memory, place your guest book on a table beside a rented photo booth. Guests can paste their snapshot in your book along with their good wishes for your future.
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A Ravishing Reception
Play princess for the day: Just for fun, fly jaunty flags in your wedding colors from the tops of tent poles.
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A Ravishing Reception
Must centerpieces always be flowers? Not necessarily, says Souza. She once designed a table with a six-inch fire pit in the middle, so that the center of the table was, literally, a blaze of glory! Get the look with candles in a glass bowl.
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A Ravishing Reception
Planning a seaside reception? Consider creating a centerpiece of sea glass strewn with shells and starfish.
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A Ravishing Reception
Your vessels should be as original as the flower arrangements they hold, says George, who uses rectangular, square and cylindrical ones in all colors — including black. Souza agrees. "I like vases carved from ice," she says.
Photo Credit: Karen Wise Photography / Created By: Tantawan Bloom
Fab Food
If you want to be sure that guests will be ready to get up and dance, serve no more than two courses at the table — and keep the food light and full of flavor, says Callahan.
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Fab Food
Whet guests' appetites with little square dishes of Tuscan nibbles — caramelized shallots, roasted peppers, bread sticks, Italian cheese — placed on each table, advises Callahan.
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Fab Food
The fastest way to get your tables talking? Ask your caterer for a first course that guests can share, such as cheese fondue.
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Fab Food
Skip the fuss of taking dinner orders by having waiters serve guests from huge platters holding a variety of main courses.
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Fab Food
Have a first course that teases the palate with a number of distinct flavors. Callahan's personal favorite? Lobster with parmigiano-reggiano cheese, layered with potatoes and crisp leeks, all topped by brilliant-yellow bok choy flowers.
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Favors
Everyone loves a candy table. Go for old-fashioned lollipops, rock candy and licorice in bright colors.
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Cakes & Desserts
Planning a wedding picnic? For one outdoorsy Chicago couple, Maher baked cakes-for-two that were placed in guests' lunch baskets.
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Stationery
To design a custom postage stamp with your photograph or wedding emblem, go to photo.stamps.com.
Photo courtesy of USPS
101 Ways to Personalize Your Wedding
Creative "I Dos" -142765
Ceremony seating can tie in with your wedding theme, so consider hay bales for a country wedding or satin cushions for the floor of that urban loft, says Sasha Souza of San Francisco's Sasha Souza Events.
Photo Credit: The Reason Photography on Southern Weddings via Lover.ly
