How to Throw a Unique Wedding

No matter what you decide to do—or not do—on your wedding day, it’s going to be memorable. Since every person is distinctive, that automatically makes every couple special in their own kind of way. That means their wedding will automatically be incomparable too.

Not to say that there aren’t certain things that you can do to make your wedding stand out among all of the others that your guests have been to before. It’s all about the details and we’ve got 10 that will definitely help you to pull off the ultimate unique wedding and reception.

Serve pre-ceremony cocktails.

We can’t think of one wedding guest who would frown at the thought of a nice cocktail waiting on them as soon as they arrive to your wedding venue. Not only is it a welcome surprise, but it’s also a way to get some of your guests to mix and mingle before the festivities begin. Plus, pre-ceremony cocktails are a pleasant distraction should your wedding find itself running a little later than planned (hey, it happens). If your wedding is in the morning, make sure it's a kind of cocktail to drink before noon!

Our recommendation is to go with “clear cocktails”—like a Martini or Champagne Cocktail—so that if someone accidentally spills their drink, it doesn’t stain their clothing. Also, have a couple of virgin drinks on tab for any of your guests who don’t drink alcohol or would prefer to wait until after the reception to partake of the “real” stuff.

Hire a couple of babysitters.

As you’re putting your wedding day plans together, if you don’t want to run the risk of any young kids screaming during your ceremony or you want to give the adults at your wedding the opportunity to relax and fully enjoy your wedding and reception, one of our favorite unique wedding ideas is to hire a couple of babysitters.

Ask the manager of the venue ahead of time if there is an available room that can be strictly designated for children. Then get some toys, coloring books, and snacks that will keep kids entertained. Make sure the babysitters that you hire are highly-responsible and be prepared to tip them well for their services.

After all, it’s not every day that people come to weddings in order to watch other people’s children. They should get paid well for doing that.

Arrange the seating in a semi-circle.

It’s kind of weird that as we put all of the work into having the perfect wedding day, for most of the ceremony, all our guests get to see is the back of the bride’s wedding dress, after she spent so much time figuring out how to chose the perfect dress.

There are two things that you can do to prevent your guests from seeing nothing more than the back or side of your heads the entire time. One, you can position the officiant in such a way where they are standing closest to your guests, only it’s their back that everyone sees as you’re facing them and your audience. Or, you can seat the chairs in a semi-circle. Not only will it make it easier for your guests to see more of you, but it helps to make the ceremony feel more intimate too.

Of course, you can only do this in venues where you are positioning the chairs yourself. If you’re getting married in a church, for better or for worse, the pews are already set.

Ask more than one person to officiate.

What if you have several clergy people in your family or you can’t decide who you want to officiate your wedding because you can imagine a few different people doing it? Who said that you only have to go with just one person? It’s your wedding. You can do whatever you wish!

We actually think that it’s a really sweet addition to your ceremony if you decide to have more than one person play a role in marrying you to your soon-to-be-spouse. One can do the homily. Another can handle the vows. Someone else can do the prayer or whatever else you want to be a part of your ceremony.

This is another thing on our list of unique wedding ideas that we like a lot. It’s unique and really sentimental.

Have your audience “create your bouquet.”

No matter how small or large your wedding party may be, there’s probably at least one other person you wish could be a part of it. Whether it’s because you want to keep the wedding party headcount down or you don’t want an hour of your ceremony to consist of people walking down the aisle, here’s a unique way to incorporate other individuals.

Designate certain people to sit closest to the aisle and hand them a flower each. As you walk down the aisle, have them hand you their flower. By the time you reach your groom, you’ll have a full bouquet in tow. It’s such a sweet and unexpected way to make different individuals a part of your big day, even if you decide not to officially put them into your wedding party.

Design a friends-and-family family tree.

Out of all of the wedding ideas we’ve already shared, this one just might be our favorite, although the heads up is it might take quite a bit of work on your part (so you shouldn’t wait until the last minute to do it).

While some people have photo booths at their wedding reception (which are always fun), take a more unique approach by creating your own family-and-friends family tree.

What exactly do we mean by that? They say that all of us are separated by no more than six degrees. Think about how your wedding party, family and friends all connect. Then position various pictures in a way that shows the connection.

You can hang it up as a display at the entrance of the reception. Or, you can do it specifically for each reception table. Either way, your guests will get a real kick out of it!

Share fun facts at your reception tables.

Only those who are super-close to you know the intimate details about your life. A cute way for your guests to get to know you and your love story better is for you and yours to share some fun facts about each other on your reception tables.

It can be something from your childhood, your time in high school or college, or facts about how you and the love of your life got together.

Another approach that you can take to this is to turn the fun facts into a trivia game. Present a fact but leave the answer in multiple choice form. Have different facts for each table and the one who gets the most answers right receives some sort of prize at the end of the reception. It's a cute DIY wedding idea!

Create a “childhood foods” station.

It’s becoming more and more popular for there to be food-themed stations at wedding receptions. You know—ice cream sundae stations, junk food stations, or mimosa stations (for starters). In keeping in line with the unique wedding ideas, how about a station that is designated with nothing but the kinds of foods that you and yours enjoyed as a child?

For instance, if you always liked cookies and milk, maybe have some homemade chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, milk, and chocolate milk at the station. If your groom could never get enough of hot dogs, have a couple of different kinds of hot dogs, along with a wide variety of toppings.

You could even take it up a notch by putting a place card with a cute picture of both of you and a paragraph-long memory of enjoying your favorite foods as kids.

Host an after-party AFTER your reception.

On your wedding day, your guests are going to expect a wedding dress and wedding cake (maybe even a groom cake). Something we bet they won’t see coming is an after-party following your reception.

What’s the point in throwing one of those? Well, aside from it falling perfectly into the “unique wedding category,” it’s got a couple of unexpected benefits.

If you want your wedding reception to be a bit on the formal side where your more traditional or conservative family members can feel comfortable, an after-party can be where night owls can kick back and totally let loose.

Another advantage is if you’ve got family and friends who want to spend more time together after you and yours are ready to call it a night, an after-party at another venue can give them the option to dance (and drink) the night away without you having to play host.

Customize “Do Not Disturb” favors.

Where’s a good ole’ “Do Not Disturb” sign when we need one?

Once your wedding day is over and you’re comfy and cozy at your honeymoon location, we’re willing to bet some pretty good money that you’ll be putting at least one Do Not Disturb sign to pretty good use. Well, while your guests are traveling to and from your wedding, they might like to receive one too.

It’s common for wedding party favors to be cute; however, they’re not always the most useful. But if you decide to give your guests something like a customized Do Not Disturb sign (that has your wedding date and maybe a cute quote, love song lyric and or romance tip on it), it can turn into the gift that keeps on giving. They can use it for the night of your wedding on their own hotel door and keep it for trips they have in the years to come.

It’s the perfect final touch to a unique wedding, if we do say so ourselves.