Air Force fiancée trying to add military details to the wedding

mrsamandalynn

Any lovely ladies out there Air Force fiancées? I'm trying to add little details to reflect my fiancé's involvement in the military. Our venue is a rustic bed and breakfast located in Gettysburg, Pa. Any suggestions on small things we can add without making that the main focus?

starbright2013

Army fiancee here - have you looked into the themed cake toppers at all? They have some cute (and creative!) military ones on Etsy.

Knottie924921

I have a USAF garter belt. He will also be in Dress Blues. Navy blue to match him is our wedding color along with white… Other than that I havnt been able to find anything that is not tacky.

I have been looking for a vintage USAF Brooch or something fun to put on my bouquet but so far no luck. 

Knottie3135957

You an do the saber ceremony for exit. If he has 6 of his fellow airmen coming up for the wedding, you an probably borrow the sabers from the chaplain at the Carlisle Barracks (I know that's Army there but everyone is usually very helpful!). That's what we're doing (Marines)--the local base is sending some guys over who volunteered...I offered free booze hahahaha

bremnerschmitz

I have the same question - he doesn't want to wear his Dress Blues, and as of right now there's no plans for incorporating his service.  I keep trying to think of little things we can add in. but haven't found the perfect thing just yet. For a while we were going to get custom made coins to hand out as our favor, but they're too expensive for our budget.

My hope is to add little decorative touches where I find opportunities

iluvmytxrgr

@bremnerschmitz‌ , does your FI want touches of his service included in the wedding. MH and I were both serving when we were married. Neither of us wanted the Army included in our ceremony AT ALL. Talk to him before you add anything. 1. A lot of us don't want our everyday job included in our wedding. You probably wouldn't add it in if he was a construction worker or a teacher. 2. It can get very cheesy very fast.

bremnerschmitz

We've already chatted about it, he wants a small nod, but we don't want it to become the theme in any way.  We're actually trying to add a nod to both of our careers, just haven't figured out what that nod is going to be.  

But I agree it can get cheesy very fast, and I definitely don't want that.  

iluvmytxrgr

Until we recently moved, I was working with a wedding planner. When we had brides from my husband's unit, I would get a charm from the S5 shop that had the unit crest on it. We would pin it to the ribbon on the bouquet. It was just a tiny touch, but it meant so much to the bride and groom to have that little surprise.
Are you doing a groom's cake? We had a cop/nurse wedding once. She did a simple groom's cake but on top, there was a replica of his badge right next to the nurse symbol, I forget what it's called.

EAR123

A few small touches that would not conflict much with any other theme you may have would be having your officiant say "You may salute your bride," which is another way of saying "kiss your bride," and having you announced as "Captain and Mrs. Smith" or whatever rank he is.

More in your face would be including, if he's a pilot, planes as a cake topper as others suggested or (I've seen this on Pinterest), have guests throw mini paper planes as you exit rather than confetti or bubbles, etc.

kyrgyzstan

Please don't salute civilians. The tradition of saluting is important and shouldn't be a cutesy thing. It's one thing to salute a widow/er or something but at a wedding I'm not down. 

H and I were intro'd as his rank his name and my name (since I hadn't joined yet). 

iluvmytxrgr

Yeah, I'm not down with the salute thing.  That's why so many of these chicks think they need to be saluted at the gate or need awards for doing what a wife or spouse should do.  

kmmssg

Also not liking the salute thing.  Just not appropriate.

EAR123

My advice may not have come across correctly.... "Salute your bride" is another way of saying "kiss your bride." It's a term that many pastors in certain cultures say. There would be no actual saluting...

Sammy0709

That's fine if it's part of a culture but, in the company of military personnel, whether they actually salute or kiss, it can be taken differently...as you can see from this thread.

ETA: I would like the name of a specific culture that does this because I googled and found zilch.

EAR123

The phrase has African cultural ties, for one. For example, my cousin used the tradition in her wedding, which was between a couple of Kenyan descent.

I don't believe there is much need to get into here in this vein as it's not terribly helpful to OP.

The suggestion is one of many here - I am sure OP will have some good ideas to work with from the boards!

kata18

Air Force fiancee here as well. So far this is the only "military-esque" idea I can think of right HERE.

Then again, my fiance doesn't want any AF stuff really in the wedding, since that's all he sees at work