Unique Wedding Ideas
15 ways to bring personality to your day

A lot of my wedding couples have been embracing the non-traditional when it comes to their wedding wedding day. From beer boys to making pizza on your wedding day, here are some of my suggestions as a bride who had a very non-traditional wedding day (read more about my own wedding day and everything non-traditional we did here!) and photographer that supports you making your wedding day all about you!

Unique Wedding Ideas for Before the Ceremony

A different kind of venue

When thinking about where to have your wedding, the world is your oyster! You can go the traditional route or think totally out of the box.

A few different ideas:

1. A venue with lodging – can be as simple as a hotel or as unique as a camp venue
2. Some place sentimental – your parents backyard, the church y’all met at
3. A place y’all love – your favorite restaurant, a bowling alley

Getting ready together

This is something I did at my wedding and I am so glad I did! While it’s very traditional to get ready separate so that you don’t see each other, for me, I wanted to be with my partner the whole day! The morning can be the most stressful part of a wedding day– who better to help you relax than your favorite person?

And if you want to have a reveal moment (either at the aisle or first look) just separate the last 30 minutes of getting ready when you put on your wedding attire. Best of both worlds! Check out more tips on how to have a stress free wedding morning here!

Including your pets

For a lot of couples their pets are their children and they want to include them in their day. However, it can be a bit stressful to have pets in the actual ceremony. So consider having them at the getting ready and first look portion of the day!

First looks

First looks are becoming much more popular, but I’d still say they’re a bit untraditional. First looks entail seeing each other before the ceremony. They’re not for everyone, but for folks that want a bit more time together or want to take away the stress of a big reveal in front of people, they’re amazing! Read more about a first look and decide if it’s right for you!

Private vows

For a lot of couples the idea of saying deeply personal vows in front of their guests might feel a bit overwhelming– so what’s my suggestion? Consider saying your vows in private. This can be during your first look or during your couples session after ceremony. And the best part about private vows? They can accommodate seeing each other or not! Some couples write letters to each other to read apart, some read them to each other with some sort of divider to ensure they don’t see each other. Whatever works best for you, this is an incredibly emotional moment and one I highly recommend implementing into your wedding day!

Special time that is unique to you

I have seen so many incredible and personal moments created by couples. I’ve seen couples play an instrument, share photo albums, read letters or journals, etc. It’s very common on wedding days that couples don’t actually get to spend a lot of uninterrupted time together, so what’s my suggestion? Carve it out and build it into your timeline.

Unique Ceremony Ideas

I have a whole blog post about how you can infuse your personality into your wedding day ceremony, but here are a few of my favorite points.

Pre – Ceremony Tokens

This can be blankets to keep your guests warm or fans to cool them off. It can be a champagne wall so everyone can get a beverage before the ceremony. Or a welcome brochure with the days events, couples get to know you facts, etc.

Wedding Entrances

A lot of my couples ask about wedding entrances– how do we get to the ceremony if we don’t want all eyes on us? What if I don’t want to be walked down the aisle? Really, the world is your oyster. I’ve had couples walk in together, couples walk in with their guests, or walk in solo. You can be escorted by your siblings, your pet, etc.

I walked down the aisle by myself (not because I don’t love my dad) but because I didn’t love the traditional “being given away” and I wanted to be 100% focused on my husband, Zain and vice versa. It was emotional, empowering and I would 1000% do it again.

Collaborative Ceremony Events

I love a collaborative wedding ceremony. It encourages and welcomes guest participation and makes them feel a part of such an important ceremony. A few ideas are:

1. Ring warming – have your guests pass around your rings and imbue well-wishes.
2. Surprise ring bearers – this takes a bit of planning and some trust. But hide your rings under a seat, whoever has the rings are your ring bearers! It’s a fun little interactive element and makes for a sweet memory.
3. Acknowledge your guests – one of my favorite weddings, Sarah and Grant, addressed all their guests, thanked them for being their and asked them to support them as a couple in their own unique way. It was so emotional and sweet to have the couple include all their guests in such a meaningful way. If you have a larger wedding, you could thank a few individuals that were impactful in your life or relationship (parents, wedding party, etc.) and then ask the entire guests as a whole to support your marriage.
4. Group selfie – you know at concerts when the artist takes a selfie with everyone in the audience, it’s that. This could be using your phone or your wedding photographer. It’s a great way to lighten the mood and capture the moment.
5. Marriage license or guest book signing – this was something we did at our wedding and it was one of my favorite parts. We asked each personal up individually to come sign (the back) of our marriage license. We got to hug everyone and thank them. And as a result everyone was our witnesses and now we have a framed memento of our marriage license and all our guests signatures.

Ceremony exits

Ceremony exits are often not thought about by couples and I think they should be given more love! (And a bonus– if you don’t have full day coverage getting your end of night send off, this captures the feel of those photos without the extra time needed!)

Unique Wedding Ideas for Cocktail Hour

Cocktail Hour Before the Ceremony

This was something we did at our wedding because we weren’t planning on doing a ton of photos after our ceremony and we wanted to do private vows before the ceremony. This worked for a couple reasons:

1. We had a small guest count.
2. We only had a small family shot-list after our ceremony (which included all our 15 guests). If you are planning on having a larger wedding and/or a larger family shot-list this plan might not work for you. One workaround would be to have guests grab a glass of champagne and then go straight into finding their seats.
3. We were doing couples photos later in the evening during reception. We only wanted a few couples photos since we opted for a day after session (more info on that here!) Which meant we weren’t leaving our guests for too long without an activity (ie. cocktail hour). If you still want a traditional amount of couples photos and want to do a cocktail hour pre-ceremony consider having your session be later in the evening closer to sunset.

This created a wonderful “welcome hour” before ceremony. We got to socialize with our guests rather than being hidden away before ceremony. And it gave them something to do while we were off saying our private vows.

Activities During Cocktail Hour

There are so many fun things you can do during your cocktail hour to entertain your guests, some ideas are:

1. Live drawing of all your guests – an awesome keepsake and wedding favor
2. Guest book – you can make these as personalized as you want
3. Lawn games – we played Kubb at our wedding, but cornhole, giant jenga, etc. are usually hits
4. Food stations – pretzels, tacos, etc.
5. Custom drinks – craft cocktails, beer kegs, champagne wall, etc.

Unique guest book ideas

There are so many different ways you can do a guest book. My top tip is thinking about what you’re going to do with it afterwards! If you go the traditional book route, make it a piece you’d want to have on your coffee table for years to come– include a section for notes and photos rather than just a place to sign and consider a non-traditional medium (a photo book of national parks or destinations you got married at for instance) Or go really creative and put names on a game that you see yourself playing in the future (a puzzle or jenga perhaps).

Unique Wedding Reception Ideas

Moment alone right after ceremony

The emotions are so high post ceremony! Rather than jumping right into family formals, consider taking a few minutes alone to have a drink, hug, cry and sign your marriage license. (Just make sure your family knows this is happening and doesn’t wander to cocktail hour!)

A different kind of seating chart

The world is your oyster with your seating chart! My recommendations, make it easy for folks to find their names and infuse your personality. An idea I love is using photos of you with your guests as their seating chart, people can find themselves easily and it’s a fun way to recognize their importance to you.

Write notes for your guests

A lofty task if you are having a larger wedding, but this is such a sweet thing to do for your guests.

Special dances together

If you don’t want all eyes on you during your parent dances, consider doing them together as a couple. This is a sweet bonding moment and doesn’t feel as stuffy.

Dinnertime

Dinner at weddings can often have a bad rep of being long, boring and not very delicious. But there are so many incredible caterers and private chefs that you can absolutely have an incredible dinnertime experience. A few tips for a great dinner service:

1. Don’t skimp on waitstaff or bartenders – you will likely need a larger team than you think. The larger the staff, the faster the service and fresher the food.
2. Consider a food truck – they are delicious and you can really get some unique food options
3. For smaller weddings, swap tables – this is what we did at our wedding and it guaranteed we got to eat and talk with all our guests
4. Consider eating solo – this is controversial, but consider eating your meal away from all your guests. It gives you a small moment alone and ensures you actually get to eat!

Unique dessert table

Your wedding day dessert is such a great way to show off your personality. That could be a fun cake that describes you as a couple or go the anti-cake and choose a dessert that you and your partner love!

A few things I’ve seen and loved:

1. Fun and creative cakes
2. A family history dessert table of everyone’s favorite family treats
3. Cake toppers from parents and grandparents

Some alone time

After a full night of dancing and celebrating with your guests, it might be nice to have another moment of alone time with just you and your partner. Some of my couples have planned this as a surprise for their partner and for some this is scheduled into the timeline.

Some ideas:

1. Eating your cake alone
2. Sneaking out for nighttime portraits
3. A surprise
4. Last dance together

Fun send off

Capture your personality with a fun and unique send off. It ends the night on a high. A lot of couples skip this but it really does end the night on a great note.

A few non-traditional wedding ceremony timelines

Small wedding with welcome hour

4:50 – First look and private vows

5pm – Cocktail/welcome hour begins

5:20 – Couple joins cocktail hour, greets all their guests

5:50 – Guests begin sitting down for ceremony

6pm – Ceremony

6:20 – Quick family photos

6:30 – Guests seated for dinner

7pm – Couple sneaks out for sunset photos

7:30 – Toasts begin

8pm – Cake cutting

8:05 – Open dance floor

Larger wedding with traditional post-ceremony events

3:15 – First look and private vows

3:45 – Wedding party photos

4:20 – Guests begin sitting down for ceremony

4:30 – Ceremony

5pm – Family photos // cocktail hour begins

5:30 – Couples photos

6pm – Couple joins cocktail hour

6:30 – Guests seated for dinner

7:15 – Toasts begin

8pm – Cake cutting

8:05 – Open dance floor

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I hope this post on unique and non-traditional wedding ideas was helpful for you! Truly the most important thing to remember is your wedding day is first and foremost about you and your partner, this is your permission to ditch anything that doesn’t feel authentically like you. And if you need some help for the flow of the wedding day or just more ideas on how to bring your personality to your wedding day, send me a message! I’d love to help you plan and photograph your non-traditional wedding day!

While you’re here, why don’t you check out some other posts that I think you might like:

Unique and non-traditional wedding ceremony ideas

My wedding day – things we did to make our wedding day special to us

Candid wedding photography

The 20 minute photo session – making your day about you and not a photoshoot