Non-Traditional Wedding Ideas (Part 2)
Hooray! Time for round 2 of ways you can incorporate a few less traditional ideas into making your wedding day more about you and your love and less about expectations of how it ‘should’ be. Be sure to check out Part 1 in case you missed it because heaven forbid you miss out on a couple’s bath!
6) Decide who you want to walk you down the aisle, if anyone
Of course there is nothing wrong with the tradition of your father walking you down the aisle (unless of course he still refers to you as property is giving you away along with 5 sheep…then call me and I will come rescue you). It brought me immense joy in asking my mom if she would stand on the other side of me and walk me down the aisle along with my dad. My parents divorced when I was 6 so it was a little strange to see a photo of the 3 of us in it since that hadn’t happened since I was in pigtails but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Both of them helped raise me to be the person I am today, sacrificing their own wants for mine and I wanted to be sure to honor both of them.
If your parents have passed on or perhaps you don’t have the best relationship with them, choose someone else who is important to you. Or you could even walk your own badass self down that aisle!
7) You don’t have to eat cake
Sure, you can go sample delicious cakes beforehand but no longer do you have to serve everyone cake if you don’t want to! How about pie, or a table full of candy? My husband loves marble cake so we had a little cake made just for the two of us (and no we didn’t smash it into each other’s faces) but we did do this which might be worse:
I love brownies (pictured faintly in the background) so we served milk and brownies for the guests! This also turned out to be cheaper and people loved it so if your favorite dessert isn’t cake, spice it up and get what you like. A friend of mine Jennifer loves cake pops so they had those! If you have donuts at your wedding, please invite me.
8) Hand your bouquet off or save it
I had a friend who got married and she did the ‘anniversary dance’ where you call all the married guests on the dance floor and it narrows down until the longest-married couple is left. This turned out to be her grandparents so she presented her bouquet to them-adorable! I saved mine and admired it all weekend but if I would have known about this, I may of handed it to my grandparents because I think that’s super sweet! I didn’t toss mine and kept it on display for the rest of the weekend (we got married on Friday of Labor Day weekend so it was really a wedding weekend).
9) If you don’t want to wear white, pick another color dress!
More and more brides are choosing to wear other colors than white or ivory. This is our special day and we should feel confident, beautiful and special and the color and style of the dress should reflect you. I opted for the traditional route and found a dress in ivory, which I loved even before I noticed the name of it was “Avery” (I can’t make this up. Come over and I’ll show you the tag).
My friend Heather rocked an awesome dress for her wedding day-thanks for letting me share!
10) Be Conscious of your Pronouncement
When I hear “I now pronounce you man and wife” I cringe. It seems unbalanced to me to call one person out by gender and the other by an identity. Be conscious of how you want to be addressed and ask your officiant, pastor, or preacher, to do so. How about “I now pronounce you husband and wife” or “I now pronounce you partners for life” (we opted for this one) or “I now pronounce you people who cannot watch your favorite TV show without the other one present.” You get the gist.
Also, pinterest didn’t exist when we got married about 4 years ago and after this post, it’s making me want to go crazy on there so let’s be friends!
However you choose to celebrate the union and commitment with your love, I wish you a lifetime of fun, happiness and a reminder to spend ten-fold the amount of energy you did on your wedding on your marriage. Celebrate love!
Questions:
1) What was your favorite part about your wedding day or what are you most looking forward to (besides marrying the person you want to spend forever with)?
2) Where is your wedding dress now?
3) Favorite cake or dessert….go! (You can tell I’m really into donuts currently)
ps. Shout out to our amazing photographers Cassie Rosch Photography and Sweet Dahlia Photography for capturing our special day!
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Pingback: How to Have a Non-Traditional Wedding (Part 1) | the new wifestyle
Debra
July 16, 2014 at 9:51 am
Chelsea, you are so creative and insightful. I love reading your blogs!
chelsea
July 16, 2014 at 3:09 pm
thank you debra!! i so appreciate your unwavering support and comment 🙂 hope you are having a marvelous day!
Mariel Savage
July 16, 2014 at 3:28 pm
I really like that you have focused on this subject. Shane and I have decided to marry (after 10 years of being committed to each other.) We plan to do a court house officiating, but have an camping event with our closest friends (looking like no family.. long story.. kind of) we are taking a road kind of far from any traditions, which has already made people uncomfortable.
the fact that shane didn’t propose to me has made people feel weird. The idea that a guy has to propose (and not to mention making a equal conversation makes me feel really really uncomfortable. I am finding that becoming more and more out dated. I get the romance part but I don’t think we need to find traditions to feel romantic. this is just my opinion,, but i hope future girls and boys of any kind of relationship doesn’t feel like they have to abide to this tradition to feel fully validated.
I am getting a lot of people excited about the event even if it is so different. I realize that people will give us the go a head when they know someone else has done such thing.
thank you for writing this! 🙂
chelsea
July 16, 2014 at 3:35 pm
aww YAY mariel!!! congratulations on the continuation of commitment to you and shane 🙂 thank you SO much for sharing your amazing sounding celebration of your love! love that are planning a camping adventure with your closest friends but i can also imagine how difficult that may for some to digest too. even with our wedding being more traditionally structured, some of the things we did made people that were different made people uncomfortable too but in the end, it’s to celebrate our love that we share together so more power to you lady-love it!
also interesting point on the fact that 99% of the time it’s the guy proposing…may have to pick your brain on that over happy hour or you may need to do a guest post on here lady! thanks for your comment and sharing your thoughts mariel 🙂
Mariel Savage
July 16, 2014 at 3:42 pm
Yes. I also see that i had written my comment in such a hurry that it doesn’t fully make sense, but i think you got my point! 😉
I would love to meet up and talk to you soon! oh the things we can talk about!
I just feel that some traditions are out dated and don’t fully match society fully anymore.
The camping wedding is at a summer camp site which includes tents, cabins, yurts, and an A-frame house. I am really excited on what that can lend to a celebration weekend. i think the point that we are celebrating love and life will come through, hopefully!
chelsea
July 17, 2014 at 4:38 pm
oh i totally got it and agreed that many traditions just don’t fit what we are looking for 🙂 totally made me smile with ‘we are celebrating love and life will come through!’ i know it will be excellent mariel!
Sara
July 16, 2014 at 7:27 pm
I had my wedding dress altered and wore it with a black appron and black gloves to be a volunteer server at a formal event. A few years later I donated the dress. Wearing it altered publicly helped me to accept that it was something I could laugh about and not hold onto the resentment or shame. I just told people I chose the right dress but the wrong guy. Acceptance is easier with a bit of humor. Then I donated it to a Goodwill.
chelsea
July 17, 2014 at 4:36 pm
so empowering that you altered your dress and wore it to be a server at a formal event, sara!! that’s excellent and love what you told people about the right dress and wrong guy 🙂 humor is absolutely what gets us through. thank you so much for sharing your excellent way to accept yourself, the circumstances and move on to an even better life!