Some of Our Favorite
Creative Wedding Ideas

• Let the bridesmaids wear un-matching gowns. Ask all of them to choose different dresses in the same color, or choose different styles from the same line.
• Put out a box of fun hairpins and costume jewelry for the bridesmaids to choose from before the ceremony.
• Buy an ivory or pale-colored evening bodice and skirt instead of a wedding dress. Even pieces from upscale, hot designers are often hundreds of dollars less than a wedding dress.

Centerpiece & Decorations

• Use potted herbs as centerpieces. Guests will be delighted to take them home after the party.
• Repurpose juice bottles as vases; some high-end juices are packaged in beautiful glass vessels. Buy a bunch, decant (or drink!) the juice, wash them sparkling clean and buy flowers for them from your local wholesaler (or try online wholesaler fiftyflowers.com).
• Buy a tea tray at the flea market or junk shop and decorate it with a mixture of pillar candles and votives at different heights. Scatter flower petals between the candles.
• Place one stem of a large, showy flower such as a hydrangea or peony in small julep cups that guests can later take home as favors.

Food & Drink

• Create a DIY Cupcake or Ice Cream Sundae bar -- you might find it’s more popular than wedding cake!
• For a farm or field-based outdoor wedding, pack (or have your caterer put together) individual picnic baskets for each guest.
• Have a potluck reception! Organize it online so your guests can see who’s bringing what, and what dishes are needed -- there's a website called Lucky Potluck with free organizing tools.
• Instead of a cake topper, decorate your cake with a quote from your favorite musician or poet.
• Use toy figures or Christmas ornaments representing you and your fiance’s favorite interests or hobbies as a cake topper.

Favors & Bridesmaid Gifts

• Design beautiful recipe cards for some of the delicious foods featured in your wedding, print them on blank postcards, and tie with a ribbon.
• Create guest goodie bags made from little craft paper shopping bags. Stuff the bottom with tissue paper, then pile in a handful of yummy treats like candies or macaroons. Print labels with whimsical messages.
• Give your guests little clay pots tied with a ribbon, stuffed with tissue paper and a packet of your favorite flower seeds.
• Make a CD of you and your fiance’s favorite music. Buy plain paperboard CD cases and design a custom label on your computer.
• Design a little booklet of your favorite poems, illustrated with photographs -- you could combine personal snapshots with stock photography. Websites like www.lulu.com and www.blurb.com can print small numbers of books for you.

Entertainment

• Create a personalized slideshow of your life as a couple in PowerPoint or through www.animoto.com, and run it on a laptop at the reception.
• Organize a sing-a-long at the piano with homemade lyrics booklets (guests can bring them home as favors).
• Make your own photobooth with a length of fabric hung from a bar and a digital camera on a tripod.