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I’ll be the first to admit, I never had a concrete vision as to what my wedding would be like. When I think about/thought about my wedding, I only ever pictured me and my family and a blubber of emotions in which the day was created. I didn’t have colors in mind, or favorite flowers. I didn’t care much about much but the actual day.
Now that I actually HAVE to think about things, and plan for it, I’ve grown a little more opinionated about a few things, but still haven’t had a strong direction. Really my planning process has been an “on the fly” type affair. The only thing I really know and have learned from all the weddings I have attended over the past few years is that the guest experience is all about the details…which are often a bride’s worse nightmare.
With this in mind, I decided that everything we did to add a little flare to our wedding would be something that directly reflects on us and our personalities or our hearts. This makes things a lot easier, because in being that I am doing much of it by hand, I actually WANT to do the projects because I am passionate about them. Not only that, I’ve learned that if I am drawn to something that I want to do, there is usually an emotional tie to it somehow–and therefore if we see fit, we can incorporate it into our wedding.
When your guest reflects on your wedding a year from the day, what do you want them to think?
“Wow, that was a hell of a party!”
“Wow, that was sooo {insert your name here}!”
“What did they have for dinner?”
“I don’t remember where it was?”
“I wish we could do that again!”
“They put so much of themselves into it!”
Ecetra Ecetra.
For us, we want to give our guests an experience, infused with our personalities and just a plain old good time. As Ryan keeps saying, he wants to have “The wedding of the Year!” This involves so many things other than the material aspects–but mostly we just want everyone to enjoy themselves, have a good time, and celebrate.
I’m a strong believer that unless you are with a group of party-people to get an outcome you desire you must put the proper ingredients into it. That is why, I keep hearing from our family “You are putting so much effort and detail into this!” In my mind, it’s all about the details baby!
Here are three things that we are incorporating into our day that we think will begin to warm people up and invite them to have a good time:
Photo-lounge:
I’ll be the first to admit this a little more extravagant than I typically go for. But it was the ONLY thing that I initially REALLY REALLY wanted to have. It is a reflection of me, and my interests and it is a total crowd pleaser. Who doesn’t love a good goofy self photo? Especially when enhanced by some amazingly goofy props. Here are just a couple of things I’ve picked up so far…
Hats:
Boas:
Signs:
I got some from this shop, on Etsy love them!
Empty Picture Frames:
Goofy Glasses:
Mustaches:
Pirate beards:
Disposable camera scavenger hunt:
We will be having a bunch of little ones at our celebration, and this was mainly to keep them busy–but I’ll admit, I’ve been to kid-less weddings with them too and I’m not sure who had more fun with it, the kids OR the adults!
We have 20 cameras, (at least one per table) and three different lists, so that we hopefully get a good variety of shots. I didn’t want to make an item for every exposure, because I didn’t want people to be afraid to take whatever images they wanted.
I have heard of people developing one a month or so to keep the fun lasting as long as possible! I know it seems silly but I am SO excited about these!!
Also, please make sure you point out the flash and remind your guests to turn it on!
Click here for more ideas for the hunt!
Year table numbers with corresponding stories and pictures:
We aren’t the average bear, and being that our family and friends are from all over, we wanted to help create conversation. Ryan and I struggled with how to do our table numbers, because we wanted to do something a little more unique than 1,2,3 etc. So we decided to name each table a year corresponding to our lives. For example, there is a table 1980, and corresponding with that is a little blurb about Ryan’s birth and a fun fact from the world that year. Also, on the table we have canning jars that hold a picture that corresponds with our ages at the year of the table. Our assumption is that some people (not all people will be into it, we understand) will go from table to table to see what the years say and what the picture looks like.
We decided to make enough of these to put on our cocktail tables and our family photo table as well. That way we could cover all the years of our lives. Also, the jar will have a big flower on top of it to top it off. I think we are going with a big old mum because they are the most economical, but I have seen some really gorgeous flowers that would look great as well. This is the sorta look we are going for….
http://capturedjarfairies.blogspot.com/
Minus all the fairness and such— 🙂
Get Inspired!
FYI: I didn’t use my own pictures for some of this post for several reasons, namely I didn’t want to unpack everything I have so methodically stashed away in Tupperware bins in preparation for travel to our venue. I promise afterward I will share images of our day!
