Wild Weddings: Start Married Life With a BANG!
A guest article by our sponsors Truly Experiences
“Cherish forever what makes you unique, ‘cuz you’re really a yawn if it goes.” – Bette Midler
Crafting a wild and wonderful wedding, one that is unique and pleasing for both you and guests alike is a growing trend. Offbeat weddings are fun, exciting and create a sense of anticipation for all involved. Indeed, weddings today don’t need to follow the traditional path, and if you choose otherwise, know that you’re not alone.
Today, engaged couples have so much at their disposal to create the perfect, personalized wedding. A wedding that not only stands out from the crowd but represents their interests, philosophies or values. These weddings can be as romantic as hosting an authentic Regency era Jane Austen wedding in Goodnestone Park, to throwing an all-out cabaret shindig for your guests to enjoy. You can make all aspects of your wedding follow a particular crazy theme, from the location to the dress code to the wedding gifts you want to receive.
To help you get started on your journey of a one-of-kind wedding, here are some totally unique ideas ranging from 100% wacky to seriously obscure. Hey, you get married once (hopefully) so make sure you start your married life with a bang!
Have a Zumanity Style Wedding
Every wedding planner knows the importance of keeping the party going. After all, any lag time results in boredom, and no bride or groom wants to be remembered as having a dull, witless wedding. One sure way of avoiding the traditional repetition that many wedding guests dread is to inject intermittent presentations of surprises, and that’s just what a Zumanity styled wedding does best.
Just because you cannot travel to New York or Las Vegas for an original, Cirque du Soleil Zumanity wedding, doesn’t mean you can’t hire similar artists to wow your guests during the ceremony and reception. Hire individual acts such as aerialist dancers, cabaret shows, balancing acts, Olympic gymnasts, living statues, and much more. Part burlesque and part cabaret, this is one wedding theme that will keep guests on their toes, never knowing what to expect next!
Photo by Conor Samuel on Unsplash
Can Your Wedding Guests Escape in Time?
Escape rooms are a thing, and as such, are a time tested way to start your marriage off with an adrenaline shot. Those of you who are heavily into the escape room trend will probably have no trouble creating your own.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of an escape room, it involves your guests entering a room, and being given 30 minutes to one hour to find a way to escape. As for clues? Well, they’re up to you. You can create hints that revolve around you and your betrothed or make inquiries to your friends and relatives, to find the perfect trivia questions. Your escape room can also revolve around a theme from books, movies or TV. A Jumanji-themed escape room wedding? That’s one totally wild wedding I’d like to attend!
Going Intergalactic
Did you and your special someone meet in a Star Trek Facebook group? Or perhaps you were on your first date and realized you share an uncanny love of Star Wars? If having a lightsaber battle is your idea of the perfect wedding activity, or getting hitched in a traditional Vulcan wedding ceremony appeals to you, then you’re in luck. In today’s social media world, it’s easy peasy to find highly skilled craftspeople who can create almost any Star Trek or Star Wars wedding prop on request, and do it at a decent price.
To really go all out intergalactic, have every aspect of your wedding follows the Star Trek theme. Create a music album with Star Trek theme songs suitable for a wedding, and walk down the aisle to that infamous intro song. Decorate the wedding cake with one of the many ships seen in Star Trek, from the Enterprise, Voyager, a Bird of Prey or Borg cube. Even your vows can be intergalactic! “May the happy couple Live Long and Prosper.”
Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash
Leave Your Guests Satisfied with a Food Festival Wedding
It’s no secret that eating a good meal is one of the most anticipated events at weddings. So, why not give your guests what they want and create your very own food festival! Get creative with the invitations, dressing them up like menus, along with a hearty welcome, such as “You are Invited to Colin and Mary’s Food Festival…”.
Creating your own food festival is not as intimidating as it may seem. There are plenty of companies which can hire out as many different food trucks and mobile bars as you’d like. This is particularly well suited for outdoor weddings. Food trucks can supply your guests with a vast variety of choices, from tasty Italian dishes, vegetarian/vegan fare, pizza, even an ice cream truck!
You can even create a food festival indoors with the addition of a variety of food stations that cater to different tastes. For instance, there are potato bars where your guests can create their own deliciously topped baked potatoes, candy buffets, donut walls, cupcake bars, and popcorn stations. Grazing tables are an absolute must for any wedding which revolves around good food.
Magical, Ghostly and All-Around Fabulous!
Whether you’re a Harry Potter fan, enjoy playing Magic the Gathering, or have a healthy interest in all things paranormal or psychic, creating a fun weekend wedding revolving around the otherworldly is quite the unique idea. For those blushing brides and their enamoured grooms who enjoy the full and vibrant world of Harry Potter, there are magical locations such as St. Audries Park in Somerset, or Alnwick Castle, which represented Hogwarts in the films. In fact, if you’re lucky you might even get to see where Harry played his famous Quidditch matches! There, you’ll be able to indulge yourselves and your wedding guests in the wonders of Harry’s magical world.
For those of you who favour a more historical, ghostly experience, then perhaps searching for England’s most famous haunted castles would satisfy your appetite for the strange and odd. A fine example of a haunted venue is Staffordshire’s Tutbury Castle where it’s said that Mary Queen of Scots still roams the corridors. Treat yourself to a torchlit, midnight wedding ceremony, and perhaps get a glimpse of a ghostly guest or two. If you fancy a lovely, haunted wedding in the Lake District, then may we suggest to you Muncaster Castle, notably one of the most haunted wedding venues in the UK. Who knows, perhaps the ghostly apparition of Henry VI himself will crash your wedding.
Those of you into the paranormal, why not have an all-out creepy Halloween wedding. Hire the likes of fog machines, animatronics, and a whole slew of spooky additions which will make your Gothic, horror or Halloween style wedding one to remember for many years to come. For an added bit of flavor, hire a tarot card reader, fortune teller, Day of the Dead face painter, or astrologist to provide your guests with table entertainment.
Photo by Artem Maltsev on Unsplash
A Taste of the Night Life
For the excitement, flash and bright lights of Las Vegas, hire a reputable casino company to turn your nuptials into a fun and enjoyable experience for all. Casino rental companies will provide you with everything you need to create the authentic feel of being in a real casino.
Now remember, having a Las Vegas, Casino themed wedding isn’t all about the games. It’s time to crawl out of the box and get really creative! Think about hiring a stand-up comic for the reception, adding karaoke, or maybe a magician that caters to upscale, more mature audiences. Neon signs are becoming increasingly popular at weddings and can add that extra bit of nightlife atmosphere you crave. Get professionally made neon signs or do some research into what laser light shows are on offer.
Gamers Delight! Creating an Alternate Reality for Guests
Gamers are a loyal bunch, and it’s a good chance that if two players plan on getting hitched, a sizeable part of their wedding party and guests will be fellow gamers as well. If this sounds like you, then add a little spice to your wedding with the addition of an alternate reality game, or ARG. In this game, you’re asking your wedding guests to find the solution to a story by placing hints wherever you want them, whether on websites, notes on doors, or tips nestled inside a painting on a wall. The ones who find the solution win a prize: a bottle of fine wine, or a weekend for two at a local luxury hotel.
ARG’s can be as budget-friendly and straightforward as you want, such as a simple scavenger hunt. Or they can become as elaborate as you’d like, to the point of hiring a boat to take your guests to a new, secret location. What’s nice about ARG, is that you can begin it at least a week or more before the wedding, tempting them with prizes which will be awarded at the reception. There are no hard and fast rules here. These games can become wholly immersive, so it’s an excellent way for your guests to get to know one another.
0 Comments