How are you making your wedding 'yours'?

I get the joy of planning two weddings, a small one in Costa Rica, and a bigger reception in his parent's backyard.

We met through Bitcoin & Hip Hop (He's a music producer and I've always been a long fan of rap - which often is surprising to people because I'm a white girl from Canada - but I made this remix of Big L ebonics but made all the references to bitcoin slang. To try and incorporate that a bit, we're having the cake with a Bitcoin "B" on top.

For the smaller wedding - I got iron-on patches for napkin holders, and customized them for each person.

For the bigger wedding - I'm having 8 different printed tags to go around the napkins with a hemp tie - they will say 8 different rap lyrics about food.

FH also makes a lot of art about Bitcoin, so I want to feature his art as decorations - and make them into magnets for the favors.

For the CR wedding - having one of his art things - a giant frog called DJPEPE - put on a beach towel to go in the welcome basket.

Will also be putting out a bunch of games, tarrot cards, cards against humanity, cards about matrimony.

I love the idea of making each table Italian. You could get the Italian flag and put it somewhere. You could put a towering thing of Grapes and "to go" bags that people can take some grapes with them. Or put pictures of the Italian coastline around the venu as added decore. (Or - take it a step further and go mobster with it - pictures of all the greats from the best mob movies, and funny quotes they said about love - they are all usually softies at heart too).

Music will be a big thing for us. We also love board games.. We are known for always bringing the games. So I was thinking having a board game section at the wedding.

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Wow! You must be busy! Thank you for the ideas!

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Board games would be fun!!

We are incorporating our love of books in every way that we can. We haven't nailed down all of our decor just yet but some ideas I LOVE are, "Chapters" instead of table numbers, books incorporates into the center pieces, a large display with books attached indicating table assignments, love quotes from various books on signage.

Doing His and Hers cocktails - our favorites - as the only hard alcohol options

Personalizing our ceremony with our best friend as the officiant

We are writing our own vows. We met through a Meetup group snow shoeing, so we will have our snow shoes at our reception. No band or DJ we will play our favorite music through Pandora while a video of us is playing in the background at our reception. A family member will officiate the lighting of the unity candles to signify my daughters and us being a blended family.

View Quoted Comment Love that idea very original.

We are incorporating our cultures and things we like to drink. We are both big beer drinkers so we are going to try to have our favorite beers at our reception. During our ceremony we are going to incorporate some traditional Native American (Hopi specifically) wedding things. My daughter is going to wear a traditional Hopi dress and my son is going to carry our rings on a bow and arrow instead of a pillow or something.

For sports maybe you can name your tables after different teams? Or after different sports.

I am a simple person that loves rustic/vintage themes so to make my wedding mine, I am having rustic and vintage decor, neutral colors, a simple supper; brats and burger bar. We are also having a bonfire during cocktail hour and yard games. I am having simple greenery flowers with eucalyptus with pops of navy and sage green because that is going to be our color scheme. I am also making my wedding mine by getting married in a barn instead of a church because I am not the most church going person, so even though some of my family would prefer me to get married in a church, I decided to do what would make me the happiest and get married on a farm yard. I also plan on having succulents as wedding favors which I feel is a unique to me kind of gift!

View Quoted Comment We’re doing a taco bar too! I can’t wait for it

Most of our wedding was provided by the venue. But we had quite a few elements that made it ours. The tables each were labeled with a place that was important with us. We made blocks with pics from the locale. My step daughter decorated the bar with pics of us as kids, and we handpicked music for the cocktail hour and dinner that really fit us!

LOVE your cake topper plan! Stinkin' adorable. If you're both italian maybe look into Italian cuisine or baked goods? Maybe find a way to use sport puns or nods (like hidden football or something), or photo booth props (if you're having one).

Ways we are making our wedding personalized is one of my nicknames my FH calls me is brownie (I made him brownies for our first valentines day & I'm brown lol) so in lieu of a cake we are having a brownie bar! We have three rescue cats Reese, Skittles, & Kit-Kat so we will be having a small candy bar with those candies and polaroids of our cats. We also joke alot about how we are polar opposites so our theme we lovingly call The Putnam Podge (his last name is Putnam) and we are using all kinds of mix matched colors, metals, textures etc. Our engagement story is hilarious (in short we were almost stranded on an island) and during the chaos we were drinking Rum Punch so that will be our signature drink (:

We are doing s combo of the “Traditional & Elegant” and the “Harry Potter”... FH is far more traditional( and so is his mom!) and I am far more, welllllll fun, and wanted to do “Harry Potter” because it was a HUGE part of my life prior to him and was a big part of his prior to me- and a Large part as a couple!

Take a movie or sports, animals, etc that you both like and make that the theme...

View Quoted Comment I love that you are incorporating your cats!! Their names are so stinkin’ cute!! We actually decided to upgrade to include a pasta bar!

View Quoted Comment Your wedding sounds beautiful. Harry Potter seems to be so popular to include in weddings! We actually decided to try to make ours Tuscan themed and add a pasta bar! I’m so excited.

Our “cake toppers” that will go next to our cake(too many flowers on top to add a topper) are going to be custom figurines of our Dungeons&Dragons characters. We’re including beautiful backgrounds of a videogame we play as framed pictures(no one will get it except our gamer friends though) and I’m including being the healer for his tank in my vows. Even non-gamer guests know we’re gamers!

We’re also including touches of renaissance festival because that’s another big hobby of ours. We’re having a renaissance festival band instead of a dj and our decor is a cross between an enchanted forest and a holy grail(monty python) theme.

Finally we’re having a handfasting ceremony!

To be honest, I struggled with the notion that your wedding has to be memorable and different. I have a strict budget to keep and everything I could think of cost money...that I didn't have.

So the few things I'm doing are small but I think it's just small touches:

My flower girl has a lot of personality so she'll be handing out flowers instead of doing a petal throw to guests

My FH and I will be walking around during the ceremony and greeting people down the aisles before the recessional

I made little pictures of different Disney movies with a memorable quote for the table numbers

The guest book is a small box where guests can fill out their contact information and i'll attach an index card telling people "we want to keep in touch with you" (i'll use the cards for my thank you's and future Christmas card list)

My mom and I will be performing a traditional dance at the end of the reception.

We are adding little birds through out our wedding weekend as our gentle nod to our love for aviation. We are also having my signature drink as the Aviator.

Oooh! Good question!!
My FH & I are from Seattle and wanted a “Seattle” wedding by having our venue near the space needle & treating our guests to Seattle seafood Yay grilled salmon!

We both went to Catholic schools throughout our childhood, so we’ll have a Catholic wedding ceremony. Marriage is seen as a “sacrament” in church, so we’ll be adding pictures of us when we were younger with other sacraments- baptism, communion, confirmation.

People generally know that we love Disney. Our wedding cake topper will be a chibi couple with Mickey Mouse ears. We’re also a very private couple. We rarely post about what we do everyday or all the time, so we’ll be adding signs at our reception that tells our love story and add hanging pictures (with twinkle lights) along the patio -pictures of us through the years

We believe in “being in the moment”, so no timeline for our guests at the reception haha especially bc our family likes to rush things & wonder about the next event, etc...

FH & I have always had pride that we were traditional but not. We won’t have the typical bouquet toss and I hate the garter toss so we’re just having FH throw something else. We’re not having parents speak (bc they make it about them & the family, their speeches are dramatic & drag on). We may surprise with something else. No slideshow movie but instead, table numbers with corresponding ages.

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Cinda, my daughter just went to a wedding were the center pieces were small stacks of hardcover books with candles on top and a sprig of flowers and she said it was quite beautiful. The bride picked up the books at flea markets and yard sales for next to nothing.