Wedding Reception Forum

Themes

I just thought I'd inquire whether you're having a theme or not.  I haven't quite gotten that far in my planning, but I enjoy reading what other people's themes are and how they plan to incorporate them into the reception...whether it be just a few things, or a total theme that's sort of "barfed" all over the room/venue (I mean that in the nicest way possible...sort of).  I doubt I will really have some sort of strong theme, but I do enjoy reading about others' and how creative they can be with pulling it off. 

 

 

Re: Themes

  • jenn77b said:

    I just thought I'd inquire whether you're having a theme or not.  I haven't quite gotten that far in my planning, but I enjoy reading what other people's themes are and how they plan to incorporate them into the reception...whether it be just a few things, or a total theme that's sort of "barfed" all over the room/venue (I mean that in the nicest way possible...sort of).  I doubt I will really have some sort of strong theme, but I do enjoy reading about others' and how creative they can be with pulling it off. 

     

     


    Nope, no theme. Besides "wedding".

    We used gray, black, and white as our main colors with some bright pink in some of the floral arrangements.

     

  • Our theme is champagne, wine, and roses. It will be pretty subtle though. Roses for the flowers. The colors will be champagne, wine, and ivory. We are giving out bottles of wine as favors and will have a champagne toast. We got a really nice wine crate to use as our card box. That's about it so it won't be right in your face. I just picked a theme because it helped me stay on track with what I wanted and not go Pinterest wedding crazy :)
    image
  • Themes are for birthday parties.

    Pick colors and decorations you love.

    We used purple, lime green and ivory as our colors.

  • We didn't really have a theme either... our colors were navy, ivory and accent color was green. We just incorporated stuff we loved - we're both really outdoorsy so we got married outside and our reception venue had an extremely large balcony and downtown lookout point. We also like good, local food so we worked with our caterer to make that happen. We use wildflowers (again, because we appreciate nature). We like parties so we had an awesome top shelf open bar and didn't interrupt our party with any long toasts or tosses. We like good music so we hired a good DJ. 

    I don't know, I guess our theme was "wedding" and food/drinks/music - so that's where we spent our energy and money.
    *********************************************************************************

    image
  • As I said, I'm not really searching for a theme for myself, I just enjoy reading about people's themes.  I do think some people get really over the top with them and get bogged down by having a theme...it can be overkill.  Just watch My Fair Wedding and you will see that.  They just start accumulating anything related to hearts, or animal prints, or whatever.  I don't buy into most of that stuff, and my wedding will be small and more of a party at a restaurant than a traditional wedding.  Sometimes people even get too crazy with the colors they choose.  Not everything has to be "your colors". 

    I like the above wine theme, b/c it was more about the colors you used and just a touch of actual wine-related stuff, which, of course, is part of most weddings anyways. 

  • JMalettasJMalettas member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    edited September 2013
     We didn't have a specific theme picked out, but a lot of our choices in decor, or wedding related things in general, were our 'favourites.' Our colours were lime green & tangerine orange, (one is my fav colour, the other is his). We had things that were somewhat related to our careers, things related to our hobbies/interests, etc. We really wanted the vibe to scream 'US!', and it totally did! :) 

     *J
  • No theme here either, except for wedding.   Themes are best saved for kids birthday parties.  
  • No theme, just colors and a light and playful atmosphere we are going for. 

    I found it more helpful to think of how I wanted the room to look - style rather than theme. Do you want the room to look very ornate with lots of metallic and rich colors? Or do you want the room to feel lighter and sunnier with pastels? Or garden feeling with lots of greens and whites? Think of an overall feeling. 

    Themes (and pinterest) take over weddings and make them silly. 
    image
  • Our theme is champagne, wine, and roses. It will be pretty subtle though. Roses for the flowers. The colors will be champagne, wine, and ivory. We are giving out bottles of wine as favors and will have a champagne toast. We got a really nice wine crate to use as our card box. That's about it so it won't be right in your face. I just picked a theme because it helped me stay on track with what I wanted and not go Pinterest wedding crazy :)
    That sounds lovely.
  • We're getting married in November. Plum or wine is a rich fall color (and one of my favorites) and Fi's wedding band has a sapphire in it. Thus became our "colors". November is in the fall so we have lots of fall foliage and pumpkins involved in the decor. We don't like cake so we picked pumpkin and apple pie for dessert.

    Is that too themey? I just tell people fall.
  • I agree that a great theme is more about the feeling and atmosphere you want to evoke, and things that make it personal/represent you and your FI. Colors can be a big part of that, so are some of the personalized pieces/touches. I'm glad to see people not getting too caught up in it. I have read elsewhere some pretty far out there themes that sort of made me laugh.
  • We're getting married in November. Plum or wine is a rich fall color (and one of my favorites) and Fi's wedding band has a sapphire in it. Thus became our "colors". November is in the fall so we have lots of fall foliage and pumpkins involved in the decor. We don't like cake so we picked pumpkin and apple pie for dessert.

    Is that too themey? I just tell people fall.

    I don't think fall is too themey, as long as you don't over do it. Most decorate to reflect the season and what flowers are available that time of year.
  • I like themes, despite what some people say. Having a theme or "feel" doesn't make a wedding a child's birthday party or take away from the purpose of the day. Themes narrow the focus and are helpful when planning. 

    We're having a fall wedding and our "theme" is bold & beautiful. (I know, it sounds like a nail polish color, but I do event planning and I find picking one or two words helps ). Our colors are eggplant and sunflower, our location is a gorgeous lodge-type building in a part, and we're serving chili as part of the meal. One of our signature drinks is going to be spiked cider (nom nom nom!) and we have some really big, fun decorations planned. 
    image
  • We didn't have a theme, but we had an idea of how we wanted it to look: Like a backyard summer party, but a little fancier. Our wedding was outside and we had rectangular tables with white cloths and brown kraft paper runners, with very bright wildflowers and candles in jars in a line down the middle, and globe lights strung among the trees. 

    Then I just bought a couple of other decoration things I liked, a pom pom garland in bright colors for the dancing area and a garland of glitter circles for the cake table. We borrowed a gilt birdcage for the card box and had little fabric birds and a fabric bunting as our cake topper. That was pretty much it. We didn't do a lot, decor-wise.
  • ElcaB said:
    I like themes, despite what some people say. Having a theme or "feel" doesn't make a wedding a child's birthday party or take away from the purpose of the day. Themes narrow the focus and are helpful when planning. 

    We're having a fall wedding and our "theme" is bold & beautiful. (I know, it sounds like a nail polish color, but I do event planning and I find picking one or two words helps ). Our colors are eggplant and sunflower, our location is a gorgeous lodge-type building in a part, and we're serving chili as part of the meal. One of our signature drinks is going to be spiked cider (nom nom nom!) and we have some really big, fun decorations planned. 
    Unfortunately because of all the crazy/obsessive themes out there, I feel like saying you're having a "theme" to your wedding immediately means you're going totally kids-birthday-party-overboard. Your "theme" of bold and beautiful sounds wonderful. It doesn't sound like one of THOSE (i.e. tacky and overboard) themes at all. 

    I am vehemently against the "themes" that are crazy/obsessive, but I think every wedding should have theme to the extent you've described. Maybe I'll call it a "motif" instead of a theme. You need some guiding principles, or you'll just have a mishmash of stuff! Personally, I also don't believe you need two "wedding colors", but of course you should have a palette in mind that works with your motif. 

    I'm still in the early stages of planning (we have a venue and caterer, but that's it!), but our venue is an urban, industrial, art gallery space. When looking at all the options for things, I try to keep reminding myself of what I want: Urban. Modern. Classy/Sophisticated. Fun. Artsy. And also the things I don't want: overly "girly", rustic, too traditional, fussy, kitschy. For colors I'm thinking primarily white, silver, and black, with some bold jewel tone colors--deep red, emerald greed, cobalt blue, etc. So I know if even though I see a super-cute mason jar with a pink heart or something, that it doesn't fit with my motif at all. Or I saw some cool save-the-dates that were like subway passes for our city--but that would be kitschy and not exactly artsy or classy. 
  • ElcaB said:
    I like themes, despite what some people say. Having a theme or "feel" doesn't make a wedding a child's birthday party or take away from the purpose of the day. Themes narrow the focus and are helpful when planning. 

    We're having a fall wedding and our "theme" is bold & beautiful. (I know, it sounds like a nail polish color, but I do event planning and I find picking one or two words helps ). Our colors are eggplant and sunflower, our location is a gorgeous lodge-type building in a part, and we're serving chili as part of the meal. One of our signature drinks is going to be spiked cider (nom nom nom!) and we have some really big, fun decorations planned. 
    I think that's more of an inspiration than a theme. It may sound like semantics but when I think of theme I think of Beauty and the Beast (poor groom!). Bold and beautiful are just directions you're taking when planning the various elements. It ties them all together without being cheesy.



    Anniversary
    image

    image
  • No, I'm not having a theme at my wedding.  On shows such as Four Wedding, I have seen some themes done that turn out badly and some that turn out really cute.  For example, one couple had a love bird theme and incorporated cages into the centerpieces, birds as cake toppers, etc. without being too much.
    image
  • @Dreamergirl8812... I think you have somehow read my mind. I will leave it at that. :)
  • DH is a musician and I grew up with all my hobbies and extracurriculars involving music. It wasn't out "theme" per se but there were touches of it throughout our decor. Our invitations involved two staffs of music that were intertwined (lots of DH's friends are also musicians - they loved them). I made some flowers and other decorations out of sheet music and incorporated them lightly throughout the ceremony and reception space. Our cake topper was a bass clef and a treble clef. Our tables were named after musical instruments instead of having numbers.

    Basically, if any of our guests were paying attention to these little details, they would totally get why they were there, but there wasn't anything in-your-face about it. I honestly could not care less if anyone noticed - it didn't affect their enjoyment of the ceremony or reception one way or another, it was just a part of the decor. Though I will say, two of DH's GMs took their table "numbers" home with them because I purposefully sat them at the tables named after the instruments they play and they thought the signs were cool and wanted to keep them. More power to 'em.
    image
  • We have an ocean theme. Colors are mostly blues and greens. Centerpieces are bowls with sand and seashells. Invitations had a little starfish embelishment on them. Cake will be decorated to go along with it. I don't think that's too overboard. 
  • We don't have a theme.  We just went nuts with the flowers - a profusion of them, everywhere - so it looks very lush, opulent, abundant and beautiful.   Our wedding is in October and we went with an array of pinks to dark deep burgundy. In England you have to submit your music to the registrar ahead of time to make sure it isn't religious, so we chose jaunty 1920s jazz.  If there is any theme it is very slightly and obliquely "Great Gatsby".  But I didn't consciously think about making it "Great Gatsby."  It just became shorthand to the general feel of the event.

    In short, we just chose what we like and ran with it.  
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • We don't have a theme so much as we have a style.   The Santa Fe/SW rustic look is infused into everything about the day because that's the style/look of our venue and we are both from northern New Mexico.
  • I have to say, I am not a fan of themes in general because they usually feel forced and silly, but I fell in love with this wedding even though it had one of the most over the top themes I've ever seen.

    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • I have to say, I am not a fan of themes in general because they usually feel forced and silly, but I fell in love with this wedding even though it had one of the most over the top themes I've ever seen.

    love it! so creative.
  • edited September 2013
    shelyg89 said:
    I have to say, I am not a fan of themes in general because they usually feel forced and silly, but I fell in love with this wedding even though it had one of the most over the top themes I've ever seen.

    love it! so creative.
    The engagement shoot made me stabby. I don't know how I feel about the wedding.

    ETA: I changed my mind, I like the wedding. I got caught up in the wedding photography (I hate wedding photography!!). I get annoyed with multiple zoomed in pictures of cupcakes and decor. But the further I scroll down the more I like what they did.



    Anniversary
    image

    image
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards