Wedding Invitations

For a nautical theme wedding, invitations can be designed to resemble tickets for a cruise or boat ride. The bride and groom can dress as the captain and first mate, while their attendants can be pirates, sailors, or the crew. Seafood and sushi would be fun fare to serve, with centerpieces of live goldfish, floating toy boats, starfish, or shells. Instead of numbers, table assignments could use shipyard or seafaring terms such as port, starboard, tack, jibe, rudder, or compass.

Luau, Hawaiian, or island theme weddings have become popular, too. Guests are welcomed with leis. Hula skirts and Hawaiian shirts are the attendants’ garb. The ambiance is enhanced with Hawaiian music, foods, and entertainment, tiki torches, and table assignments that use the names of islands or exotic plants. For the centerpieces, consider either clear bowls with floating tropical flowers, candles, seashells, and sand, or fishbowls filled with colored coral and goldfish. Fun wedding favors could be shell-shaped chocolates or seashells painted with the couple’s names and wedding date.

A movie, television, or entertainment theme wedding could require guests to come dressed in the spirit of the couple’s favorite TV show of film such as The Brady Bunch, Star Wars, or a classic movie. Invitations designed to resemble a movie placard, playbill, or tickets to a show are a fun touch. Theme music and food from the TV show or film can add to the ambiance, and fun memorabilia from it can decorate the space. Party favors such as chocolates shaped like televisions or director’s megaphones are also unique.

Sports theme weddings can be set at a sports arena, baseball stadium, racetrack, or football field. The bride can throw the first pitch or the groom can literally kick off the ceremony. One couple walked through an archway of attendants holding up baseball bats. Peanuts and popcorn can be served during the ceremony, and baseball hats printed with the couple’s names and wedding date can be clever favors.

Extreme weddings are also becoming a trend. Couples have exchanged vows on roller coaster, atop observation platforms at national monuments, while bungee jumping or sky diving, in airplanes or hot-air balloons, underwater while clad in scuba gear, and even on motorcycles with their Harley Davidson buddies. No idea is impossible or too wild.

Eco-weddings, or environmentally friendly weddings, are often held outdoors, under natural light, with energy and conservation in mind. All aspects of these events are “green,” from the birdseed thrown at the end of the ceremony to the organic foods served at the reception.

Mystery weddings invite guests to a murder mystery event, during which games are played that culminate in a wedding. Often the actual wedding is a surprise to the invited guests!

Surprise weddings invite guests to an event that eventually becomes a wedding. Family reunions or holidays are good occasions for these.

Walt Disney World weddings are true fairytale weddings that can be planned with any Disney theme possibility imaginable. Mickey and Minnie can visit or serve as officiants; the bride can dress as Cinderella and be chauffeured to the ball to meet her handsome prince in a pumpkin-shaped horse-drawn carriage; couples can even exchange vows on selected Magic Kingdom rides. Contact Walk Disney World in Orlando, Florida, directly for more information.

For the ultimate wedding thrill-seekers only: Say “I do” on the world’s highest roller coaster, atop the Stratosphere tower in Las Vegas. If you two want your relationship to reach new heights, why not get hitched on the highest point in the western United States?