Personalize Your Wedding

Standing on Ceremony

6. Roll up to your "I do" site in grand style. Go "old Hollywood " in a curvy convertible or country chic in a vintage Ford pickup truck. Marrying in a city? Hire wedding-day transportation for your bridal party that's representative of that place, like a trolley in Boston or a white Hummer limousine in Los Angeles .

7. Get creative with your seating arrangement at your reception. When Matthew David of Matthew David Events, in New York City , planned a recent wedding held on an ocean cliff, he brought in benches for older guests and had everyone else stand. To enhance an intimate, casual ceremony at a wedding held on a beach, Hotchkiss arranged to have guests sit on comfortable pillows scattered on the sand.

8. Make your wedding ceremony music meaningful. For a bride who loved opera, Allen arranged for a 15-piece orchestra to perform the woman's favorite overture. For another wedding, Allen hired a professional musician to arrange a Coldplay song for organ and strings because the bride wanted to walk down the aisle to her favorite rock ballad.

9. You don't have to be Shakespeare to write your own vows. Simply give three reasons why you love your intended and offer the three most important promises you can make. Even if the words aren't particularly eloquent, the feelings behind them will shine through brilliantly.

10. Instead of rolling out a white carpet, have the aisle strewn with fresh flowers or petals in your wedding colors. (Check with your house of worship to see if this is allowed.)

11. Do you and your fiancé have a favorite love song? Ask a friend to read the lyrics at the wedding ceremony, then use that tune for your first dance, suggests David. "It'll nicely link the ceremony and reception," he says.

12. Browse through that beloved book your parents used to read to you every night before you went to bed. An excerpt might make an ideal ceremony reading. Make sure to choose one with a fairy-tale ending—like yours.

13. Can't imagine tying the knot without your beloved dog present? "A well-behaved pooch makes a great ring bearer," says Hotchkiss.