Choosing a theme wedding

Planning a theme wedding? Picking a theme for your wedding can help make planning your reception and ceremony a little simpler. From the extravagant to the simple a theme can make every thing form décor to food decisions easier.

Ideas can come from any where. Do you have a favorite movie, book, place that you can draw your inspiration from? Here are some theme ideas and how you can incorporate them into your wedding.

Beach/Nautical:

Shades of blues and greens are good color choices for this theme. Pick a beach themed invitation to give your guests a sneak peek into what is in store. Many sites offer a wide variety of beach inspired invitations. You can also dress up a simple invitation by decorating the invite with some shear ribbon and a small star fish or sand dollar.

Dress up your wedding accessories with silver starfish charms. Have your brides maid wear flip flops and carry large shells with or with out flowers inside. If you are having you wedding on a beach consider lining the isle with tiki torches, they can be dressed up or plain. For the ceremony instead of unity candles you could opt for the sand ceremony.

For the reception instead of draping lot of tulle every where try using decorative fishing net which you can find at most craft, or home décor stores. Sand, sea shell, urchin, sand dollar, starfish, and sea glass can be used to create eye catching centerpiece. Try filling glass rose bowls with sand or sea glass and placing a taper candle in the middle. Place sea shells, urchin, sand dollars, and starfish around the bowl on the table. As an alternative to place card you could write the guests name and table number on a sea shell or sand dollar.

Even your food can be inspired by the sea. How about having a clam bake, fish fry, or a surf and turf menu. Think about serving tropical drink with umbrellas.

Winter/ Christmas

Create a winter wonderland. Try hitting the stores the Christmas or two before your wedding, you should be able to find any thing your winter themed heart desires. The nice thing about this theme is if you are having your wedding near Christmas, churches will already be decorated for Christmas.

If you choose Christmas think in reds, greens, and gold's. Have a Christmas tree at your reception site. Decorate it with candy canes and ornaments which can be given to guests as favors. Use poinsettias for centerpieces. Have a hot chocolate or eggnog bar for your guests.

For a different feel choose to go for the winter theme. Blue, silver, snow flakes, and ice capture this setting very well. You can make you reception look like an ice palace with white draping and blue lighting. You can easily create ice tree center pieces. Purchase birch branches, spray adhesive, and fine glitter from a craft store. Spray the branches with the adhesive and sprinkle with glitter until the desired look is reached. I suggest doing only a small section at a time approx. one foot or less.

Consider serving a traditional Christmas dinner at your reception. Turkey goes along way and is usually less expensive this time of year.

Country/ Western

For this theme have the wedding party or at least the men wear cow boy hats and boots. They also have western style Tuxedos at certain rental places. If you really want to give this one your all you could consider making the trip down the isle on a horse. I only suggest this to the bride to be who has ridden before.

You can use bales of hay to decorate. Bandanna and gingham print are good for this theme. Consider putting your center pieces in small galvanized buckets. You can even purchase miniature cowboy hats or buckets to fill with candy as a favor for your guest.

If your ring bearer and flower girl are very young you could have them pulled down the isle in a wagon. Get creative have the ring bearer carry the rings on a horse shoe tied with ribbon. Consider using sunflowers or wild flower for you bouquet and other arrangements.

Serve BBQ at your reception. Don't forget the ice tea. While your chowwing down don't forget the country Music.

These are just a small sampling of what choosing a theme wedding could be. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. I included some of the more popular themes with ideas for conveying the feeling of your vision. Picking a theme helps you create a direction to go in. I know when I started planning my wedding I was over whelmed, by what seemed like limitless decision on every thing form invitations to favors. You don't want your special day to be a jumble of things you liked, rather you want a cohesive event. This is a special day you will remember for the rest of you life. Good luck, have fun, and get creative.