Wedding blog

How to Choose Your Wedding Theme

Whether you are planning a grand wedding, an intimate destination wedding, or even an elopement, choosing a wedding theme early in the planning process is essential! Besides your decoration decisions, the style you choose will influence many other aspects such as your invitations and even your cake and wedding attire.

Without a wedding theme, it will be hard to create a cohesive look and feel. But don’t worry, finding your style is easier than you may think.

Step 1: Ask the Right Questions

Block around thirty minutes, grab a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and answer the following few questions together with your partner. After that, you should have a clearer vision of what your wedding should look and feel like.

Let’s start with the basics:

Do you want to have a big wedding or a smaller, intimate one?
Do you want to get married in your hometown, or would you rather fancy a destination wedding?
Where would your dream wedding take place? Indoors or outdoors? In a ballroom, a quaint garden, or by the beach?
What’s your favorite season and why?
How formal would you like your wedding to be? Black-tie, semi-formal, or casual and laid-back?

Let’s dig a bit deeper to find your wedding theme:

What words would describe your dream wedding best?
What reception meal style would you love to have on your wedding day? Plated sit-down dinner, family-style dinner, buffet, grazing stations, or even a picnic?
What music would you love to play during your ceremony or reception?

All about your style:

Do you have any favorite flowers?
What are your favorite colors?
What’s your home decorating style?
What’s your go-to outfit?

Once you’ve answered all these questions, your wedding style will quickly fall into place.

Step 2: Do the Research

Now is the perfect time to go crazy on Pinterest, blogs, or in magazines. Don’t limit yourself to wedding-specific sources. Think outside the box, such as home decor or travel blogs and magazines as well. Look for flowers, colors, and textures. Go even further and get very specific looking for stationery, typefaces, favors, cakes, wedding fashion (including shoes), hairstyles, hair accessories, ring boxes, aisle decoration, wedding arch styles, and signage.

Once you have gathered some ideas, look for similarities in the pictures you are most drawn to. What do they have in common? Is it a particular color, a style element, a specific dress or suit style that shows in every image?

You will soon notice an overall look and feel that you love most and can quickly delete all images that don’t fit your favorite style.

Tip: If you use Pinterest boards to organize your inspiration, save all the images in one board but have different sections for each category like for the ceremony, reception, flowers, decoration, cake, stationery, fashion, etc.

Also, have one section, which is your overall mood board, and in which you only put your most favorite images of each section.

This way, you stay organized throughout the planning, and once you start working with vendors, you can communicate your style and ideas effortlessly.

Wedding Theme Ideas

To jump-start your search, here are four theme ideas for your wedding:

CLASSIC

Adjectives: traditional, elegant, timeless
Flowers: roses, peonies, hydrangeas, ranunculuses, anemones
Food: formal plated sit-down dinner, usually three-course dinner
Style elements: clean, streamlined, formal table setting, monogrammed details like stationery and napkins, luxe table linens, hand-calligraphed addressed envelopes for your invitations
Color palette: elegant, neutral colors like gray, black, white, ivory, or beige. Add drama by incorporating colors such as red or navy blue for a fall and winter wedding or coral and peach for a spring and summer wedding
Dress styles: ballgown, A-line, trumpet, sheath, or mermaid
Suit styles: tuxedo, suit in darker colors such as navy blue or charcoal gray
Hairstyles: updos or classic half-up, half-down ‘dos
Accessories: pearl jewelry
Music idea for ceremony: classical music
Venue: traditional and sophisticated like a country club, a ballroom of an iconic hotel, winery, or an estate
Season: all year round

BOHEMIAN CHIC

Adjectives: earthy, nature-inspired, laid-back, organic
Flowers: hand-tied organic bouquets, wildflowers, pampas grass, greenery
Food: grazing stations, family-style dinner, picnic
Style elements: woven décor, vintage rugs, floor cushions, natural wood wedding arches, macrame, terracotta, feathers, fairy lights, gems, and geodes
Color palette: warm earthy colors and jewel tones such as mustard yellow, terracotta, sage, violet, ruby red, emerald green
Dress styles: airy, light fabric, simple silhouettes, refined lace details, delicate floral embroidery
Suit styles: casual, tweed or linen suit, vest, suspenders, bow tie. Mix and match fabrics like chino pants and a tweed blazer. Shirts: colored, checked, or patterned; rolled-up sleeves for an even more casual look
Hairstyles: soft waves, braids, messy updos
Accessories: statement jewelry, flower crowns, boutonnieres
Music idea for ceremony: indie and folk love songs
Venue: woodland, beach, backyard, desert, mountain, by a lake
Season: spring and summer

ROMANTIC OLD-WORLD CHARM

Adjectives: timeless, romantic, ethereal, European charm, vintage-inspired
Flowers: romantic blooms such as peonies, roses, and lilies, lush floral arches
Food: plated sit-down dinner, focus on a cocktail hour, or cocktail-style dinner all together
Style elements: vintage accessories, cotton paper stationery, swirling calligraphy, wax seals, silk ribbons, ethereal fabric drapes, gauzy table runners, long tapered candles, opulent candelabras, thick pillar candles in vintage wood holders
Color palette: classic white, cream, champagne, gold, faded blush tones
Dress styles: soft, delicate materials, tulle skirt, matching veils
Suit styles: classic two-piece suit in white, black, grey or shades of blue, bow tie or necktie
Hairstyles: soft waves, romantic updos, half-up, half-down ‘dos
Accessories: statement headpieces, vintage jewelry
Music idea for ceremony: piano music
Venue: a venue with a historical charm, such as a mansion, a castle, chateau, or for an outdoor wedding, a quaint fairytale garden
Season: all year round

URBAN INDUSTRIAL

Adjectives: cool, contemporary, raw, edgy
Flowers: lush green foliage
Food: plated sit-down dinner, grazing stations, cocktail-style dinner
Style elements: exposed brick, peeling paint, visible pipes, cement floors, mixed metals, acrylic signage, geometric patterns, Edison-style light bulbs. Overall with industrial chic, there is a less is more approach to décor.
Color palette: the beauty of an industrial theme is that any color palette works from neutrals to darker colors to vibrant ones. It truly depends on what effect you want to create, but you can never go wrong with gold and copper tones.
Wedding attire style: glamorous, sleek, smart-casual
Music idea for the ceremony: Jazz
Venue: former factories, revamped warehouses, converted lofts
Season: all year round

Don’t feel that you have to stick to one particular theme. You can mix and match every style. How about a rustic beach wedding, a timeless, vintage-inspired industrial one, or a glamorous classic affair? Everything is possible, and the most important thing is that your wedding style reflects who YOU are!

I hope this article gave you some inspiration about how you can easily choose your wedding theme.

If you like to have more support planning your wedding, have a look at my website to find out how I can help you even further, or get in touch with me directly to set up a complimentary consultation call!

Love, Michaela