If you were to ask anyone who went to our wedding “How was it?” … they would probably respond with “it was so them”. Our wedding was so personal and felt “so us” on the big day.
When I say unique, I don’t mean “stand out” or “different”, I really mean unique to you. Make it about YOU in ways you will remember for the rest of your life.
Below, I’m giving you 5 ways you can add personal touches to your wedding to make it unique to you and your future spouse.
1. Incorporate Loved Ones
No, I do not mean make all of your hunny’s family a bridesmaid or groomsmen – that could lead to a huge bridal party.
After Corey proposed, I knew we couldn’t have our entire family in the bridal party but what I did know, is that we could weave them in our ceremony to make it incredibly special.
For example, my sister Morgan is the most talented self-taught musician I have ever met in my life, and my cousin Lena has been studying composition the passed few years in school. It was only right that Lena compose a piece for Morgan to play as I walk down the aisle.
It was absolutely beautiful and so special to Corey and I. Morgan even mixed the song “Layla” by Eric Clapton into the piece as a surprise as I walked down.
2. The Officiant
I spent maybe 2 minutes looking at officiants on theknot.com before asking myself
“Why on earth would we want to be married by someone we don’t know.”
In the beginning, we never wanted someone there on our big day that didn’t know us, grow with us, surround us with love as we grew up and that definitely included the officiant!
I kid you not, I was at Skyline Chili when I made the call to our longtime friend Kate. Kate’s has been there for us since the beginning, she was our youth group leader, wise advice giver, and most importantly, our friend.
She was made for this gig. I want to say she was ordained in 24 hours! She did such an amazing job. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had guests to ask her to do the same for them. ❤️
3. The Menu
My friends used to laugh when I said I wasn’t feeding them at my wedding. Honestly, I said it so much they probably believed it.
Luckily for them, I was totally lying, and luckily for my wallet, anything goes when you plan and fund your own wedding… and that includes the food.
My husband and I worked at our local Skyline for who knows how many years (7? I might have to fact check that). We spent our first dating anniversary slinging coneys to St. Bernard.
We’ve helped our former boss cater things from work events to baby showers, and now it was our turn to ask him to do the same for us.
We had a build-your-own coney bar and it was a total success! It was quick, simple, and absolutely delicious.
4. The Wedding Video
Do you notice in every romantic movie it features a one-cut wedding video? Someone just behind the camera going around asking guests for well wishes?
We currently live in an era where that isn’t always good enough. We need the extra edits, the crazy sky view shots, and so much more. Well, Corey and I knew we didn’t want that.
We wanted video from everyone’s perspective, our guests, our bridal party, and even ourselves. We wanted to relive that day as if we were actually there, just like the old school wedding videos.
WeddingMix gave us that option. We literally documented the day on our phones and on go pros and all of that footage was uploaded directly to the WeddingMix team. We had over 3 hours of footage!
I did an entire blog post on WeddingMix and why we chose to have our wedding video created by them. You can check that out hereWeddingMix!
& if you decide this wedding video format is for you, I do have a discount code for my readers (NO IT IS NOT AFFILIATE, IT IS NOT SPONSORED & I DO NOT RECEIVE MONEY IF YOU USE IT) – so save yourself some money by using the code “keepingupwiththekeiners” !
5. Write Your Own Vows
Out of everything that happened this amazing day… reading our vows to each other had to be my favorite.
It can be scary putting yourself out there in front of 150 people… but all in all, in that moment, no one else matters, and honestly, you forget that anyone else is even there – I PROMISE YOU THAT.
I tear up even thinking about what Corey said to me on our big day, like wow, he absolutely made me feel so special. Even if no one else understood what we were saying, got the inside jokes, or even cared what we said, reading those to each other was such a special moment that neither of us will forget for the rest of our lives.
Forget the stage fright, order those little no vow books off of amazon, write them down and read them to each other. You absolutely will not regret it.
All in all, your big day is about you as a couple. So take full advantage of the opportunity to make even the smallest things special. This day only rolls around once, be sure it is all you ever wanted.
How was your wedding day unique to you? What special touches do plan on adding to your big day? Comment below!
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