Looking for inspiration for your celebration? Rely on your five senses to make your wedding personal and unique.
Sight
- Choose a ceremony setting with visual impact, signaling at a glance that this is going to be a very special event: a cathedral of trees or a flower-garlanded huppah for nature lovers; a small chapel for an intimate, family-oriented ceremony.
- Use a strong colour scheme to dramatically coordinate ceremony and reception decorations, invitations, flowers, bridesmaids’ dresses, and formalwear accessories. Choose an elegant combination of colours (rich hues of burgundy, hunter green, chocolate brown, and gold, for instance) or the impact of a single colour, such as antique ivory or midnight blue.
- Use symbols to express your thoughts, feelings and sentiments. For instance, honour deceased loved ones by lighting a special candle or including their favourite flower in the floral arrangements. Another option is to use patterned fabrics to honour your family heritage.
Touch
- Texture can instantly personalize a wedding invitation and add a special richness. Go formal with elegant raised type and an embossed border or go funky with sheets of one-of-a-kind handmade paper suffused with pressed flowers.
- Sealing wax and stamps (available at most greeting-card stores) can add textural interest to a variety of wedding accessories. For instance, stamp your own and your fiancé’s initials into a large drop of wax applied to the front of each of your wedding programs. Or use a drop of sealing wax and a decorative stamp to join the ends of a short length of paper ribbon fashioned into a loop; use these as unique napkin rings for the reception.
- Choose a gift that your guests will want to pick up, touch, and cherish; for instance, a richly textured miniature picture frame, a small carved candle, or an intriguingly shaped box filled with candy or chocolate.
Smell
- On the eve of the wedding, the bride could send the groom a formal white handkerchief scented with her wedding-day perfume.
- Place a bowl of potpourri or a small vase of beautifully scented flowers in the washrooms at the reception.
- Get guests’ mouths watering at the reception with table centrepieces featuring pots of fresh herbs.
- On your wedding night, sprinkle the bed with fresh rose petals, then spritz the linen with perfume or light a scented candle.
Hearing
- Fill the day with music in unconventional ways. Ask your limousine driver to play your favourite tunes during the rides to the ceremony and reception.
- Have a joyous fanfare to start your procession. Look into hiring university music students or professional musicians to provide a real trumpet fanfare. Alternatively, let a Scottish bagpiper get the celebrations off to a rousing start by having him play as you walk back down the aisle and meet guests outside. Or have him pipe you in as you make your grand entrance at the dinner reception.
- One recent bride and groom walked the short distance from their ceremony site to the reception, leading a joyous parade of guests playing tambourines, homemade rattles, toy drums, and kazoos.
Taste
- Ask your caterer about including a traditional dish in your menu to honour your heritage.
- For a garden wedding, garnish hors d¹oeuvres, salads, even desserts and drinks with edible flowers for a taste sensation (usually mildly spicy, peppery, or sweet) that's also colourful and delightful to smell.
- Choose a wedding cake that will be as delicious as it is beautiful. If you can¹t decide on a flavour, ask your baker about having a tiered cake with a different flavour (chocolate, carrot, lemon, etc.) for each layer. For a sophisticated alternative to the traditional white wedding cake or as a tasty addition, offer a traditional French croquembouche; a tower of cloud-light cream puffs.
- If the idea of a set dinner menu leaves you yawning, ask your caterer about the recent trend of food stations, more fun than a buffet (and less apt to create guest traffic jams). Each station can feature a different course or dish. For instance, for a Mediterranean-inspired dinner, one station could offer a variety of exotic breads, butters, pickles, and condiments; another, cheeses, cold sliced meats, and olives; another, pasta with a variety of sauces to choose from; another, tempting salads; and yet another, roast lamb, sliced to order by the chef stationed there, as well as seafood kebabs, and meat and vegetable terrines.
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