How to Personalise your Wedding Day

We talk you through 50 easy wasy to personalise your wedding, opt for personal touches and things that really feel like you. As much as we like to follow the trends, sometimes you should ignore trends and just go along with what you really love.

Get ready to get personal!

1. Set the scene

Choose a venue that you fall in love with, but also feel comfortable in. If relaxed is more your vibe steer clear of fairytale castles and opt for a luxury barn with trestle tables and feast style dining. If polished is more your style opt for a grand country house venue with silver service for your wedding breakfast.

 

2. Make an entrance 

If you are a keen horse rider, make your entrance in a horse-drawn carriage. If you’re a keen cycler why not make your way to the venue on your bike, get a basket for flowers and choose your dress accordingly! Or, if you’re all about tradition, hire a vintage car for your arrival.

 

3. Personal Readings

Include personal readings, poems that reflect you both or letters to one another during your wedding ceremony to show your love for one another – a sure-fire way to have teary-eyes all around.

 

4. Heaven scent

Have a bespoke scent created for your wedding day. Smell is very evocative of memories. Place scented candles or diffusers around the venue and keep some back for after the wedding to enjoy at home. Get them out on anniversaries and be transported back to your magical day.

 

5. Perfume

The same applies to your choice of perfume. Decide if you would like to wear the perfume you wore on your first date, your signature scent you wear every day or something new for the wedding.

 

6. Wedding Wardrobe

When it comes to choosing the outfits you will both say ‘I do’ in, there is plenty to consider – the time of year, your venue, the theme of your day. As much as you will want to follow current trends, you should also make sure you choose something that’s totally you and your style, that way you know when you look back at your photos you will love it forever.

 

7. Live music

A pianist, string quartet or choir, including live music during your ceremony will make it memorable for both you and your guests. Better yet, if one of your guests plays or sings, why not ask them to perform on the day?

 

8. Fabulous flowers

Fill your bouquet with your favourite blooms and think about why you are selecting them. Can you include a variety of plant that your Nan grows in her garden? The blooms that your husband sends you on your birthday? Foliage for centre-table that will fill the room with fragrance?

 

9. Sentimental Speeches

Naturally, some lines and jokes are included in many speeches (trust us, we’ve heard a lot – the joke about even the wedding cake being in ‘tears’, we’ve heard it plenty of times). Crucial as these parts are, the speeches are one of the most obvious parts of your day that will be personal, because, of course, they’re all about you!

 

10. Best foot forward

From designer heels that you’ve always wanted to buy to wedding wellies perfect for a rustic countryside wedding, if you ask us, there are no rules when it comes to wedding shoes. If you spend the majority of your time in trainers, why not wear them underneath your dress? Prefer flats, check out Bella Belle Shoes for a beautiful selection of dainty ballet pumps. Feel most elegant in heels? Find a gorgeous pair to suit your dress.

 

11. Ceremony style

Make your ceremony even more meaningful by including a symbolic ritual, like handfasting, candle lighting, a sand ceremony or a symbolic tree planting within the ceremony. Find out more about symbolic ceremonies at weddingsandhoneymoonsmagazine.com

 

12. Party people

When you come to choose your wedding party, take your time. Think about who you want to be with you on the day, not who you feel obliged to ask. Choose bridesmaids and groomsmen that will make you feel calm and relaxed in the morning, party with you at the reception, and will help you every step of the way.

 

13. Speak from the heart

Write your own vows to read out, include personal anecdotes and meaningful messages to your significant other for a heartfelt ceremony. 

 

14. Invitations 

Find a stationer with a style you like and ask for them to create a bespoke design just for you. Incorporate flowers from your bouquet, elements from your venue (like a deer theme for a venue with a deer park) or choose something that has meaning to you to add to the design. Check out abcd-weddings.co.uk for bespoke designs.

 

15. Screen stars

If there’s a projector or screen at your venue you could have a little movie montage created from video clips of you as a couple to play on a loop throughout the day.

 

16. Personalised cocktails

Serve a bride's and a groom's cocktail as your welcome drinks, use play-on-words to incorporate your names into the title of your chosen cocktails.

 

17. Dress code

Get your guests involved in the day by giving them a colour to include in their outfit (think fascinators, socks, jackets in your favourite colour), an item to include in their get up, like bowties for the blokes and wrist corsages for the ladies, or a full dress code for the day.

 

18. Colour scheme

 If you always wear certain colours, tend to add a favourite hue around your home, or find yourself drawn to particular shades included them in your wedding day and set them as the colour scheme.

 

19. Pamper morning

Getting ready on the wedding morning is a big part of the day, yet it’s often overlooked. Fill the morning with some of your favourite treats, like breakfast pastries (make sure you eat something as from the aisle to the wedding breakfast can be a few hours!), a glass of Bucks Fizz, fluffy slippers and a relaxing candle (we like White Flowers by Olor, £30) for while you are having your hair and makeup looks created. 

 

20. Strike a pose

Choosing the right photographer is important. You want to look back on your photographs and remember the day of your dreams. If you don’t want lots of posed photography choose a photographer with a reportage style. Check out their previous works and have a discussion before you book to make sure you are happy in front of the camera.

 

21. Seasonal touches

Style your day to suit the time of year you’re getting wed. Think baby pumpkin centerpieces in the Autumn, fete-style games in the middle of summer, or a selection of throws in a blanket box for a winter wedding.

 

22. Something old, something new…

Something borrowed, something blue. These four items will all be personal and probably have sentimental value to you. Depending on the item and the style of dress you choose, you could have these sewn into the underskirt of your gown so that you have them with you all day.

 

23. Incorporate hobbies

Find a way to include your hobbies in your plans, they can be a big party or a tiny detail within the wedding plans. Think asking your best mate to be best man with a football that is inscribed with ‘fancy a shot at being my best man’, baking biscuits for your wedding favours, or arriving at your wedding on a motor-cross bike.

 

24. Game on

From giant garden games (check out sidandolive.com) to table trivia, games are a fun and easy way to break the ice between guests and get them mingling. Love Charades? Add little packs of cards to each table for guests to play during the wedding breakfast. Big fan of competitions? Set up a mini sports day for everyone to take part in during the drinks reception. There are many ways to include games in your big day.

 

25. Furry Friends

Put your pet on the guest list (venue permitting), and have posed photographs with your pony, let your dog be the ring bearer, or include your bunny in your stationery designs.

 

26. Celebration size

Choose your guest list and the length of it carefully. If a being center-stage doesn’t sit that comfortably with you, choose a more intimate wedding with a smaller guest list. Only invite those that you really want to share your day with you and whittle your guest list until you are completely satisfied.

 

27. Wedding website

Create yourselves a wedding website for you to upload all of the information about your wedding day for guests to easily access. Pop the web address on your invitations and ask guests to RSVP through the website. You can all share photographs online after the event, too.

 

28. Bridal beauty

When thinking about your makeup look for the big day, choose something that isn’t too different from your normal style. If you’d never wear false eyelashes today isn’t the day to start! Never leave the house without a red lip? Incorporate the bold colour into your makeup look. You want to look the best version of yourself, after all.

 

29. Accessories

Are big earrings a perennial look for you? Do you always wear the same necklace because it has sentimental value? Do you only wear gold jewellery? Accessorise your big day look accordingly to make it totally you!

 

30. Nail it

If you want to add a statement something to your wedding day look, but your overall vibe is traditional and timeless, how about a bright pop of colour to your nails? This will keep the overall look subtle but there’s a lot you can do with your nails, from bright colours to hand-painted designs.

 

31. Tiers of joy

Not a fan of fruitcake? Opt for sponge instead. Select your favourite flavours for your cake and have your baker decorate it to match the rest of your details. If cake isn’t for you at all, look out for a cheese tower to serve with biscuits instead.

 

32. Sweet treats

Who can resist a sweetie table? Choose a selection of your favourite pick ’n’ mix sweets and display them in glass jars with candy-striped bags next to them for guests to make up a bag to take home with them.

 

33. Polaroid pictures

String polaroid photographs of yourselves in significant places or growing up around your venue. These will certainly make your day unique to you, get guests chatting and add to the wedding decor, too.

 

34. Capture your day

Hire a live painter to capture a moment from your day on canvas for you to treasure forever. It could be you saying your vows or the confetti moment. We can recommend stephaniepaintsthings.com.

 

35. All in the details

 Include personalised details, like a guestbook with your new surname on it, a bespoke cake topper with your initials and favours, like chocolates or iced biscuits, with your wedding date embossed into them.

 

36. Grazing table

All the rage this season, put down your knife and fork and tuck into a grazing table. Choose from a selection of meat, cheeses, breads, and crackers all artfully displayed on one long table – yum! We can’t resist the offerings from figandflowergrazing.com.

 

37. Bake-off

Are there talented bakers on your guest list? Ask a handful of them to bring a cake or dessert with them for everyone to enjoy. As the Newlyweds, it’s only right that you act as the judge, choosing a winning bake and gifting the baker a prize!

 

38.Talking tables

Break the ice for your guests at the tables by getting them involved with the wedding breakfast. Choose sharing platers for starters, mains that consist of meats that can be carved at each table by one nominated guest and a selection of desserts to finish.

 

39. Summer saviour 

If you ask us, a summer outing trip isn’t complete without an ice-cream at the end. Bring this idea to the wedding day with an ice-cream stand, complete with a choice of flavours, tubs, cones, and toppings. Have a bride and a groom special made up of your favourite flavour and toppings and let guests vote for the best ice-cream.

 

40. Favours

Choose favours that tie in with your wedding theme. If you’re tying the knot at a seaside location you could choose sticks of rock or for a festive wedding how about individual baubles? Have your favours personalised with your initials, wedding date, or individual guests’ names.

 

41. Rehearsed Routine

If you are known for your moves and are always the last one dancing at a party, or if you just love the limelight, surprise your guests with a choreographed dance routine during the evening reception.

 

42. Sing your heart out

 If your idea of a party isn’t complete without Karaoke, include it on your big day. Get guests to be a part of the evening entertainment and you’ll be sure to have plenty of giggles. Finish the night with a Mr and Mrs duet!

 

43. Dance the night away

Everyone has a different taste in music, rather than guessing what your guests will dance to, ask each guest for one song choice before the wedding day and hand all the songs over to your band or DJ. If you love a disco opt for a DJ, but if you always scout out live music go for a band.

 

44. Winner takes all

 Hire a casino to entertain guests for the evening. Everyone can play with chips, rather than real money (there are no losers here) and you could include little prizes instead of favours for winners. 

 

45. Caricaturist

Replace name cards with individual caricaturist drawings of each of your guests or hire a caricaturist to go around to each guest during the wedding day.

 

46. Dessert table

For many, pudding is the best bit of any meal. If this applied to you, instead of serving just one plated dessert offer a whole dessert table instead! Include gateaux, profiteroles, truffles, brownies, chocolate-dipped strawberries and individual tarts for your guests to keep coming back to.

 

47. Super supper 

Steer away from a standard beige buffet and choose evening food that you’ll really love, life a selection of pizzas or fish and chip cones. 

 

48. Photobooth

To make a photobooth unique to you, choose one that has a vast array of props and only include the ones that relate to you in some way! Photobooth acts as entertainment on the night and provides lasting memories of all the guests at your wedding.

 

49. With a bang!

If you have always loved fireworks, you’re tying the knot on Bonfire night, or maybe your birthday is on the 5th November and you always celebrate that with fireworks, end your wedding celebrations with a big firework and sparkler display.

 

50. Decor

Decorate your venue with details that reflect you both as a couple from flowers to hundreds of candles and bunting to festoon lights there are so many ways to style your day, your way.