Personalise your wedding

Weddings are all about joining two families together, creating new identities and starting life afresh.

One way to channel all these new beginnings, is to personalise your big day, and incorporate elements of both families into your celebration.

There are so many different ways you can do this – and not all of them involve spending loads and loads of cash!

Here are just a few ideas that I’ve seen other Brides incorporate into their big day!

Name tables, rather than number them

• You can not only choose something that is really unique to you, but you can also provide a talking point for your guests while they are seated. Name each table after a country you have been to, holidays you’ve been on, your favourite bands, TV characters or films, inspirational figures, favourite flowers or even favourite sports players (eek!).
• If you do decide to use numbers, how about giving them an interesting twist by adding a photo of either you, your partner, or both of you at the age of the table number. Family members will love cooing over the pictures and reminiscing the ‘old days’ and it’ll definitely give all your friends and colleagues a good laugh. A perfect ice-breaker!

Photos, photos, and more photos!

• Carrying on with the photo theme, collect loads of pictures of you and your partner and create a photo wall, or photo corner. You could create an interesting focal point in the room of photos of your time together, or go right back to the baby years and create a timeline. This is something I am currently in the process of doing! I have scoured all the baby albums and collected and scanned photos of myself and Mr M throughout the years and I’m planning to make a display to showcase during the evening reception (which will be a complete surprise to Mr M as this has all been done in secret!). Facebook can be a godsend for this kind of thing, as its one of the easiest ways for friends and families to share photos, and provide you with loads of choice of embarrassing photos to add in!
• You could also try and add pictures of your guests in with photos of you and your partner – it will bring back good memories for everyone, and they’ll love to hunt through the pictures to see if they feature!

Handwrite or DIY as much as possible

• You’d be surprised what effect handwriting little bits and pieces throughout your big day can have on how ‘you’ your wedding appears to your guests! I’m not saying you should painstakingly handwrite in full each invitation, RSVP card, menu and order of service, but simply handwriting your guest’s name on the invitation rather than having it printed it makes your guests feel like you want them there! Its also a lot cheaper to hand write something rather than have it printed – intimate AND purse friendly! I will be making little ‘reserved’ signs for the chairs at our ceremony, to make sure that those people who are most important to Mr M and I are right at the front watching us take our vows. This will also cease any confusion between guests as to who is supposed to be sitting where etc! There is nothing worse than the awkwardness of musical chairs when it comes to a big occasion such as a wedding!

Appreciate your guests

• If you have guests travelling from a long distance away, make sure they know you appreciate them making the effort. This can be done as simple as creating a mini welcome pack for them to leave in their hotel room. Including items such as mini shampoo, body wash, mints, paracetamol, will make them feel like you’ve recognised their efforts and are genuinely glad they’ve attended your big day. All these things can be gathered together for a few pounds per person and will be most appreciated by those who have travelled from abroad or from the other end of the country.

Remember those who are no longer with us

• For many families, including my own, we will have lost people who have played an important or significant part in our childhoods, or have moulded us into the people we are today. An way of doing this is by displaying some photos of those who are no longer with us, so that they still feature in your big day. This is a lovely and really cheap way to incorporate those special people who for no fault of their own cannot be part of the biggest day of your lives.

And finally, make your wedding about YOU as a couple. Don’t feel forced into doing something a certain way, or having a certain thing if it does not already feature into your characters and relationship. Magazines are always saying you should do things this way, and you NEED to have this and that. In all honesty, you don’t need any of the material stuff as long as you and your partner are ready to take the next step into your relationship by marrying each other. Everything else apart from that is just ‘fluff’. Don’t get me wrong, I love fluff, but make your day about YOU, not what you are told you should by someone else!