Creative Wedding Ideas From Other Brides

I have a few no-fail tear jerking ideas for my May wedding. Jon and I will face the congregation throughout the ceremony instead of having them stare at our backs. When we exchange our personalized vows, our officiant will ask all the married couples to stand, face each other, and he will lead them in some generic vows. Our parents will present the sacrements before we take communion and speak their blessings over us as part of the presentation.

Because the ceremony and reception are in the same room, my decorations will do double duty. I am having a garden tea themed wedding. We will have lots of silk ficus trees with white twinkle lights in them. There will be ivy garlands around the perimeter of the room. Our chuppah will be constructed of plastic garden lattice with arches cut out and silk floral garlands strung throughout.

The guest book will be individual sheets of paper passed out to the guests. We will ask them to share a special memory pertaining to us, and we'll compile the sheets into a book later.

Hi, like many of you I am on that endless search for fresh, origonal Ideas. So here goes a few...

1: Someone had the idea to use candles instead of boquets for the bridesmaids. Well, I simply loved it, but I'm having an outdoor wedding, so wind could cause problems. The solution is to have lanterns. I am getting a nice lantern for each bridesmaid and groomsman. They will carry the lanterns up the aisle and place them on rail of the gazebo. To make things even better these lanterns will be my gift to the bidesmaids and groomsmen. Who doesn't love a nice, ornate lantern?

2: In each invitation I have included a few pressed, dried rose petals. I have asked my guests to bring the petals back with them to put in the flower girl basket, the only red petals will be the ones my guests bring back with them. All other petals will be white, this way the guests know that they had some small part to play in my ceremony.

3: My mother and I are making a wooden arch to put behind the bride/groom seats. On this I will put Ivy (from the dollar store) and use the white light in the rose petal idea that I read elsewhere here in the Brides Ideas on SuperWeddings. The instructions for doing this are written in that person's entry.

4: I also am getting married to someone from a different culture, one of the traditions of his culture that we will do is this... The bride and groom each get into these comfortable basket-looking chairs and are then lifted by the people at the reception. It becomes a kind of dance as the crowd holding up the bride and the crowd holding up the groom circle around eachother to the music.

5: Finally, I will also have the DJ play a certain list of songs that I choose. The first song will be for all couples, the second for married couples only, the third for married for five years or more, the fourth for married for ten years or more...etc etc... the goal is to have the oldest married couple be the only dancing pair left in the end, a great way to honor grandparents or parents.

My fiance Steve and I are getting married in June; My idea was to decorate our table with mirrors, and put Candleson the table in glass containers, I wanted to have chair covers over the chairs, and have twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling; This is to create a romantic scene. Since we didn't know for sure when we were having our reception this would be an idea that would work all times of the year.

Thanks for such a great site!! An idea that I am using in my wedding is: I received a case of small glass fish bowl from a previous wedding-free & I am slicing lemons very thin & floating them in ice water. The lemons are cheap, the bowls free & ice water free too. Since yellow is one of my colors I thought why not add fruit with flowers. I am placing them in the center of the tables with real english ivy flowing down the table & around the bowls. The english ivy is free out of my sisters yard too. Also the back drop to my wedding cake table is an arbor that my future mother-in-law is getting built by a friend of hers & after the wedding it will go in her flower garden. Also, I am making lemon topiaries for each end of the head table. I found the topiary forms in the clearance basket at a local garden store & the lemons are once again cheap & english ivy to accent also free, as I mentioned. The ring bearer pillow was cheap - the satin was a remnant for $3.00 & trim for $0.78. Bridesmaids dresses were super-inexpensive from Loralieand are stunning. Thanks for letting me share!!

I plan to formally ask my bridesmaids and maid of honor to participate in my wedding by purchasing one of the main flowers that will be in the bouquets they will be carrying, then I'll tie them with a pretty ribbon and attach a card that says, "This (name of flower) is a symbol of the bouquet you'll be carrying on (wedding date) when I marry (fiance's name) -- if you will grant me the honor of being my bridesmaid/maid of honor!"

I heard this great idea...... when the wedding invitations go out, you ask the guests to enclose their favourite recipe with the response card. When the response cards come back, you take all the recipes sent to you by your family and friends and make recipe books to give all the guests as wedding favors. The cover of the book might feature a photo of the bride and groom in a kitchen with aprons on etc. The gift can be cheap if you print the recipes off on home computer and then take them them to be spiral bound at a print shop.

For our centerpieces, we are using pumpkins that we are carving at the Rehearsal Party. We made the Rehearsal Dinner a Costume Party. It's a little more relaxed and friends and relatives can get to know one another better. Also, this gets the younger ones involoved. We are having a Costume Contest and a Pumpkin carving contest. All the pumpkins we carve will be displayed either on a reception table or as a decoration. It'll be fun to watch everyone trying to find their pumpkin.

We are also getting away from the traditional favors. We are going to have or guests "trick or treat" at the tables. All will be provided with bags and each table will have a different type of candy on it. This will help get guests to mingle more and the kids will love it!

If you don't have the type of crew to carve pumpkins, talk to a local elementary school or church group. Have a contest and award the winner a prize. (Maybe an invite to the wedding!)

Another neat idea instead of a guest book is have a photograph taken of you are your fiance, have it matted in black and then when your guests arrive at the reception have them sign and leave a message on the black matting with a silver or gold pen. When the wedding is done have it framed and you will always have a picture of yourselves with all your guests signatures and wishes hanging in your home.

Consider filming parts of your wedding planning process (wedding dress fittings, staying up late making favours or other home made items, the bachelor/bachelorette parties, showers, engagement party, etc) if you have you own video camera (or have someone lovely who will lend theirs to you. Give your videographer this video/photos and get them to add it into your video (photos can be made as stills with music background) so that your wedding video will cover the whole process of the wedding and not just the end product!!

We made some very special thank you cards. On our honeymoon in Jamaica, we went to the beach and wrote out the words "Thank You" in the sand. Then we laid down next to it and had our picture taken. When we returned home we printed the picture on cardstock and now we have thank you cards no one will throw away.

I'm getting married on Valentine's day. This is my second marriage, but I still want it to be a small elegant and intimate affair. I'm wearing a traditional white wedding gown, with a full train (who says you can't wear white, and look like a princess the second time around?). Between the 2 of us we have 4 kids, of which 3 are at the wedding. Our Best Man is my fiance's son, and his grandson is the ringbearer. My oldest son is going to walk me down the isle. My maid of honor, is my best friend. To cut the costs of the wedding, I'm borrowing her wedding dress. She is also making all the flowers, and we're making and doing all the decorations ourselves. Right down to the decorating of the tables. We are using red and white tulle, as well as white x-mas lights. The table arrangements are on clear glass dinner plates, with 3 candlesof varied heights (red, pink and white) sprinkled with potpourri and foil valentines confetti. These will all be lit-up before the guests arrive, to form the ambiance of the reception hall. What better way for everyone to enjoy our day as well as Valentine's day. I purchased the guest gifts at a local dollar store, as well as most of the decorations. They are bisque plates, with embossed angles on them. They're 4 inches in diameter, and are going to be wrapped in white tulle with red ribbon and red foil wrapped chocolates (thanks to my maid of honour). I'm also doing the invitations on my computer, as well as the place cards. I had bought these at a local party store, 12 for $6.77. Because it's Valentine's day, I thought it would be nice to put a poem inside of the place cards for a personal touch. This is cutting costs in a big way. If you shop around, you will be able to make your own dream wedding a reality. I have only 6 months to plan, and I'm enjoying it every step of the way. It really helps when you have an awesome friend by your side !!! (Thanks Jodie, I love ya!).

I recently married and was an older (forty-something) first-time bride. The strapless gowns which are so in style now were not for me and I felt they were not flattering for my age either. I planned a scaled-down morning wedding which consisted of all the traditional elements but for a smaller number of guests. So, I found a bridesmaid's dress from Watters & Watters online. Most of their dresses are two-piece suit-type gowns, and I felt this was most appropriate for me. I found one I really liked that had a portrait neckline and ordered it in white silk dupioni. I was able to have a luxurious fabric in a simpler style that perfectly suited my age and my wedding style. The bonus was that it was a truly nice fully-lined dress which cost relatively little as wedding gowns go. I got lots of compliments on my beautiful dress. And I plan to have either both pieces or just the skirt dyed a darker color and cut off to street length when I need a dressy suit.

My fiance and I will be married in October, during the peak fall color season. We have invited quite a few children to our wedding, and wanted to find something fun for them to do between our ceremony and reception. Along the road from the church to the country club, there is a family orchard that allows you to pick your own apples and pumpkins. We thought this would be a fun thing to include in our program and we plan to take our bridal party there after we are done with pictures at the church. So far everyone in our party thinks it's a great idea! Yes, we'll be wearing formals.. but what's a little bit of grass and hay compared to a whole lot of fun?!

My wedding is in August. We are having an indoor church service and an outdoor reception. Because there are tons of annoying mosquitoes out here we are going to have a can of mesquite spray at each table, nicely decorated with tulle and ribbon for our guests to use. We are also only having close family bring their children (the reception is located along a busy highway and we prefer not to have tons a kids running all over) and we are renting from a local school two circular kindergarten tables for the kids. After supper we are going to put out crayons and colouring books as well as some puzzles and games on them so that while the speeches are being done they will not be bored.

Our two children are our flower girl and ring bearer and we have decided to take them to the babysitters house like it was any other day so that they aren't too affected from all the business of the day. The sitter will put them down for a nap and have them up and ready to go as soon as I'm ready. That way none of us are crabby or tired!

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