Unique Wedding Ideas

Hello, ladies! How are ya’ll this week? I am…having an interesting week. As I write this, Wex is not even 24 hours post-surgery. (He got nuetered.) I work from home right now, so that means today will be spent never taking my eyes off of him and making sure that he doesn’t try to climb the stairs, jump on our off the couch, or lick his incision.

He has his cone on and while he is tolerating it pretty well, he still gets frustrated by it every now and again. I currently have this Calming Dog Music playlist from Spotify playing and he is napping 🙌So I’m able to get a bit of work done. (#Bless.)

Oh man, when they say dogs are like babies – they are 100% right.

Anyway, I asked you guys on Instagram what you wanted to see on the blog since today is going to be a heavy writing day (can’t really do much else, lol) and a lot of you said wedding stuff!

I had the idea to share some unique wedding ideas. When we started planning our wedding, something in me just said “do you”. Do it how you want it, make it yours, and make it a reflection of you and your partner. I like the idea of having a unique wedding because I feel like Cam and I are pretty unique! Haha. We have been together for almost 9 years and have been through so much, and I wanted our day to have special touches that we would always remember.

Every couple is going to be unique, so I definitely think you should play it up if you want to in your wedding! If you’re just starting planning, take a look through some of these ideas and see if they might make sense for you and yours.

Unique Wedding Ideas

Wear a dress that’s super “you”

image via Pinterest

I wanted a really boho dress, and that’s about all I knew. That and I wanted lace and sleeves. The dress I ended up going with (you’ll see soon!) is one that has a style that I never really see in traditional weddings. Actually, the fit of it really resembles something that I might wear on an every day basis (I am a total dress person), but it is definitely more sophisticated and elevated.

I got my dress at BHLDN and they had tons of unique and super romantic and boho wedding gowns. Also unique about them? They don’t cost a fortune! Mine was under $900. I tried on some really gorgeous ones there that I didn’t end up going with but really liked – one was total Priscilla Presley vibes.

Not something you see every day, but if you feel good in it – you can rock it!

Don’t wear white

If you want to! I’ve seen stunning red gowns, blush pink, even white dresses with black or gold detailing. Pull a Blair Waldorf and do an aqua Elie Saab – whatever your heart desires. My dress happens to be ivory, because I really wanted white or ivory because I feel great in that color and like the tradition of wearing white on your wedding day, but who says you have to?

Wear fun shoes

image via Wedding Chicks

I knew that getting fancy nude pumps or something blingy wouldn’t feel like me. I’m 5’3 and just have never gotten used to walking in heels. I love a kitten heel though! And because I keep my every day (and wedding) wardrobe pretty classic and neutral with the colors, I thought …. why not add some color? I was stuck between doing a pretty blush or rust color shoe, but ultimately decided on a dusty blue pair! There you go – your something blue, too! Mine are from DSW and I plan to wear them after the wedding a ton!

Skip the traditional wedding venue

Cam and I toured a bunch of traditional wedding venues, and by that I mean full service wedding venues that only do weddings. Now I will say, those are great because A) they are gorgeous and B) they help you with everything – florals, catering, alcohol, etc. But, those will be pricier because you’re getting so much in your package. We just couldn’t justify the price and there was so much stuff we didn’t need. We were having under 150 guests and we didn’t care much to have a big sprawling estate when we wanted it to be intimate, so we started searching “Houston event venues” instead of “wedding venues”.

You will find places for much less money this way! There are museums, art galleries, ballroom dance studios, silos, warehouses, really cool urban and/or modern spaces….the options are endless! Especially if you’re in a major city.

The only thing that makes it a bit more challenging is you have to source all of your vendors yourself, but that’s also a plus because being able to use outside vendors means you can really customize your entire day. Taco truck instead of formal catering? Sure! An espresso bar from your favorite local coffee shop? Totally! You have a lot of more options – especially if you’re trying to keep it true to you.

Mix preferred vendors with the FUN vendors!

image via Emma Loves Weddings

So we really had fun here. Even though we didn’t go with a traditional wedding venue, the venue we did choose had had a ton of weddings before, so they did have some preferred vendors that were experienced in working with the venue. Our rentals for instance – our tables, linens, flatware, chairs, etc. – we went with them because they worked at our venue several times before and we actually got a discount because of it. But for our food, we knew we wanted something true to us. We actually went with the Mexican restaurant that we went to on our first date! They’ll be catering buffet style, and while they probably don’t specialize in weddings, I have used them for grad parties in the past, and their fajitas are just too. good.

We are also having our favorite Houston local coffee vendor serve some coffee at the reception, and we are also partnering with them to make our own coffee blends as our party favors! We both love coffee, so we picked our favorite blend and named them each something cute.

Expand your color scheme

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been doing something wedding related and someone has asked, “What is ya’lls color scheme?” Haha. I honestly didn’t know that would come in so much, but for things like the groomsmen’s suits and the florals, it definitely comes up.

I guess having a color scheme of like 2 primary colors just seemed a little limiting to me. I really had a vision I wanted to go with, and it involved having more of a color palette.

Our color palette, I call earth tones. And if you have some pictures or color names to back it up, it’s really easy to communicate this to vendors! Sage green, blush pinks, an orangey-yellow the color of sunset, lots of greenery, twilight blues….that’s what we are doing for our wedding. It’s very “fairy garden at twilight” sort of thing, and I love it! I can’t wait to see how it comes together.

Some other options would be to pick a color gradient like gradients of blue or green or pink and do those. Or sunset colors! Or a bunch of different fall colors! Get creative.

Your bridesmaid dresses to not have to match….colors!

@peytonrbradford on Instagram

I know it’s definitely a trend or more mainstream now to have different style bridesmaid dresses (i.e. someone in strapless, someone in short sleeves, someone in halter) and them be the same color and fabric. Honestly – LOVE that. I like the slight variation, yet still the continuity.

For whatever reason, I was seeing a lot of pictures on Pinterest around the time we got engaged with bridesmaids in all different color and style dresses! Yet the colors were complimentary – see back to the color scheme idea I was talking about.

So I actually did earth tones for my girls’ dresses! Every girl got to pick their own color and style from Lulu’s, but we made sure they all looked great together. I personally wanted them to enjoy and like the dresses in the hopes they could wear them again. Lulus isn’t too expensive (about $90 for a dress), but still!

I do want to point out, that I have 4 bridesmaids including my MOH – so this could be more challenging the bigger bridal party you have! But I can’t wait to see how this turns out. (And if you’re curious: I’ve got a girl in slate blue, a taupe, a faded turquoise, and a muted silver!)

I’m so excited to bring so many personal, thoughtful touches to our wedding day. The countdown is on! If you have gotten married, what was the special personal touch you added to your day?

X,

Cristina