If you are looking to theme your wedding to suit your taste in colour, style or interests, the following is a list of things to consider :

• Colour – Traditionally, the only way to theme a wedding. What colour do you feel represents you as a couple? Bring this colour through in the attire, stationery, table settings, decoration, cars.
• Style – In recent years, period style has played a large part in wedding themeing.  Is there a particular decade that you admire for it’s styling?
•  Objects – Is there an object that defines your relationship. This could be an item you found on your first date or a little something that has always meant something to your relationship.
• Food – Do you both have a passion for certain food – do you both love a glass of scrumpy? Perhaps apples could set the theme for the day, using the colour; the shape in the invitations; cider on your tables. This can work well for many foods – oriental/sweets/American Diner themes.
• Places – Your honeymoon destination or a favourite place could be the basis for an entire theme – colours, styles, food, props – all in the theme of a special place.
•  Concepts – Films, books and brands all offer great themeing ideas. Most couples have a joint passion for a film, book or brand and these all offer plenty of scope for themeing.

Plan Your Theme

Your wedding theme may be something you want complete control over, or you may prefer to hand this large task over to a wedding planner.  For your theme to carry through into all aspects of the day you will need to spend a lot of time planning. If you don’t spend enough time considering and planning the theme, you may struggle to tie everything together.

Begin by brainstorming your interests, covering all the aspects above. Write all these down and decide which interests you are most drawn to for your wedding theme. Keep an open mind to two or three ideas as when you start to think about how your ideas can be implemented into a wedding setting, you may find that your favourite ideas simply are not practical enough.

Make Some Early Purchases

Colour is a big part of any theme, regardless of the original idea. Consider what colours you think of when you think of your theme idea. This could be as simple as choosing white and one muted colour, or as extravagant as having three colours, each in a variety of shades. Once you know what colours you want, purchase a few items that you might like to incorporate into your wedding – ribbon is a great start as it is produced in such a variety of colours, and can be used in a very soft, traditional way; or can be geometric with hard lines, or displayed rough and rustic.

Posters, books and other printed material are great for wedding theme inspiration as they convey style, colour and even type, all of which can be incorporated into wedding themeing.

The traditional starting place for deciding on  a theme are the flowers and the bridesmaids dresses. If you already know what you would like your bridesmaids to wear, or which flowers you would like, use these as the basis for colour and style, which you can then pull through into other aspects of the wedding.

The Professionals

Cake and stationery designers can be invaluable when pulling your theme ideas together. These designers have creative flair and understanding of colour and style. Make a few early appointments to discuss your ideas with these professionals as they may be able to offer suggestions you wouldn’t consider yourself. They will also be able to show examples of their past work and this may inspire your own theme.

The Big Picture

It may be a good idea to have a notebook set aside for your wedding theme ideas. In this book you can plan your entire wedding theme. Break your wedding day into parts (ceremony, champagne reception, wedding breakfast and evening reception, for example). Now write a list of ways in which your wedding theme can be incorporated into each part of the day. For an example, below is a list of ‘theme-able’ items at the wedding breakfast:

• Table Plan
• Place Name Cards
• Menus
• Table Names
• Napkins
• Crockery
• Favours
• Centrepieces
• Cake
• Food
• Chair Covers
• Speech Props
• Props throughout the room

For most of your themed items, you will require many pieces (one per guest/one per table).  In order to ensure that you carry out the entire theme the way you have planned, articularly if you have a strict budget, theme items need to be purchased early on in the planning stages. If colour is a big part of your theme, you will need to source many different items – often from different suppliers – in the same colour and this can take time. If you are making purchases online, be aware that photographs and monitors vary in colour and contrast so where possible, ask for a sample to be posted to you before you commit to buying in bulk.