How to Design a Tailor-Made Wedding Day

Wedding Invitations

While personalizing the wedding invitation suite is a common trend, I felt I had to include it. This is the first place where your guests are introduced to your wedding and where the branding for your weekend begins. 

Incorporate a Custom Monogram or Crest

This adds a personal touch to your invitation suite and can also be utilized on all paper goods for your special day. Think cocktail napkins, menus, programs, etcetera, and you can use it long after the wedding on thank-you notes and stationery. 

Include Custom Artwork

Add a photo or custom painting of your venue, a map of the wedding city/town, or the aforementioned monogram or family crest on the invitation or envelope liner. This is a detail that will always wow your guests. 

Add Custom Stamps

Whether it’s your own monogram or design, or simply photos of the city in which the wedding will take place, this is a detail that won’t go unnoticed. 

The Welcome Party 

The wedding welcome party will likely be the first event of your wedding weekend itinerary for many of your guests and will set the tone for your celebration. Including personal touches here will make the party feel more intimate and get your guests excited for the next day. 

Create a Hospitality Station 

In lieu of a welcome bag, set up an area where guests can take what they need. You can also customize the bags or boxes with your monogram or crest and a little thank-you note. 

Include Your Favorite Foods

Instead of or in addition to a signature drink, pick signature appetizers! Incorporate your favorite foods into the welcome party to share your tastes. 

Select Fun Details

Custom drink stirrers and cocktail napkins are details all of the guests are sure to see, so consider adding your monogram, an illustration of your pet(s), and more! 

Make Guests Feel at Home

Welcome parties tend to lean more on the extended cocktail hour feel, so setting up lounge furniture with custom pillows is a great way to incorporate that monogram or family crest from your invitations. 

Wedding Ceremony

All eyes and ears are on you for this portion! Whether you are having a civil or religious wedding ceremony, this is an opportunity to put a personal twist on a standard ceremony script. 

Personalize the Vows & Make It Fun

Vow to always support your spouse’s sports team, learn to play their favorite video game, or never get mad about bringing home rescue animals – customize your wedding vows to make them your own! 

Share Your Love Story

Incorporate how you two met within the ceremony script. Sharing your love story makes even a large wedding feel intimate. 

Say Thank You

Leave written thank-you notes on all of the chairs for wedding guests to find when they take their seats! Using stationery with your custom monogram or crest is an added touch. 

Share Your Pets

Include your furry friends. Pets are family members and many couples want them to be part of their special day. 

Include Them in the Wedding Party

Make your pet your flower girl or ring bearer if the venue allows. It’s a fun surprise for your guests and the photos always come out great. 

Use Their Namesake

You can name a welcome drink or signature drinks for the evening after your pet, or even name the entire bar after them! 

Turn Them Into Art

Have a portrait drawn of your pet and use it on cocktail napkins, make a donation to a local animal shelter and send guests home with a little note displaying your pet’s portrait, or customize desserts to feature your furry love’s face, such as custom cookies or a custom cake topper. 

The Wedding Bar

The bar is one of, if not the most, visited spaces at your wedding, making it the perfect place to add some personal touches! 

Serve Local Liquor

This is a great way to incorporate the city or town where you are getting married and support local businesses! 

Offer Signature Drinks

Opt for “his” and “hers” drinks with unique names that represent each of you, or simply have one that represents you as a couple. Calligraphing the signature-drink menu adds another layer of personalization. 

Little Details

There are so many ways to use little details as opportunities to make the evening more personal. Below are a few of my favorites. 

The Guest Book

The wedding guest book is something most guests seek out at some point during the evening, so make it fun! You could use a coffee-table book of the city where you live or a digital scrapbook of photos with you and the guests, so they can find their photo and leave you a note. 

Your Favorite Quotes

Pick out your favorite quotes about love and place them throughout the space for guests to find and learn more about you two as a couple during the evening. 

Photo Booth or Selfie Station

These are activities that guests of all ages enjoy, making a photo booth or selfie station the perfect spot for some personalization. Customized props will make the images from your event unique to you! 

Wedding Favors

Most people don’t want to be taking home another item with a wedding date or initials that aren’t their own, so switch things up and give guests something they will actually use for your wedding favors! Choose an item that is representative of where you are getting married, such as a coffee mug or custom chocolates from a local business, to personalize it. 

Everyone wants their wedding to be a little different from all the other weddings and creating personal touches are the perfect way to accomplish that! Have fun thinking of ways to customize your special weekend and make it a date night where you and your fiancé(e) brainstorm ideas on how to incorporate your love story into the details! 

This article was originally published in the Summer 2023 issue of Inside Weddings magazine. To order a copy of the Summer 2023 issue, visit our library of Inside Weddings back issues available for purchase.

For more inspiration, find out how to personalize your wedding, learn ways to maximize an intimate wedding, and gather expert wedding-planning advice from top wedding professionals!