Everyone loves a wedding—but you want yours to be memorable so it’s not just one among many your guests attend in a lifetime.
There are more than 138,000 weddings in South Africa each year. You have to pull out all the stops if you want yours to be the one they talk about for years to come.
How can you stand out from the others? What can you do to make your wedding day not only special for you, but a notable experience for everyone in attendance?
Many people choose to have a wedding theme to help them prepare an event that gives everyone something to talk about—besides how radiant the bride looks.
Keep reading for our top wedding theme ideas to help you make the wedding of your dreams a magical experience for all.
1. Destination Wedding of Your Dreams
Destination weddings are always memorable, but they can end up excluding a lot of family and friends who can’t afford to travel to watch the ‘I do’s.’
If you want everyone to be able to celebrate with you, why not create a destination wedding theme right at home?
You don’t need to be someplace exotic for a beach wedding or sunset ceremony. Choose the destination of your dreams and begin building your theme around it. This could actually make a lot of the colour, food, decoration, and flower choices much easier because you’ll want them to all go together.
You could choose your theme to tie in with your honeymoon destination or with your bucket list of places you dream of visiting together on your 25th anniversary.
Whether you dream of skiing in the Alps, sipping wine in Italy, or going on safari in Nairobi, it could be fun to build your wedding theme around this location.
2. A Nostalgic Wedding Theme
There’s such an elegant feel to anything with a nostalgic theme. Why not make your wedding theme your ‘something old’ by giving it a nostalgic and classic look?
You can start with aged paper for your wedding invitations. You may even want to invite your guests to dress to the theme. Pick a year or just an overall sentimental theme that everyone can contribute to and have fun with.
To add to that with a personal touch, you could display photos and little “Love Stories” of couples past and present. You could even ask guests to share theirs on paper you provide.
Add a fun photo booth and provide vintage props for guests to have a photoshoot so they can capture their memories in film.
3. Awareness Themes
Many socially-conscious couples are choosing to make their wedding into an awareness or charity event for their favourite cause. For example, animal lovers may have puppies available for adoption at their reception.
Couples concerned about hunger may request donations to a local charity or food bank rather than wedding gifts. This is often a good choice for couples who are well-established and don’t really need a third toaster or another set of dish towels.
You could even place awareness cards on tables for guests to read about endangered animals or mental health statistics in homelessness. Give your guests something to discuss over dinner a little more substantial than the usual small talk that can occur.
4. Fun and Games
Weddings can often be thought of as an elegant affair where everyone is on their best behaviour, dressed in their Sunday best. By the end of the event, everyone is glad to take off their heels or loosen their ties and relax.
Why not give your guests a chance to let their hair down and have some fun at the wedding instead of the traditional dancing and drinking reception?
Create a backyard carnival and have games set up for guests young and old to enjoy. Instead of the usual sit-down or buffet meal, you could offer fun food favourites you’d find at The Rand Show or another loved amusement park.
Candy floss, Boerie rolls, ice cream, and other concession stand treats can be a great touch and create a fun experience no one is soon to forget.
This also solves the problem of trying to figure out what everyone will be happy eating at the reception. They can choose their own favourites.
5. Who Are You?
Your wedding doesn’t have to reflect years of wedding choices by other brides and grooms. This is yourwedding. Make it about who you are and why you and your soon-to-be-spouse love each other.
Your theme could include all the things the two of you love in life and in each other.
You aren’t bound by anyone else’s expectations of what a wedding is all about. If you want to have your wedding in the middle of a lake wearing hip waders because that’s the place you two love to fish—go for it.
If you’d prefer a more traditional setting where you can don a designer princess wedding dress and tuxedo and gracefully glide across the ballroom dance floor, you can always find ways to incorporate your personalities and interests into the event.
6. Celebrate the Past, Dream of the Future
The people you love who are there to share the day with you know you and love you because of the things you love. Your friends probably have many of the same interests and regardless, everyone is there to celebrate your special day.
So make it all about you.
Have your decorations be special things from your lives that have special meaning to you. Whether it is the artwork that was hung on the fridge when you were growing up or pictures of the first time you changed the oil in a car.
Create vision boards of all the things you hope to experience together in the coming years. Have guests create their vision board or bucket list, and then on a later anniversary, you can see how much you have accomplished and how much more you still have to experience together.
Love Your Wedding Theme
Your wedding is about celebrating your love. You should both love your wedding theme so that it is truly a beautiful start to what will be a grand life together.
Don’t forget to bookmark our site for easy access to all our wedding resources. And connect with us today so we can help you create the wedding theme of your dreams.
