Thursday, August 16, 2018

10 Unique Wedding Features

Since today marks our TEN YEAR wedding anniversary (time flies when you're having fun), I thought it'd be fun to share 10 features that the hubby and I felt made our wedding unique/ special. Now, remember, this was before the age of Pinterest (shoot, we barely had the Internet in 2008 - KIDDING!)! It definitely wasn't traditional, but if you know either Ryan or myself, you probably could've guessed we wouldn't have gone the traditional route. You may say it was cheap (I'd consider it 'economical'), but for us, we were (and still are) much more focused on our MARRIAGE than our WEDDING. Even still, it was pretty FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC and most of the details screamed US! 10 years down, forever to go!


We had buttons instead of flowers.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money on something that would die in a day or two, so I found someone on Etsy who made amazing bouquets and boutonnieres out of buttons and asked her to make some for us. We still have them in our office.


I walked down the aisle to Jack Johnson.

Might as well toss tradition out the window from the jump, right?! And we were in San Diego, so why not walk down the aisle to a beachy-feel song?! And in case you are wondering which of Jack Johnson's songs it was - it was Angel.


Our guest book was a surfboard.

I found a free surfboard on Craigslist (one that wasn't great for the actual sport of surfing, but would be perfect for an art piece), so we painted it our wedding colors and left our markers so people could sign it. It's still on display in our bedroom.


The menu was 100% vegetarian.

I became a vegetarian in 2005 and the hubby in 2007, so since this was probably one of the bigger parties we would throw, we wanted the food to align with our beliefs/lifestyle. And it made serving easier when everyone got the same meal.


Instead of favors we donated to a charity.

Let's be real, unless it's food, most people toss the favors they receive at weddings. We decided instead of spending the $2-3 per person on a trinket we would donate the money to an organization doing good in the world - Invisible Children.

Source

We have a code word for when the hubby wants to "spin" me.

The hubby may not have a ton of rhythm... but he loves to "dance". He may not be a conventional dancer (he loves moves like the "windshield wiper" and the "sprinkler"), so to keep me safe we used a code word so I knew when I should spin.


We didn't have a DJ.

Most DJ's just play the songs you ask them to anyway, so why not just make our own playlist and have a friend record the few introductions (like the wedding party entering or the daddy-daughter dance)... Well, the hubby misunderstood what I meant and recorded the intros HIMSELF! Yup, he DJ'ed his own wedding... but at least it makes for a funny story to tell!


We had cupcakes.

This might seem like the norm these days, but back then it was definitely out of the ordinary. I thought it was easier than a cake because we didn't have to do any cutting or serving - folks could just come up and grab them. Easy and delicious!


My "something blue" was on my shoe.

Okay, so maybe some of the traditions are fun to keep... but in a different way. For the "something blue" I used blue rhinestones to put our initials on the bottom of my shoe (in the arch where it wouldn't touch the ground and come off).


Our "getaway vehicle" was a tandem bicycle.

We needed our car to be able to get back to Oceanside after we stayed at a hotel the night after our wedding, so we thought a fun tandem bike to ride around the parking lot would work perfectly for some photo ops and then we wouldn't have to worry about logistics afterward. I even attached a bunch of Diet Mountain Dew cans via ribbon to the back of it ;)


Like I said, it might not have been your taste, but I think it fit our personalities perfectly! And everyone who was there seemed to enjoy themselves and at the end of the day we were officially married, so what more could you ask for?!

Source

Are you more of a traditionalist or an outside-the-box sort of person?

5 comments:

Carissa said...

We had a giant bounce house, an ice cream sundae bar, did our own playlist from our ipod....it was soooooo fun!!!!

Melissa Fuentes said...

So fun!

My wedding was 12 years ago and was also a little on the less traditional side as well, with several similarities to yours. Our guestbook was a skateboard, our get away vehicles were unicycles, we had cupcakes too, our first “dance” was on skateboards, our dog was our “flower dog”..... Reminiscing about it makes me want to do it all again!!

Katie said...

We celebrated our 15 year anniversary this past March. We were somewhat outside the box.

Our reception was at an old high school gym, so it was kinda like prom, but better. We had some music burned to CDs (so long ago) that we played and then some friends’ band played well into the night.

And I walked down the aisle to a Beatles song (I Will) and out to bluegrass versions of two Widespread Panic songs (Take Out and The Waker).

Terra Heck said...

Happy 10th anniversary! Here's wishing you many more great years together. I think it sounds like a wonderful wedding. I love the surfboard idea for people to sign and cupcakes are absolutely the way to go.
I was married 15 years ago at Six Flags Fright Fest with 13 other couples. I wore a black dress and veil. My husband dressed as a mummy.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary! We got married almost 11 years ago just a mile or two from the Bali Hai and our guests stayed on Shelter Island. My husband and I are both Italian and we wanted it to feel like our traditional Sunday family dinners so we got married on a Sunday late afternoon at a house overlooking the ocean with a reception that was Italian style....meaning so much food that no one could ever forget it including a table with just charcuterie during cocktail hour and all you can drink prosecco, wine, and Italian beer. The dinner and desserts were what you’d find in Italy and that’s what we focused on....food and drink and people laughing and enjoying it all!