Weddings are all about the couple that’s getting married.
From the event concepts down to the specifics of the occasion, everything needs to have something to do with you and your significant other.
Of course, there are certain aspects of the gathering that you’ll want to personalize more than others. These focus elements should exude a uniqueness that reflects your love story.
But dream weddings don’t always go as planned. To prevent this from happening, you could consider focusing on the following six key elements to plan a wedding that’ll make it uniquely yours:
1. Venue
The venue is an element that dictates a lot of things in a wedding. It affects the theme, food, and entertainment. It can even determine the number of guests you can invite.
Of course, it could be the other way around. You could also consider those factors as your basis for determining the venue you can have for your wedding.
When choosing a wedding venue, consider a place significant to you and your fiancée. It could be where you first met, had your first kiss, or visited during your courtship. You can also choose the place where you officially got engaged.
Besides the venue selection itself, there are other ways you can make the setting of your wedding extra special.
For example, jet-setter couples who like to travel together can get married near an airport where their entrance begins as they get off a private jet.
If you’re a pair who likes to party, you can also start the procession a long way away from the wedding venue and march to your nuptial parade-style, leading a marching band through town.
The possibilities are endless.
2. Wedding Ring Band
Wedding bands symbolize a couple’s commitment to their marriage and each other. The exchange of these rings also marks the beginning of life as a married couple and signifies how one person can become the other half that completes each other.
Because of this, wedding bands should be one-of-a-kind. And one way to make it truly yours is to have a lab-grown diamond wedding band custom made for the occasion. You can use online ring builder tools to get a good idea of what stones work for specific bands.
Of course, this isn’t the only way to make the rings extra special. You can also have them engraved.
Engraving is one of the most preferred customization techniques in wedding bands. Most couples would have their wedding dates written on the inside of the rings with their names beside it.
If the ring design allows, you can also have a personal message engraved into the wedding band. Just remember to keep the message short and sweet with just a few words or letters. You can also translate it into other languages or use special symbols.
If it’s not possible to summarize your sentiment into just a few words, you can have a line from a poem or a stanza in a song engraved around the rim of the diamond itself. Laser-inscribing microscopic messages or graphics is a great way to share a romantic secret between you and your beloved during such a momentous occasion.
3. Vows and the Ceremony
Next are the vows and ceremony proper.
Depending on your religious background and beliefs, you may customize your wedding vows as you see fit. You can recite passages one at a time to each other or exchange the same promise, delivered in unison.
Whatever you decide, make sure that you and your partner are on the same page and have the same length and level of wit and romance.
You should also consider having the ceremony reflect both of your beliefs, no matter how different they may be. For example, one couple had a wedding that incorporated two traditions: Catholic wedding vows for the bride and the Jewish breaking-of-the-glass tradition in honor of the groom’s upbringing.
You can even ask someone close to both of you to officiate the wedding. This can be a mutual friend or the person who introduced you to each other. Whatever the case, you can make your wedding ceremony as personalized as you want.
4. Music
Music feeds the soul and is also an integral part of any wedding.
In most cases, choosing a meaningful processional song is the go-to for weddings. This can be a song played during the couple’s first dance or in the background of one of their most memorable moments.
Personalizing wedding music can also be done through the ceremony itself. You can have musically talented guests sing a song instead of reading verses or sharing marriage advice. You may even incorporate a song into your vows if you are musically inclined.
5. Wedding Cake
No matter the cultural or religious background, almost every couple has a wedding cake to represent the sweetness of the new journey that lies ahead.
That said, besides the cake itself, you can also have the cake topper customized according to your taste.
Many couples have taken advantage of this idea and have miniature versions of themselves made to be used as toppings for their wedding cake. Some of them even dress the cake toppers to reflect who they are as a couple (e.g., a pair had theirs wear uniforms of opposing teams to reflect their rivalry as baseball fans).
Source: @caketopperstudio
6. Reception
Traditionally, weddings end with the newlywed couple and their guests and entourage coming together for a special meal. However, this doesn’t need to be your kind of wedding reception.
If you and your better half are more of a raging party kind of pair, sitting through a three-hour-long dinner may not be as enjoyable for you. Since food and drinks are the only permanent things in a wedding reception, you can change everything else as you see fit, whether it is a family-style party or a food truck dinner.
If it’s a party you want, consider having a cocktail-style reception instead. This kind of reception dinner is quite popular since it won’t require a stiff seating arrangement for the guests. It is also constantly filled with music and is flexible in terms of the program, so you can do whatever you want and just enjoy the company of your new spouse and the people who’ve come to celebrate with you.
7. Make It Personal
Weddings celebrate the union between two people, which means they are meant to reflect the couple and what they believe in.
Make your wedding as personal as possible by focusing on the key elements listed here. You may follow traditions, but at the end of the day, what you and your better half want matters the most.
