Wedding Themes

David Tutera's wedding show, My Fair Wedding, highlights one very big difference between a professionally planned wedding and a DIY wedding.  The theme!  While themes are very helpful in focusing a wedding's style, it's so difficult to make it look right.  To make that wedding convey the theme, surrounding the couple with the ideas they love, without going overboard or kitschy (unless kitsch is what you are going for!) is a matter left to the professionals.  

Let's take the theme of a peacock feather as an example.  Suppose a bride decides that she loves peacock feathers and all of their colors,  the bold greens, blues and purples.  How would you incorporate this into your wedding without overdoing it?  The first step is don't take it too literally.  For example, instead of a floral arrangements full of peacock feathers, which would be the obvious choice, try taking the colors as the inspiration and hinting at the theme...

Next, and this one will seem counter-intuitive, don't limit yourself with those colors!  Your theme colors will stand even more out when set off by a different color.  In this example, how about washing the walls in amber light to draw the eyes to the rich peacock colors?

Finally, don't overdo yourself in the theme.  Your wedding pictures are going to last through generations, please take it seriously.  You want to have a lasting image of YOU, not your theme, to hand down.  Just because Carrie Bradshaw had those giant peacock feathers in her hair at her over the top wedding, that doesn't make it right for you.  I'm not saying don't put feathers in your hair, just do it tastefully.  Try something in the back that can pinned in after your ceremony is over and you've removed your veil...

This just scratches the surface of how to handle a theme properly, but it's a good start!  Happy planning!