As luxury London wedding planners, we find that once the big decisions have been made - the budget, venue, date and format - couples tend to turn their thoughts to the style of the day. Incorporating a theme into your wedding is a fun way of showing your personality as a couple. It also allows your wedding to really stand out. Sometimes people will opt for a colour palette as opposed to a fully styled theme, it’s completely up to you. We suggest following our top tips to create a successfully themed wedding.
How to incorporate a theme into your wedding
It can be subtle
When we say themed, we’re not thinking of hide behind the sofa themes you sometimes see on Don’t Tell The Bride! Themes can be subtle and we are always mindful of keeping them sophisticated, elegant and high end. We create mood boards very early on in the planning process for all events, these help us to clarify the theme and styling with our clients and make sure we are completely in tune with each other. If you aren't sure where to start, why not choose a colour palette of a few colours that you like and create your mood board using images of flowers, vases, furniture, table centres and props that you like in those colours. It's a fun thing to do together and will help you to decide which colours you think work well and the kind of styling you both like. Suppliers will love you for sharing your mood board with them, it really helps them to understand the look you're going for and they'll then offer even more creative ideas along those lines in their proposal for you to add to your board!
Think about the areas your guests will notice
We find that couples often fall in love with one item and base their theme around this. If you're doing this, remember to consider the format of the day and what your guests will notice when. For example, if you book a retro ice cream van because you love the vintage style and you then go for a retro theme but the van isn't arriving until late in the day then the theme may seem a bit confusing at first.
It's best to thread the theme throughout the day, include it from the start and work it into areas that guests will notice. Your wedding stationery is key to this. When guests receive a save the date or invite, they will display it in their homes for up to a year depending on the length of your planning. If you have a theme in time, introducing it here is a great way to welcome guests to the style of the day. It’s not necessary to have decided every element of the day before you send the invites but subtle touches give a gentle nod to your thinking.
On the day, guests will spend a considerable amount of time sitting down at the tables, so we love to focus on these! There is so much to this about - the crockery, cutlery and glassware, table centres and table names are all key areas for theming. You could opt for coloured linen and napkins, or subtly tinted water glasses can look incredible against crisp, white linen tablecloths. If you are giving wedding favours, these can help to accentuate your theme - if you are focussing on flowers you could give personalised seed packets, or if you have a coloured theme you could give your guests flower petals in those colours and hang favours in those colours on the back of your guests' chairs.
The food
The catering on your special day is an area well worth spending time considering. It will be where a large proportion of your budget is spent. We love working with couples to design menus that suit them and match the theme or style of their wedding.
A great example was for a bride and groom with a subtle Harry Potter theme, (read more about their wedding reception). Our fantastic caterers Rhubarb created a delicious menu complete with a White Chocolate Snitch! The cocktails were of course inspired by potions from Harry Potter to include an ‘Amortentia Pearlescent Margarita’, ‘Pepperup Potion Porn Star Martini’ and ‘Veritaserum Chilli and Lemongrass Collins’. The theme continued through to the glassware where we selected a baroque gold collection to add grandeur and elegance. The cocktails were served in a mix of copper tankards, gold tumblers and silver goblets.
The food and drink doesn’t have to be themed as such, but the dishes can have touches which link to your theme. It’s an area everyone will notice and it creates a great talking point for your guests too.
Ask the experts
When it comes to creating an effective theme throughout your day, we recommend consulting the experts. We are lucky to have seen so many weddings and events. This has allowed us to understand what works well and how it is best to spend your budget. Ensuring that your money is maximised is key and we can definitely advise here. Knowing what guests notice, what tends to work well and which suppliers to use is invaluable. We often prefer working with the smaller suppliers, those truly passionate and skilled in their areas. Sometimes they’re not even found on Google, but we know where to find them!
It's a live event
Our last tip for incorporating a theme is to remember that it is a live event. Naturally your guests will photograph the event and those captured moments are brilliant. However, a live event and an event that looks great on social media are not always the same thing. We have years of experience when it comes to designing live events, events that guests will react well to and remember for years. That, we feel, is more important than an expensive prop or single image. We work closely with our couples to ensure there is continuity with the design of the day, that the theme threads through and marries up in every area.
A theme is not something to be scared of, they can be so much fun. Please contact us if you are looking to add a theme to your day but you’re not sure how – we would love to help.