Your wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and what better way to celebrate your love than by having a unqiue, personalized wedding that reflects your unique style and personality? By collaborating with a wedding coordinator and a team of talented vendors, you can create a wedding that is truly one-of-a-kind! You CAN make your wedding day non-traditional, more interesting, and have it stand out in a sea of wedding sameness. In this blog post, we will explore ways to plan and execute a unique wedding experience that is distinctive, unusual, and noteworthy, leaving you and your guests with memories that will last a lifetime.

Partner with Your Wedding Planner

Collaboration is KEY when it comes to planning a unique, custom wedding. Start by sitting down with your partner and discussing your vision for the big day. Brainstorm ideas and themes that resonate with both of you. This conversation and brainstorm will set the foundation for the entire planning process, ensuring that your wedding reflects both of your personalities. Then bring your wedding coordinator or planner on board with your ideas! Be open to their ideas about how to do something, whether they know of vendors that can execute your ideas, and how feasible, time-consuming and expensive your ideas might be!

Embrace YOU, because YOU are unique

You can create a truly unique experience for you and your guests with your wedding, just by incorporating things about YOU. From the invitations to the decor, infuse your personal touch into every detail. Consider incorporating elements that are meaningful to you as a couple, such as favorite colors, hobbies, or shared interests. This will make your wedding feel personal and special. One of my client couples loved records and listening to music. They created table cards that showed a picture of their favorite records, instead of using table numbers! I had another client who loves LEGOs, so they added little touches of LEGO designs to their decor. Do you love wildflowers? Add them everywhere!

Think Outside the Theme

When planning a wedding, don't be afraid to think outside the box. Explore distinctive and unusual themes that will set your wedding apart from the rest. Whether it's a vintage-inspired affair, a rustic outdoor celebration, or a whimsical fairy tale theme, choose a theme that speaks to you and showcases your individuality as a couple. Lots of couples are embracing Halloween themed weddings or getting married on Halloween or New Year's Eve. Some other unusual wedding themes are based on movies (like Harry Potter), a favorite sport (like baseball), even different historical times, like a 1920s flapper/Prohibition/speakeasy theme.

Live Entertainment

Live entertainment can add an extra layer of excitement and uniqueness to your wedding! Consider hiring live musicians, such as a string quartet, a jazz band or even your own band, to serenade your guests during the ceremony or cocktail hour. Hire a band to play cover songs at the reception. If you're looking for something more interactive, opt for a live artist who can create a custom painting of your wedding as it unfolds. Find a cartoonist who will make drawings of you and your guests while they attend your reception. Use a videographer to capture messages from your guests that you and your partner can view later. Some of these will not only provide entertainment, but also serve as a cherished keepsake.

Collaborate with Vendors

Working with vendors who understand your vision is crucial when planning a custom personalized wedding. Seek out vendors who specialize in creating unique and custom experiences. From florists who can create stunning, one-of-a-kind arrangements to photographers who can capture the essence of your wedding in a distinctive way, collaborating with talented vendors will elevate your wedding to new heights. Ask them to design something unique ahead of time, or put your trust in an expert and tell them to surprise you with their contribution in certain colors or themes.

A List of Unique Ideas

• Using things that mean a lot to you for table centerpieces (like your favorite books or pictures of you two on adventures)
• A custom made background for behind the two fo you, or for a photo area - I'm talking using your names or a monogram or a custom picture
• A choreographed dance (either just the two of you, with your wedding party, with your parents, and/or with your friends)
• Hire a dance teacher to attend the reception to teach line dancing, salsa, tango, hip hop or anything else
• Bring in an artist - they can be a caracature artist, a watercolor artist, a live painter, or something else
• Did you know that you can create a custom LED light for your dance floor?
• Lighting, lighting, lighting - bistro lights, fairy lights, twinkly lights, uplighting, party lights, disco balls, neon lights, glow sticks, etc etc
• Get creative with your photo booth and theme it to be something unique - guests can be famous singers, or change clothing, or create a photo room with all kinds of real props
• Coffee cart!
• Create a very unique signature cocktail, that has a different kind of garnish or color of the drink or flavor twist
• Add poker tables, like blackjack and five card draw
• Have a snack table get set up later in the evening, around 8 or 9 pm (depending on how long you have your venue), full of all your favorite snacks for guests to eat
• Turn the lights down during dinner to get people in the mood to start dancing
• A giant crossword puzzle for guests to work on while you are taking photos
• Giant inflatable dice during the reception - the couple rolls one and a guest rolls the other - if the guest's number is higher, the couple kisses. If the couple's number is higher, the guest has to kiss someone else!
• Have a handful of flip-flops for guests to use and take home, or pashminas, if the weather is cooler. Don't forget to have a basket of blankets for guests to borrow if it is cold!
• Add stargazing to the reception when the sun goes down - have telescopes focused on planets or constellations
• Temporary tattoos, especially if they are custom for your wedding!
• Personalized notes to each guest - this is hard and time consuming, but an amazingly incredible gift for your guests!
• Create or name things after your pets
• Trivia time! Maybe the table with the most wins gets to go first to the buffet?
• Lots of kids attending the wedding? Create custom activity books for them, with crosswords, word searches, coloring pages, puzzles and more. Throw in colored pencils, too!
• If you have any unique traditions or ceremonies related to your ethnicity, include those!
• Hire a magician for your cocktail hour
• Live animals anyone??
• Create a really comfy lounge area
• S'mores bar!
• Fire pits away from music and dancing
• Have your guests create a piece of artwork for you - pick the canvas and the colors and have them paint throughout the night
• Use butcher paper for tablecloths and leave crayons on the tables for the guests to draw, write and color
• Add fun facts about the two of you and/or your relationship to your cocktail napkins
• Create an entrance sign to your ceremony space or wedding venue with your names, the wedding date or a fun saying
• Create a phone check station for a really unplugged ceremony!
• Print your dinner menu on something else besides paper
• Place a snack at guests seat at the reception so they have something to snack on as soon as they sit down
• Get creative with your name cards at each seat - cookies, leaves, notes, bracelets, a drink topper, etc
• Asking guests for their favorite wedding song on their RSVP card
• Signage, signage, signage, signage (especially where the bathrooms are! this helps your vendors and venue staff SO much!)
• Instead of a guestbook, create a mail station where guests can write a letter to the couple, with fun pens, stamps, stickers and envelopes
• Karaoke and bingo
• Ask guests to bring a favorite recipe to put into a cookbook (you can even mail them recipe cards with their invite)
• I Spy game
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Planning a custom personalized wedding allows you to create an incomparable experience that truly reflects your love story. By collaborating with your partner and a team of talented vendors, embracing customization, and thinking outside the box, you can create a wedding that is as unique as you are. From the themed decor to the live entertainment, every aspect of your wedding will be personalized and memorable. So, let your imagination run wild, and create a wedding that will leave your guests in awe.