How To Make Your Wedding Beautifully Unique
Many girls dream of their wedding day. Whether you want to elope or throw a huge party for everyone you know, you have probably had a picture in your head of your ideal celebration since you were little. Once you get engaged and enter the wedding planning stage, it’s time to make that dream come to life! But how do you make your wedding unique in the age of social media?
The key is to get out from under the thumb of wedding shows and movies and use your creativity! There is no right or wrong way to celebrate marriage. Whatever feels right for you and your partner is what you should do for your special day.
Coming up with ways to make your wedding uniquely you can be hard, though, especially if you’re on a time crunch. If you’re drawing a blank, I’m here for you! Planning your perfect wedding is actually a lot easier than you might think.
Read on for my tips on how to make your wedding unique, beautiful, and perfect for you!
Steer Clear Of Pinterest
I get it.
Pinterest, Instagram, and other social media platforms are filled with images of the “perfect” wedding day. If you rely on these too much for wedding ideas, it’s easy to go over your budget or drive yourself crazy. Most of the time, those weddings you see on Pinterest required months of meticulous planning by a professional wedding planner, a considerable budget, and just the right vendors to pull off the look.
I’ll admit that I had a wedding Pinterest board when I was planning my big day. However, I quickly figured out that many of the ideas were simply out of my price range or were harder to achieve than they seemed.
Barely anyone ends up with these “dream” weddings. Don’t beat yourself up! Instead, use social media as a source of inspiration rather than as concrete plans.
For example, if you’ve pinned tablescapes full of flowers, consider silk or fabric instead of the real deal to save some cash. Or if there’s a designer wedding dress that caught your eye, figure out which element of it you love so much and find a more affordable option with that detail.
If you do want to search social media for wedding ideas, try to create a vision in your head first. At least have some general themes in mind! Simply searching “wedding” on Pinterest will bring up so many results that you’ll end up more confused than you were before.
Instead, try more specific searches. Try things like “strapless wedding dresses,” “fall wedding decor,” or “wedding cake alternatives.” These will narrow down the hits to a more manageable size and help you find the inspiration you want!
Get Personal
Every girl dreams of making her special day the wedding of the century. You want your guests to have fun, but more importantly to remember that it was your wedding. Incorporating bits of you and your fiance into the celebration ensures that your wedding will be unmistakably yours.
There are so many ways to pull off a personalized wedding. You just have to get creative! When starting your wedding plans, jot down everything that defines you and your partner as a couple. Are you foodies? Do you love the outdoors? Is your dog basically your furry child?
Once you have a list of things that make you two unique, sprinkle them into different elements of your wedding to make it more personal. For example, if you are both super into music, create a wedding playlist for the DJ to play and burn it onto CDs for guest favors. If you two are passionate about the environment, ask your caterer to create a menu using only local foods.
If you want to make your wedding unique and personal, there are so many more options than a photo slideshow during dinner. Ask your partner to help out with the brainstorming, and you’re sure to plan a day that you and your guests will never forget!
Craft Your Heart Out
Got the crafting bug? DIY some elements of your wedding. You’ll save SO much money, plus homemade details will make your wedding unique.
Making your wedding stuff at home is the easiest way to add a personalized touch to your special day. Even if you steal an idea from social media, it won’t look the same because you made it! Like at my friend’s wedding, we created our bouquets from bulk flowers and craft store ribbon. As a result, they were so much cheaper and fit the rest of the decor perfectly!
DIY allows you to put your own spin on everything from invitations to decor when store-bought just won’t do. Say you see a cute banner, but it isn’t in your wedding colors. Or your dream guest book is out of stock. Recreate them to match your needs! If you have any crafting talent at all, making wedding items yourself can save you a massive chunk of money.
Now:
Be sure to ask your bridesmaids, family, and friends to help pitch in so you don’t turn into a stressed-out bridezilla! As the bride, your number one priority right before the wedding should be preparing yourself to marry the love of your life, not worrying about tiny details. Having too much to do might tempt you to be a runaway bride! Remember that crafting for your big day is fantastic, but taking on too much (even with help) isn’t worth it.
Go Vintage Or Handmade
Whether you want a wedding that is traditional or unconventional, having the same details as other brides don’t feel great. You want your celebration to stand out! An easy way to find unique wedding stuff is by shopping vintage or handmade.
Grab your girls and head to the local vintage or thrift shop. Who knows what you might find! Decor pieces, shoes, accessories, dresses, the list goes on! When you are only using these things for one day, it kind of hurts to spend a lot of money on them. Buying second-hand can save you some cash, reduce waste, and give your wedding buzz-worthy touches.
One of the absolute best places to find vintage and handmade goods is Etsy. Small artisans sell everything you can imagine on there! This site gives you access to craftspeople from around the world who can provide you with wedding goods nobody else will have.
When I was shopping for my wedding, I bought my fabric flower bouquet and my hair halo on Etsy, and I couldn’t be happier with how they both turned out. Each piece was handmade, so I knew it was high-quality, plus nobody else I knew had anything similar. Shopping on Etsy means you get unique, high-quality products.
Supporting small shops also felt great! It’s a lot easier to shop at big-name retailers for everything, from your dress to decorations. Giving your business to an artist, though, lets you contribute directly to someone’s dream and livelihood!
Check out all the amazing wedding items Etsy has in stock by clicking here!
Drown Out Others’ Opinions
One of the most fun parts of planning a wedding is doing it with your family and friends. Choosing bridesmaids dresses, tasting food and cakes, touring venues, reading wedding magazines. Soaking in all of these moments with your parents and friends makes for great memories! But you need to make your wedding unique to you, not them.
When it comes to other peoples’ opinions, here’s what you need to know. What you and your future spouse think is the top priority. Everybody else can back the hell off! Too often, brides get overwhelmed with trying to please everyone, including their grandma, mother-in-law, and maid of honor. Just remember that it’s your day, not theirs.
I’m not saying you should be a total terror and make your loved ones’ lives miserable. Don’t do that! However, planning a wedding that makes you and your significant other happy is the most important thing. If you’re making a decision purely to please a family member or friend, reconsider it.
There’s no reason you should have to invite a random relative, wear a dress you hate, or have a lame ceremony if you don’t want to. These people love you, so they’ll get over it! We’re all grown-ups, and it’s up to them to avoid acting like a spoiled child while you’re planning the wedding of your dreams.
Are you struggling to drown out all the input from your pals? Try the secret approach. Only reveal details of your wedding that each person needs to know. The less they know, the less they can criticize! Coming into a wedding totally blind as a guest is also really fun. Everything is a surprise, which makes the whole day feel more magical.
You Do You
The most important part of wedding planning is to do you. Planning the big day that fits your personality rather than a cookie-cutter idea will automatically make your wedding unique. If you’re a fan of reality wedding shows (aren’t we all?!), you probably have a formula in your head for what makes the perfect wedding.
But guess what?
You don’t have to follow it!
Just because every Emily and Jessica on TLC executed their weddings a certain way doesn’t mean that is the only way to get married. Yes, having a castle venue or a steak dinner or a fireworks display would be awesome, but your wedding probably won’t be ruined if you don’t have those things.
Want to wear jeans instead of a wedding dress? Go for it! Want to tie the knot at sunrise and celebrate with a breakfast reception? That’s awesome! Plan a wedding that says something about you and your partner’s personalities and that truly feels like you.
I’ve always been the person who has to be contrary just for the heck of it, so I had no problem planning an out-of-the-box wedding. I knew that between my small budget and my personality, my big day wasn’t going to look like a Pinterest board come to life. Instead, I steered into my quirks and created a wedding that looked like a pretty garden party crossed with a kid’s birthday.
We had a brunch reception. I wore a wrap sundress I bought at a department store. We broke a pinata. It was colorful, bright, cute, and couldn’t have been more me. My friends agreed! The best part was that planning a wedding that was perfect for me instead of for social media reduced my stress by about 1000%. Actually enjoying the day rather than fussing over insignificant details felt terrific!
Need More Help With Wedding Ideas?
Coming up with ways to personalize your wedding can feel overwhelming. All of a sudden, you feel like you don’t even know yourself or your partner! If you are drawing a blank on how to make your wedding unique, take a look at this short video. Celebrity event planner Mindy Weiss shares how to tap into your story as a couple and share it with your wedding guests.
Happy Wedding Planning!
There are infinite ways to make your wedding unique. You just have to tap into your creative side! Bringing elements of you and your partner’s personalities and love story will make your big day extra memorable. Forget about poring over social media for wedding ideas. Make yours the wedding that everyone wants to copy!
Want your big day to follow wedding traditions? That’s great! Planning on throwing every tradition out the window? That’s ok, too! As long as you plan the wedding that shows off who you and your fiance are as a couple, it’s going to be perfect.
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