Creative Wedding Ceremony Idea

I like weddings. They are very unique situations. A wedding is a special day featuring an important event, and with that in mind the couple spends months planning how their day will play out. Perhaps this is a couple you wouldn’t normally consider “creative.” Well, on this day you are going to see their creativity regardless. It may be lavish or it may be simple, but that doesn’t matter—they’re going to be injecting their likes, their personalities, and their passions into this one day.

Sometimes you get a couple that does have a history of creativity, and you anticipate enjoying a unique experience. But they too face significant hurdles in their planning. For on top of exercising their creativity, they’re working with their significant other who may have a whole other vision. A wedding is one of their first acts of collaboration.

I think that’s why my wife and I are often asked to help with unique wedding ideas. Either the couple will have an idea they need help executing, or they’ll ask us to come up with an idea for a certain aspect of the ceremony. It’s an honor for us and it’s a lot of fun. So over the course of the next few posts, I’m going to highlight some of our recent wedding projects.

The wedding I’m about to highlight happened just last month. The bride’s father had passed away years ago, and they wanted to honor him in some way. They decided to use the theme of butterflies (a tie-in to the song “Butterfly Kisses”), and they came up with this plan. I would create a frame that would eventually hold their wedding vows. As guests were being seated during the pre-ceremony, Kate (my wife) would collage butterflies all over the frame. During the service the vows would be placed into the frame and signed.

Fun concept, right? But it was one that had the potential of looking really bad. Could a butterfly-themed frame look in any way attractive? Can any collaged frame look good? In my mind this would end in inevitable tackiness. I Googled “decorated frames” to see if something like this has been done well. It hasn’t. And our final product wouldn’t be the exception.

So we countered with a revised plan. What if Kate collaged the mat instead of the frame? The frame would be solid white and store bought frame, but the mat would be a flurry of color and activity. This had a much better chance of success, and they trusted our opinions—so it was settled.

Now Kate had only half an hour to be on stage—too short a time to collage over the available mat space, much less do it to her satisfaction. So she put a few hours into it over the preceding week and prepped pieces of paper and other materials that she would add on during the live event. She also painted the entire mat black first. Not only did this make the colors pop, but it saved her from a time-intensive process of collaging the black lines of the butterfly wings. She only had to add the pops of color.

When she was done collaging on stage, I joined her and together we assembled the vows, the mat, and the frame (minus the glass), and left the piece on the easel for the bride, the groom, and their parents to sign during the ceremony.

The plan came together, the process worked well, and the finished piece looked great. Plus we were able to play a part in this big day of our two long-time friends—friends who were very happy with their future wall decor.