9 New Wedding Ideas You Haven't Seen Before
/TBH, I’m kind of bored of the same old wedding traditions and ideas being done over and over again. Let’s mix things up and create beautiful, meaningful and magical wedding experiences that truly reflect you as a couple!
Here are 9 wedding ideas to inspire you to plan a unique wedding experience:
No Bridal Party
The Myspace-top-8 style bridal party just doesn’t work for everyone. More and more I am seeing couples opt out of having a bridal party for the big day. You can still totally have bachelor and bachelorette parties, have your girls get ready with you and have a few special people give toasts. But the nice thing about doing it this way is that you aren’t obligated to invited everyone to everything. You can just include the people you want in each of the different aspects. It also makes for a much more intimate-feeling wedding ceremony too! When it’s just you and your partner walking down the aisle and standing up there, all of the focus is on you and your wedding.
Host a Multi-Day Wedding Extravaganza
Instead of having one day where you cram all of the festivities into a matter of like 4 hours, spread it out! I love how Paris Hilton’s wedding was set up - they did a more intimate wedding ceremony and reception on a Thursday, a neon carnival-themed party on the Friday night, and a larger black-tie reception on the last night. This allows you to include different guests for each of the different festivities. Your wedding ceremony should be extremely intimate, so I don’t think it makes sense to have everyone you ever met attend. But you might want this for the reception celebration. If you have the wedding broken down into several separate events, this allows you to invite only the guests that make sense for each aspect. AND you get to spend so much more time celebrating with your family and friends. If you have a more limited budget, these celebrations don’t have to be very elaborate. You could literally have a backyard BBQ, a super intimate ceremony, a super intimate reception dinner, then a big party reception and maybe a morning-after wedding brunch.
Private Elopement-Style Ceremony + A Larger Shared Reception
Honestly, I don’t think it’s appropriate for EVERYONE to be part of that extremely intimate moment when you are exchanging vows with your partner. I think the best way to do this is to have a private ceremony that is just you two and your photographer, where you can exchange your most intimate vows. Then you can opt to have a ceremony with your close family and friends with the officiant and the more traditional wedding stuff - you can have your “you may kiss the bride” moment. Then have the big party later. You will be able to be so much more present this way - you really don’t want to be battling intense stage fright while you are in the middle of your ceremony. It’s just not going to be as special as if you are 100% able to focus on your partner.
Have a super fun pre-wedding photoshoot
On your wedding day, you don’t actually have that much time for photos. And trying to get them all in can make you feel rushed, and you might not be able to get all of the shots you want. I love the idea of scheduling a shoot with your photographer where you and your partner get all done up in your dress & suit and head somewhere beautiful and meaningful for a photoshoot. I love this couple that did their at Universal Studios! It was so fun and they had plenty of time to get so many different shots. You can be totally present and focused on the photos. This will also take some pressure off the actual wedding day too! You will know you have plenty of photos so you won’t feel like you need to cram them in during cocktail hour. I also LOVE the ideas of a post-wedding trash the dress photoshoot! You can get so many incredible photos and memories from a shoot like this. Just be sure to hire a photographer who specializes in trash the dress, so you can really make the most out of it!
Opt Out of Wedding Favors
In this age of minimalism, most people don’t even want wedding favors. We spend so much time and money on them, and they get tossed after sitting in a junk drawer for a year. You can do something much more meaningful like a handwritten thank you note for each guest on your favor table, or even donate to your guests’ charity of choice in leu of favors.
Have A Ring Warming Ceremony
Oh. My. Gosh. I am seriously obsessed with this idea. You pass the rings to each of the guests during the ceremony and they warm them with their hands and send all of their love and well wishes for the couple into the rings before passing them on. By the time they make it through all of the guests, they are so full of warmth and love and ready to be placed on your fingers! So so SO sweet.
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7. Alternative Guestbook - Create an Activity for Guests to do During Cocktail Hour
The traditional guestbook doesn’t end up terribly meaningful, especially if guests are rushing to sign it on their way out at the end of the night. Put your guestbook out during your cocktail hour so guests have plenty of time to write thoughtful, meaningful notes for you. And better yet - give them a reason to write something extra special! I love the idea of getting a personalized travel journal or some sort of notebook and having your guests write you a bucket list! This is so much more meaningful than just “Congrats!” written down in a guestbook you will probably never look at again. This will also prompt them to share their stories with the other guests while they are waiting their turn to write - the perfect wedding cocktail hour ice breaker!
8. Use Your Home Décor & Family Photos as Wedding Décor
This is such a beautiful way to really infuse you and your partner's style into your wedding day. It’s also way more sustainable and cost-effective than spending a bunch of money on things that you are never going to use again. Even if you are buying décor for the wedding, try to buy things that you can use in your home afterwards! I also love signs that you can repurpose into home décor too. This is such a cute way to decorate your home and infuse all of the incredible memories from your wedding day into it. I also love the idea of using family photos throughout - grab some of those frames that have been hanging on the wall at your parents or grandparents homes for years and set up a little display! This helps tell the story and makes your wedding decor so much more personal and meaningful! Just be sure to create a list of all of the items and assign a trusted person to pick up all of the items that belong to you at the end of the night so they don’t get lost in the mix!
9. Give Your Partner Full Reign Over an Important Wedding Element
When I thought of this idea, I was cracking up thinking about what all of the different grooms I’ve worked with would do if they were given this opportunity. It’s such a sweet and fun way for them to be really involved in the planning. AND that’s one less thing you have to plan. If it were me, I would do this with the cake! Even if they did something super silly, I think that would be way more meaningful and memorable than just another white wedding cake.
There you have it - 9 new wedding ideas that haven’t really been done! I hope that even if you don’t use one of these ideas specficially, it encourages you to think outside the box and create some unique experiences in your big day! For more on these ideas, watch my video:
Happy Planning!
xo Kyle