A GUIDE TO PERSONALIZING YOUR WEDDING
Photography by Sarah Jual
Something we absolutely adore when it comes to collaborating with our clients is getting to know them as individuals and as a whole. There are so many elements that go into planning and designing a wedding and something we truly love to see is when clients incorporate their own personal flare into the different parts of the wedding day. From performing cultural traditions to incorporating sentimental touches into the decor, there are so many ways to personalize your wedding and we hope this post gives you some wonderful ideas.
Food and Beverage
A fun and often unexpected way to personalize your event is through the food and beverages you choose. This is a fantastic way to showcase all sorts of cultural or sentimental things you might otherwise find difficult to incorporate into the celebration.
Incorporate a sentimental dish. Some ideas include a fish you had on your first date, a family specialty, something you love to cook together or a rendition of your favorite dish from a restaurant you frequent together.
Combine cultural cuisines to celebrate your heritage or your travels. In the past we’ve done fun menus that incorporated Chinese and Indian food to celebrate the bride and groom’s families. We’ve also done a really creative and lovely Italian and local Hawaii because the bride loved Italian food and the groom Hawaiian food. The combos are endless with the right guidance from your caterer.
The style of dinner service also says a lot about your personalities. If you choose a plated menu, you might be more formal where as if you choose a buffet, you may want the event to be more casual.
Select beer or wine to celebrate your home country or state or maybe even a brewery or winery you visited together as a couple.
Offer his and her or themed signature cocktails. This is always fun to celebrate your individual preferences in a festive way.
Timeline
Although following some basic guidelines for a smooth flow of events is advised, that doesn’t mean that your wedding has to be like every other one you’ve attended. Here are our best tips to personalize your timeline.
Photography by Ashley Goodwin
Skip traditions that don’t mean anything to you and make your own. We’ve had clients forgo a recessional after their first kiss in exchange for hugging everyone immediately after the ceremony. We’ve also had clients cut a whole roast pig instead of a wedding cake. Opting for something unique is always more memorable and of course, meaningful.
Design your entire timeline around what is most important to you. If it is all about the dancing, then keep the dinner and the speeches short so you can build up the energy quickly to the dancing portion of the evening. Alternatively, if a nice long dinner is your priority, perhaps plan for multiple courses with toasts in between to stretch it out.
Celebrate during your favorite time of the day. If you are not night owls, perhaps a brunch wedding will be more up your alley.
Skip the formal reception. If sitting down to dinner isn’t your thing, there is nothing stopping you from having all evening cocktail reception or even skipping dinner for a cake and punch dance party.
Celebrate with more than one ceremony! Some of our favorite weddings started off with a traditional American ceremony and after a pause for cocktail hour transitioned into a Korean tea ceremony.
Photography by Stephen Ludwig
Participation and Performances
One of the most personal and unique parts about each event are the people you choose to celebrate with. Asking special loved ones to participate in different parts of your wedding is a wonderful way to personalize things.
Invite a friend or family member to perform the ceremony. There is nothing like an officiant who knows you well to create a thoughtful and meaningful ceremony.
Having a loved one perform during your ceremony or reception is always a nice touch. We’ve had friends perform a song for the couple during the ceremony and reception plenty of times. We’ve also had loved ones write poems and choose special passages that were read during the ceremony.
Learned a choreographed dance for your grand entrance or first dance. Some of the most memorable ones we’ve seen start off very romantic and formal and end with a fun twist. Whatever they chose, it was a great reflection of their personalities as a couple.
Invite special guests to give a speech. Although you may not have complete control of the final outcome, it is a great way to curate the tone of the evening. If you want the reception to be fun, choosing your funniest friend to speak will do the trick.
Last but not least, special performances from family and friends are always really special. One of the most memorable ones we’ve seen was when a bride’s cousin performed a comical version of a lion dance during her reception. It honored her heritage as well as her sense of humor.
Music
Music choices may be an obvious one, but it is often overlooked. When you really put some thought into it, you can infuse a lot of personality into your celebration.
Photography by Emily Turner
There is no rule you have to stick to the classic “here comes the bride” when you walk down the aisle. One unique couple who loved EDM and wanted their whole wedding to have an EDM festival vibe, chose to build anticipation and drama in their ceremony by playing Eyes by Kaskade as the bride walked in.
Choose fun grand entrance songs. Some of our favorite grand entrances have been when couples chose theme songs from films like Jurassic Park or Star Wars.
Use music to get the guests to learn about the bride and groom. We once had a wedding where the DJ played movie theme song from the bride and groom’s favorite films and the guests had to name the film in order to be released to the buffet.
Make your favorite song lyric part of the theme. Music can be incorporated in a visual way, not just auditory. We had a couple who titled their seating chart “I’ll weave a lei of stars for you” (a lyric from their first dance song) and each escort card and table was named after a Hawaiian constellation.
Incorporate a mix of cultural music to honor your heritage. Some of the most fun weddings we’ve seen had Chinese, Korean, Persian, Indian, Ukrainian and/or Russian music mixed with the typical top hits you would expect to hear at a wedding.
We hope that by reading this, we have inspired you with ideas on how to personalize your own wedding. We always love seeing the different ideas our clients come up with when they’re planning their special day and we can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Happy Planning!
