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It’s our final part of ‘4 themed wedding ideas: perfect for planning and inspiring your special day’. The tension is truly sky high as we’ve filtered down a list of 150 wedding themes to reveal our favorite remaining 4 spots.
But, before we get into our last 4 wedding themes to inspire your big day, please know that there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ wedding theme. It’s all about capturing something that you and your partner are passionate about.
Wedding themes should be chosen based on something that you relate to your identity. For example, in our last post, we explored the Harry Potter wedding theme.
People who are massive Potter fanatics, (or Potterheads, as they call themselves), don’t see the wizarding world as ‘just a children’s book’. For them, it’s a massive element that helped to shape their childhood and is a contributing factor for who they are today.
Wedding themes are beautiful because they show the guests so much about the happy couple. But, picking a random theme because it’s in fashion doesn’t quite capture the same effect. That’s why you should always think carefully about your theme. Plus, try to choose a wedding theme that captures something you both love. If somebody is all about the Gatsby period but the other member doesn’t see the appeal, there’s no real point. Communicate this effectively and select a theme that gets both of you excited.
So, without further ado, let’s crack on.
1. Winter Wedding Theme
Oh, how we love the most wonderful time of the year. Despite the busiest wedding season being awarded to summer, winter is quickly catching up.
Sure, the weather holds a certain appeal when it comes to summer weddings. But, the truth is: it can rain at any point. By choosing a summer wedding, you’re lowering your chances, but if we’re honest, those possibilities are still there.
But, by shifting your mindset and embracing the cold weather, you’ll find sparkling opportunities that you’ll see in a whole different light. While you may initially think “ergh, snow”, once you’ve firmly decided on a winter wedding, your mind will shift to “wow, snow! That’ll look so beautiful in my wedding photos!”
And, let’s be honest: during the holiday season, everyone’s good and ready for a party. It’s the holiday for decorations, glitter and warm hearts.
So, embrace that. Embrace the Christmas trees. Embrace the Christmas crackers. Embrace ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. Because you can tailor them to your wedding.
Have custom made Christmas crackers and you put your wedding favors inside rather than the joke and silly hat.
The one thing you need for a winter themed wedding is a roaring log fire. Not only does it serve a purpose of keeping you and your guests warm, but it ties the whole theme together, drenching you all in that ‘home sweet home’ sensation.
Despite it being a winter themed wedding, you don’t need to have a Christmas theme. Christmas is one part of winter. But, you could avoid it altogether and keep it linked to the natural impact of the season.
Instead, opt for metallic colors like bronze and silver. You’ll want decor that reflects light to add a real classy edge to your winter themed wedding. Multi-faceted glassware adds to the winter tone. Really go ‘extra’ with your wedding cake. White is best and the key is in the details. Again, using colors like silver, platinum and bronze will contrast against the white cake.
In terms of flowers, you’re going to want to choose deep, dramatic colors. Shades of purple and berry red work perfectly when contrasted with deep greens. Think: holly and red roses.
The best thing about the Christmas period is the food. We eat our body weight during the holidays and we’re unashamed of the amount of roast potatoes we can demolish.
(I ate 12 this year.)
So, take advantage of this when feeding your guests.
Rather than light, summery salads, you want to plan rich, hearty, warm dishes. It’s all about ‘red’. Red meat and red wine scream ‘winter’.
If you’re a vegetarian, you can still pull this off. You’re aiming for lentil stews, potatoes and pies. Anything that warms the soul and feeds the love.
(Plus: mulled wine. Always mulled wine. And hot chocolates for the little ones.)
Embrace the holiday spirit with your wedding favors. You can, like I mentioned before, use the Christmas cracker gimmick to wrap your favors. But, what ties in with the theme and makes adorable winter wedding favors?
Try mini-candy canes, scented candles that capture the scent of winter, (ie: gingerbread, Christmas cake and spices) and mini-Gingerbread men. You could even give your guests a personalized Christmas decoration with your new surname and the wedding date.
These are a lovely addition to your big day, because they’ll go up once a year to remind your guests about the most festive, beautiful wedding they’ve ever been to!
2. Travel Wedding Theme
The thing about people who love traveling is: they really love traveling. So, having a travel wedding theme is the obvious choice.
If you met your partner on your travels or you’ve been on adventures around the world, the travel wedding theme is perfect for you.
Now, I don’t doubt that your emphasis is more on your Honeymoon, (just wait: we have the perfect post for you coming up), but planning your big day should receive some tender love and care, too.
The beauty of this theme is that the sky is, (quite literally), the limit. There are so many ways to inject this beaut of a theme into your wedding day. Whether you’re hinting at it subtly with table names or you’re going first class with your venue and setting it up like an airplane, the possibilities are endless.
It takes a lot of creativity to truly enhance this theme and make it stylish. But, when it’s done properly, the results are outstanding.
Firstly, let’s chat about the guestbook. While there’s been little focus on this in our previous themes, it shouldn’t be forgotten. Let’s remember that this little book will stay with you forever as a reminder of the happiest day of your lives. So, incorporating the theme is one way to make sure you can show your children, and then their children, about the love you had for each other and traveling the world.
So, rather than a guestbook, collect postcards from different countries that you’ve been to.
Check out [these postcards] sold on Amazon. You can grab 40 postcards for $8.99. Make sure you arrange this after you’ve received your RSVP responses so you can cater for the right amount. The, grab yourself a stick-in photo album for ease with a nod toward your theme. This one, for example, would work beautifully.
Use this creativity with your invitations, too. If you want your standard guest book but you’d prefer to use the postcards as your invites, that totally works. If not, try to think of a way that ties your theme in, because the invitations are the first clues toward what to expect on your special day.
If you’d prefer to use a different method for invitations, why not get templates of boarding passes or passports? That’s a clear nod toward the traveling theme. Plus, you can ask them to bring them with them on the big day and give them a stamp with your new surnames and date. That way, these can act as wedding favors, too.
With your decor, you’ll want to go big on sign posts. Whether those are sign posts to different countries, states or landmarks, these make fantastic additions to the travel wedding theme. You could also use globes on each table which are colored in depending on their table name. For example, if one table is named ‘Spain’, then Spain is colored in on the globe.
(Plus, what a great homeschooling activity for your kids to help you with!)
Check out what ‘The Wedding of my Dreams’, (a wedding decor shop in the UK), pinned to their Pinterest board here. “In case of [e]motion sickness” is a fantastic way to show your guests the theme as well as show them that you’re anticipating tears and emotion. Super sweet and oh-so-clever.
Suitcases are, unsurprisingly, often used with the travel wedding theme. Rather than your jumbo sized black case, opt for an old school, retro traveling case. You can grab these on eBay and make sure you hunt for them in your local charity shops. While they can be expensive, you can also hunt them down for next to nothing.
Use them as decor, fill them with flowers, place postcards or essential packing inside them - these babies are versatile. So, play around with them. If you choose to use them only as decor and have them stand alone, they’re still guaranteed to look fantastic.
In terms of your flowers, you should aim for lots and lots of green. I say this not to sound childish, but to prove a point that greenery is key here. You’re mimicking the globe and the beauty of the places you’ve been.
So, make sure you invest in some varying shades of green foliage. Set these off with white flowers to represent the clouds. Your floral choices accompanied by blue candles and glassware will subtly nod toward your travel wedding theme as well as looking stylish and fly.
(See what I did there?)
You can also use this theme subtly for your bridesmaid’s dresses and groomsmen’s color scheme. It highly depends on the places you want to represent. You could use the flags of the countries you want to represent, the colors of the landmarks, or stick to the green and blue theme.
Of course, bright green and blue that you find in geography text books might be a little too much. However, pastel shades would work nicely. Plus, having a 2-color scheme for bridesmaid dresses is becoming all the more popular as time goes by.
In terms of your groomsmen, it doesn’t get any more suave than velvet suits. Emerald green or deep navy blue is so on point and dashing right now and will help to tie the whole theme together.
You can have so much fun with your catering with this theme. If you’re a foodie, (which I’m assuming you are. Isn’t that the best bit of going traveling? Sampling the country’s finest delicacies?), then having a taster menu could be the way to go. It’s highly dependent on your budget.
If you’re all about giving your guests a taste of your adventures, then selecting 5-6 courses of your favorite traveling destinations and a dish that symbolizes this could be a great way to bring your guests into the theme.
If you have a lower budget, look for budget staples of your traveling destinations. Spanish lentil stew, for example, is a cheap but delicious meal.
(I know I’m fixated on Spain. I grew up there. So, I’m totally in love with the culture and the food? Don’t get me started. It’s delicious.)
The travel theme is a lovely way to share your experiences with your guests. So, don’t forget to visually share these, too. Print out photographs of your travels and pin them up in your wedding venue. You could even use fairy lights with photo holders to pin them across the ceilings. You could have a whole section of your venue dedicated to photos of your travels, from when you were a child to now.
The possibilities are truly endless with this theme. And, with the travel wedding theme in particular, it’s all about the little details.
3. Disney Wedding Theme
Disney wedding themes are exactly what they sound like. For some, they’re a dream come true. For others, they’re their worst nightmare.
But, if you’re still reading this, then you’re probably in love with the idea of having a Disney themed wedding. It doesn’t have to be over the top. It doesn’t have to be subtle. It can be whatever you make it. But, we have some beautiful ideas to help Disney-fy your wedding day, which is, as we all know, the most magical day of your life.
Let’s address the elephant in the room. No, not you, Dumbo.
The most obvious place to start is at the heart of the happiest place on earth: Disney World. And, you can tie the knot right there, making you a true Disney Queen.
Disney even has a whole website that tells you everything you need to know about getting married at Disney World. (Go check it out here.)
And you’re not limited to only one theme park. Disney Weddings host weddings in Florida, California, Hawaii and, if you’ve been dreaming of getting married the way Ariel and Eric did, you can even tie the knot on a Disney cruise.
It’s obvious that hosting a Disney wedding would lend itself to a Disney venue, sure. But, it costs a pretty penny, as you’d expect. So, if you want to spend your budget in different areas, you can always Disney-fy your wedding in different ways.
Firstly, you need to decide whether you want a broad Disney wedding or a specific Disney wedding. If you’re going broad, you’re going to be including Disney references and decor from many of the animated films. If, however, you want to narrow down, think carefully about the film that you want to tie into your theme. Alice in Wonderland, for example, needs different decor, dress and catering than a Frozen theme.
In 2020, Disney released their first line of official Disney wedding dresses. Browse through dresses that represent Pocahontas, Rapunzel, Jasmine and Tiana, (alongside many of your favorite Disney princesses).
Your invitations need to have a little Bibbidy-Boppidy-Boo magic to them. Remember, your invitations are the first nod toward your theme. You can add Disney quotes like “be our guest!” and “watch us start our journey to happily ever after”. Plus, glitter is really a must-have for Disney themed wedding invitations.
Your centerpieces can represent the table name. Name each table after a different Disney movie and symbolize this with the centerpieces. Use the rose from Beauty and the Beast, the lamp from Aladdin, an apple from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and a lilypad from Princess and the Frog. These are just a few ideas that could then inspire hundreds more.
When choosing your flowers, Disney weddings require all things bright and beautiful. Think about the talking, singing flowers in Alice in Wonderland. A massive variation of vibrance and color. Sounds perfect. Plus, roses and lilies seem to be a firm favorite for the Disney producers.
When you say ‘Disney’, our instant thought is Mickey ears. And they make beautiful props in wedding photos and could even be given as wedding favors.
The show stopper for this theme, aside from the dress, of course, will be the cake. Mention the word ‘Disney’ to a wedding cake business and they’ll be in their element.
Not into all the fancy technology and want to go the more ‘classic’ route? No problem. Have a cake designed with as many tiers as possible and craft it into a Disney castle. On top, place you and your significant other as adorable, Disney-style-animated characters.
And, what’s a Disney wedding without a horse and carriage? This is the staple of a Disney wedding.
Whether you keep it Disney classic with a white horse and carriage or go more ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ style and opt for a black one, there’s nothing on earth that’ll make you feel more like a Princess.
The Disney wedding theme is for couples who are Disney-lovers. And the best thing about it is: you can go all in or just dip in your little toe.
But, make sure you’re wearing glass slippers.
Cinderella is proof that your shoes can change your life.
4. Animal Wedding Theme
Whether your favorite animal is the mighty lion or an adorable puppy, the animal wedding theme is popular amongst vets, zookeepers and fur-moms and dads.
There’s so much versatility with this theme. You could go for animal prints or have actual live animals at your wedding. Ever considered having an owl deliver your ring at the alter? It’s totally possible.
(Although, make sure you trial it. Plus, be wary that owls have no concept of bathroom manners. It’s suddenly apparent why we should wear hats at weddings!)
There’s something super wholesome about this theme. It’s creative and pretty darn unique. While people flock around country garden themes and tropical themes, the animal wedding theme remains relatively untouched. This will help make sure that your wedding goes down in history for your guest’s favorite weddings. And, everyone wants their wedding to be a show stopper, right?
First off, you need to decide where you’re going with this theme. Safari? Farmyard? Pets? The ocean The jungle? The sky? There are endless possibilities. Your decision will impact everything; so choose wisely.
The animal wedding theme requires big, bold colors. Exotic birds are the inspiration for many weddings due to their stunning feather shades. Use the Internet to look at a range of the animals in your theme and represent this through your bridesmaids and groomsmen’s attire. While you don’t need to wear a crocodile skin suit, (nor should you), make sure you have a little nod toward the theme.
Animal print material should be used in small doses. For instance, using animal print on your chairs is a great shout. Too much will make it look ‘cheap’ and ‘tacky’. But, when you strike the right balance: magic happens.
If you’re having an animal wedding theme, you have to have a photo-booth with animal props. Sure, have your stunning wedding photos done professionally, but make sure you have a photo-booth so you and your guests can ‘horse’ around and have some fun.
(I’m so sorry. I feel like I should have some sort of koalafication to be dropping all these puns.)
We brushed on the concept of using an owl at your wedding. But, there are loads of businesses that bring along their animals to be a star guest on your special day. Alpacas, for example, are one of the most popular guests, along with exotic birds.
And, let’s not forget about your fur baby. You can train your dog to walk down the alter to deliver the rings.
Cats? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’ll take a lot, (and I mean a lot), more training.
If your fur baby can’t be there, why not include them in your wedding day anyway? Photos and references to them in your decor will make you feel like they’re joining you on your big day. And, let’s be honest, a pet isn’t just a pet. It’s a member of your family.
I know that, for me, my kitty cat will forever be my furst-born. (I can’t help it. I’m so sorry.)
Your wedding cake can hint toward your theme by having paw prints modeled into the icing. Plus, animal print can be wrapped around the tiers for that extra ‘wow’.
Finally, why not incorporate your theme into your soundtrack of the night? Find songs that link to animals as best as you can.
Here are 5 to start your playlist:
What’s New Pussy Cat - Tom Jones
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones
The Lion Sleeps Tonight - The Tokens
Crocodile Rock - Elton John
You can then have these made into CD’s for your guests as wedding favors. Or, if you want to keep the cost down, create a Spotify playlist with your wedding songs and share the link with your guests. Adorable, environmentally friendly and more than affordable.
That’s All, Folks!
So, there you have it. We’ve explored 12 of our favorite wedding themes and given you hints and tips to make sure your big day captures your favorite things.
There are so many other wedding themes that you could explore, but these 12 made the list for their beauty, versatility and creativity.
The key to making a wedding theme unforgettable is to think outside the box. Do your research and use Pinterest for what it was designed for: inspiration.
What theme was your favorite? Did your best wedding theme make our list? Let us know in the comments.