Dream Wedding Tip #4: Special Touches

Incorporate Lots Of "Special" Touches That Are As Unique As You

Yes, having disposable cameras on hand for everyone to take candid shots is quite common these days, but I still recommend it -- highly!

Think of more FUN things like that to incorporate into your wedding. (Because a wedding should be fun, right?)

From the wedding invitations to the wedding favors to your wedding vows, to the decorations, the many things you could personalize... Whether your wedding takes place inside or outside, it doesn't matter. There are lots of fun ways that you can make your wedding ceremony unique -- and memorable!

Granted, some of the things that we did might be considered too silly for some people's taste -- like asking everyone to wear goofy sunglasses for our beach wedding or handing out our own miniature bottles of wine to each guest, rather than having an open bar -- but then again, these things created the most lasting memories and images in our minds (...and our photographs!).

Other things you could do "outside the box" for your wedding day:

• wedding invitations (with personalized photo stamps)
  
• wedding cake
  
• themes (like Hawaiian wedding, beachy wedding, or monogram-themed wedding -- the number of wedding themes & styles is virtually endless!)
  
• wedding favors
  
• wedding toss items
  
• wedding vows
  
• food (themed, or based on your heritage; possibly ask friends & relatives to provide the food items in lieu of a gift)
  
• cookies
  
• beverages (customized labels for your bottles or wine wedding favors)
  
• wedding decorations (like these merlot wine glass candles & candleholders)
  
• music (...you could also use an mp3 player instead of a band or DJ)
  
• photography
  
• guestbook/scrapbook
  
• flowers (like personalized, embossed roses)
  
• thank you cards (with personalized photo stamps)
  
• candies (like personalized M&Ms)

And don't forget to create a unique memento or two for yourself... as a lifelong memento of your special day. Some of these could also be passed on as gifts for your wedding guests

For example, we took back two large canisters of sand from the beach we got married on. (It was that extra-fine pure white sand... the kind that goes perfectly with rich turquoise blue ocean water!) And I've managed to come up with a couple of novel ways to "bottle" some of that sand and display it at our house, year round.

One thing that I intended to do, but forgot:
But I meant to incorporate a sprinkling of our wedding beach sand in the Thank You cards to all our guests. You know... kinda like the glittery confetti that people include in cards these days? Yeah, it sounds messy. Maybe that's why I didn't do it, even though I knew that those who attended our wedding were as thrilled about it being on a beach as we were.

Some unique wedding mementos:

• a framed wedding picture surrounded with words of encouragement from your guests (You could even make this yourself!)
  
• a digital photo/video collage on personalized CDs or DVDs)
  
• a wedding guest platter
  
• a guestbook/scrapbook (like this instant photo guest book)
  
• a personalized wedding keepsake kit