Making Your Wedding Actually Unique
As a wedding photographer, I can tell you that there tend to be certain trends every season and year that are pervasive within the wedding industry. You see a lot of similar decorating ideas or cute ways to memorialize the couple and events. And even when a truly unique and awe-inducing theme appears, it is only a matter of time before the trend catches on and other weddings are fighting to repeat what has already been done.
In a way, I blame Pinterest. Most people are using the same site when looking for wedding motivation, inadvertently perusing the same done ideas and inspiration. It is inevitable when you think about it – there is no way to produce a wedding that is 100 percent unique, because like art, most ideas have already been done before.
But that doesn’t mean you should resign yourselves to having a cookie cutter wedding that will mimic every other wedding your friends attend this season. Sure, it is impossible to completely buck the current trends (unless you plan on doing something really crazy) but that doesn’t mean you can’t still infuse a bit of your personalities into your event – truly making it your own, in a way that wouldn’t even really be pin-able.
It starts with the music. Don’t allow yourself to feel tied down by the music that serves as the soundtrack to your day. You don’t have to walk down the aisle to “Here Comes the Bride” and your father/daughter dance doesn’t have to be to “Butterfly Kisses”. If sticking to tradition is what you want, by all means – go for it. But if you have more diverse musical tastes, take the time to go through your music collection and select songs for those pivotal moments that actually mean something to you as individuals and as a couple.
Along those same lines, just because tradition dictates a ceremony going a certain way, doesn’t mean you have to abide by those guidelines. Consider having a friend get ordained in order to officiate the ceremony, and work on rewriting how that ceremony should flow based on your tastes. Create funny moments that are reflective of how playful the two of you usually are together, or find ways to honor family members who have passed on before the ceremony.
When it comes to decorating, don’t allow yourself to feel too stifled by the options you see as available to you. There are ways to personalize your decor. Spend some time brainstorming as a couple about the things you like to do together and the hobbies that are representative of who you each are. Maybe you both love running marathons or have a shared interest in writing. For the first, you could use photos from your races to decorate the area – including your run times at each individual race, as a way of showing the competitive spirit between the two of you. And if writing is your forte, you could pen love notes to each other to display at your tables – obviously remembering that those notes will be read by your guests! If you aren’t feeling creative, give some free reign to your floral designer. They will appreciate the opportunity to create something new vs copy a photo from last year.
Ultimately, use your lives as inspiration, rather than a website that will be consulted by everyone else getting married this season as well. Reflect upon the things that are important to you, and find ways to incorporate those into your ceremony. Don’t be afraid to veer away from tradition and to embrace new ways of doing or arrranging things that feel right to you.
This is your wedding – and all that really matters is that you are happy with how it went once everything is said and done. So don’t put too much pressure on yourself one way or another, but remember: the best way to make your wedding unique is to follow your heart and put on an event that is truly representative of who you are. Not of who Pinterest tells you to be.
