14 Unique Ways to Personalize Your Wedding (That You Haven’t Seen on Pinterest)

Your wedding celebration is the culmination of every part of your relationship up until now! So why not truly tell the story of your love for one another through a personalized affair. 

Rather than look to wedding websites or inspirational boards for the latest trends, let’s get creative and think about the elements that are special and unique to you. 

Here are 14 unique ways to personalize your wedding (that you haven’t seen on Pinterest)!

As you envision your wedding, you may picture it being completely customized to you and your partner. And it should be! After all, this is the day to celebrate the love between the two of you. 

But when you begin planning, you might find that it can be challenging to actually come up with unique ways to personalize your wedding. 

So, if you’ve hit that roadblock - don’t worry. Try using these tips to help you get more creative with your customized wedding decor:

First and foremost, we recommend not blindly following Pinterest trends. Don’t get us wrong, there are many fun, exciting, creative, and often unique ideas there. And while it’s okay to get inspired, we advise not using it for all of your decor elements because it doesn’t tell your story.

So how can you tell that story we keep talking about? The best way to do that is to go through all of the big elements of your relationship and pick out the parts that stand out to you. 

Here are some examples to guide you:

Where and how you met is the very start of your relationship. So can you use that somehow as you plan the wedding? 

For example, if you met, like this couple, at a botanical garden in Italy - then perhaps, try using that botanical garden as the ceremony site. 

If you met through a mutual friend who set the two of you up, then maybe see if they can officiate the wedding or introduce you as a newly married couple at the reception.

Every couple (at least all of the ones we know) end up finding something they love to do together. 

Over a date night or even just through texts while you’re sitting at your desk, start listing the fun things you both love doing together. Then come up with unique ways to weave that into the ceremony and reception planning. 

Do you love to travel together? Then have your guests fill out “travel suggestion cards” as a guest book alternative. Everyone writes down where they think you should plan your next adventure, then leaves it in a basket, a box, or even a mailbox on the guest book table. 

Do you both love wine tasting or experiencing craft breweries? Think of ways you can use that in your wedding planning. Maybe that looks like having a special bottle of wine for the two of you during the reception. Or maybe it looks like sharing your favorite craft beers with your guests during cocktail hour.

Just like with the things you love to do together, there are certainly a few things the two of you have in common. Pick those out among all of the small details of your relationship. Then choose the ones that stand out to you. 

Did you both grow up or go to the same school? If so, can you add a customized wedding illustration to the inside flap of the envelopes in your invitation suite?

And finally, think about the elements of your lives that are special or important to both of you. Lately, more and more couples are including a special homage to their pets. 

But you could also look at things like common careers, special people, unique date nights, or important locations. 

All of those are prime elements to find ways to personalize your wedding day!

Once you have a list of things that you want to add to your wedding, it’s time to start thinking about how and where you’ll have them show up. 

For example, do you want fun, exciting elements in your reception, while keeping sentimental ones in your ceremony? Do you want these customized details to be subtle, or do you want them to be loud and proud? 

Once you have an idea for that, then you can start really coming up with fun ways to personalize your wedding.

From our collections of hand-dyed ribbons and textiles for weddings and events, we have our fair share of popular colors. And those colors often coincide with the “traditional” wedding color palettes, such as blush pinks, champagne, light blue, and sage green. 

While all of those colors are beautiful (and there is a reason they’ve become so popular and synonymous with “wedding color palettes”), there is something to be said for embracing unconventional colors in your wedding palette to customize more of your day. 

That might look like choosing a wedding color palette that is bold and vibrant because you as a couple are bold and vibrant! 

It might look like selecting wedding colors that you are just drawn to and allowing that to be a customized element of your day. 

Or it could look like curating a wedding color palette that’s based on your wedding location, your heritage, or even your favorite destination as a couple. For example, in this Masseria Potenti destination wedding in Italy, the bride and groom wanted to pay homage to her Swedish heritage. So they chose a beautiful blue color with pops of yellow to do just that. 

The point is to allow yourself to get creative with your wedding color palette. And we have an entire free 2023 color trends report to help you do that!

We briefly mentioned earlier when we explained how to personalize your wedding that you can create custom illustrations for your wedding invitation suite. 

But let us give you a little more clarity on what that could look like. 

For most of your guests, the wedding invitation suite is the first look and feel of what your wedding will be like. It sets the tone of the wedding day long before they even get there! 

So having the very first thing they receive for your wedding be a customized wedding element? Well, that’s just letting them know that they can expect a wedding unlike anything they’ve ever seen before! 

The inside slip of the invitation’s envelope is perfect real estate for this. Have a custom illustration of the two of you. Design a custom illustration of your wedding venue if it’s incredibly special or important to you both. 

You can even design a “mini-map” of the area and include important landmark details such as the venue, any hotels you have a room block with, and any exciting entertainment locations.

One of our favorite ways to add beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated touches to any wedding ceremony decor is by adding exquisite locally-sourced ribbon to the bouquet ribbon. 

We often get requests to letter quotes onto bouquet ribbons, and it makes for a gorgeous, subtle detail. 

But if you do use this unique way to personalize your wedding, make sure you tell your photographer beforehand! That way, they can be sure to take a photo of the bouquet and the embroidered ribbon as they capture the day’s details. 

This is a great idea if you and your partner have something you often say to each other, or if you have a similar hobby or interest that you can tie into your wedding day. 

Some examples of quotes we’ve seen in the past include:

• “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” - Emily Bronte 

• “If you are with the right person, it brings out the best in you.” - Beyonce Knowles

• “The highest happiness on earth is the happiness of marriage.” – William Lyon Phelps

• “True love stories never have endings.” – Richard Bach

• “Two souls with but a single thought; two hearts that beat as one.” – Friedrich Halm

• “‘Cause all of me loves all of you.” – John Legend

Your wedding date is a commemorative milestone of your lives together. It will always be a date worth celebrating for years to come. 

Because it’s so important, why not have it as a subtle detail in your day. One of our favorite ways to do that is to have the wedding date calligraphed onto your bouquet ribbon.

You can also combine this with your initials or your and your partner’s names!

If you’re taking your partner’s last name or if you’re joining names together, then why not pay homage to your new initials? 

Have your new initials added onto the ribbon. And calligraphy on the ribbons, whether it’s the initials or the names of the bride and groom creates an elegant, subtle detail to the wedding ceremony. It’s one that few will know about, but it’s such a sophisticated, timeless touch.

Your vows to one another are, without a doubt, one of the most important moments of your entire wedding. It’s the true foundation of the whole celebration. Without those vows to one another, the rest of the vendors, venue, design, and decor would cease to exist. 

Because it’s something so important and precious, why not personalize it so that it becomes a meaningful keepsake? 

When you’re ready to write the final version of your vows, have devoted ceremony vow booklets for the two of you. You can personalize them with “His Vows” and “Her Vows” on the front of each. 

Or you can have them hand-calligraphed with your names and the date of your wedding. And if they’re handbound, consider binding them together with silk ribbon in the main color of your wedding color palette.

Embracing culture, whether it’s your own or the culture of the location of your destination wedding, or a combination of the two, creates such a lively experience for you and your guests. 

And that’s why we consider it one of the greatest ways to personalize your wedding! You can add all kinds of elements just by allowing yourself to accept culture into your wedding with open arms. 

If you’re in town for a destination wedding, then research the local wedding customs. Then see if you can add something into your own wedding day that locals do for theirs. For example, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the locals host a traditional parade ceremony for the couple getting married. The parade includes magnificent, larger-than-life puppets. So this couple opted to incorporate the traditional parade and puppets, along with a mariachi band, into their wedding day festivities!

You can also weave culture into your wedding celebration by looking to locals for entertainment. That could be local musicians and singers or local artists. Either way, having the local entertainment industry as a part of your wedding day is a great way to add customization and to pay homage to your wedding location.

Finally, you can also incorporate your own culture into your wedding day. That’s true whether you’re hosting a destination wedding or one local to you! Having elements of your heritage is a great way to create a personalized feel. For example, this couple wanted to give a nod to the bride’s Swedish background. So they opted for a color palette that featured blue and pops of yellow to reflect her heritage.

Props are a fun, unique way to highlight an important aspect of your love story. That might look like having a prop that’s separate from the wedding day itself. Or it could look like having props that showcase the setting of the wedding. 

For example, this couple opted for a classic Italian car to travel from their ceremony site to the reception location.

And these mirrored aisle-ways were such a unique way to show off the gorgeous blue skies of this Santorini, Greece wedding!

If you’re a true fashionista at heart, then why not add a customized element of that to your wedding day. Pick out a vintage denim or leather jacket, or buy a new one if you’d rather, and have it embroidered with your new last name! 

Having customized wedding day fashion is also a perfect prop for wedding portraits!

Like we mentioned before, there must be at least one thing the two of you love to do together. Decide on what that is and find a way to incorporate that into your wedding portraits. 

This particular couple love to travel and adventure together. And they both have their pilot’s licenses. So they decided what better way to celebrate their marriage than with a “First Flight” for their couple’s portraits.

So often, couples plan for favors that are decked out in their initials or “Mr. and Mrs.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but we believe that if you’re going to gift your guests with something, make sure it’s something meaningful and something they’d love to have. 

Or if you’re planning on having your wedding at a winery, whether that’s in Tuscany or anywhere else, maybe gift your guests with a bottle of wine from the location. 

And of course, you can top it off with beautiful hand-dyed ribbon as an added, elegant touch to the gifts.

If you’re wanting to add more variety to your wedding decor by weaving in multiple types of personalization (instead of just calligraphy!), then opt for monograms.

You can still share the spotlight with your guests and give them an entire experience that makes them feel thought of by monogramming their place cards. A monogram with their initials may feel a little more sophisticated, where calligraphy feels elegant or ethereal. 

So match your wedding aesthetic to the right style of personalization!

If you love the idea of customizing your wedding decor with your new monogram, then why not incorporate it into your wedding reception elements, too. 

Customizing the smallest details like table linens or runners, chair covers, or even napkins with your monogram is a gorgeous, sophisticated touch. And if you’re searching for ways to add a “higher-end feel” to a wedding celebration, then embroidering a monogram is a small cost for a lot of luxury. Plus, because it’s such a sentimental element, your guests can take monogrammed napkins home as a gift. 

And we can help you make sure you have customization in every detail!

Customizing your reception tablecloths and fabrics may include having your initials, names, and (or) wedding date onto the corners of the fabric. 

There’s no need to always have white or cream colored tablecloths. So one of our favorite ways to personalize your wedding can include sourcing tablecloths and fabrics that are either in your wedding color palette or are complimentary of your color scheme. 

Finally, if you’re ready to pronounce your newly married status to everyone, then one of the boldest ways to personalize your wedding is to customize bride and groom chair covers. 

Opt for fabric that aligns with your wedding color palette and aesthetic. Then, you can choose to have the fabric embroidered with any number of options. That may include a simple “bride” and “groom.” It may include, “Mr.” and “Mrs.” 

Or you can personalize it further by including “Mr.” and “Mrs.” with your last name! You could also keep it simple and sleek with just a monogram or your initials. 

To take it another step further and to commemorate the day, include the date in the embroidery, too! 

Choosing personalized chair covers is a beautiful and elegant way to add another touch of luxury to your wedding reception. As they say, the luxury is in the fine details!

No matter which way you choose to personalize your wedding, we can help - especially when it comes to customizing your fabrics and linens. From embroidering your napkins to designing chair covers and reception tablecloths and bringing those to fruition, we can help you make your wedding your own.