How to Personalize Your Wedding

How to Personalize Your Wedding
By January Mae Tan
Wedding Planner - Cebu, Bohol, Manila

This is your wedding day, the day you have dreamed of since you were a child. Go ahead, let loose and show your guests the inner you. No more of these cookie-cutter weddings, personalize your wedding details to reflect your personality and taste.

Yes, the cake, invitations and gowns are personalized to the couple’s theme, but here are some other overlooked details that can be used to personalize your wedding even further.

Serve a Family Recipe

Are your family gatherings from Christmas to Thanksgiving incomplete without your mother’s cocido or lola’s paella? Honor them and serve it up for dinner or cocktails, if the reception venue will allow it.

For a groom getting married in his family-owned resort, I was asked to research on cocktail finger foods. I arrived for a meeting with the groom’s mother and aunt with a list of possible options. While waiting for the meeting to start, they served me their version of “clubhouse sandwich”.

I almost declined thinking it was the usual sandwich fare. But when the waiter set it down in front of us and I had a bite, I went crazy! After a few careful questions, I discovered it was the mother’s very own recipe. I told them to throw out the list and serve this instead. The mother preened with obvious delight.

Favourite Drinks for Your Toast

After the cake slicing comes the wine toasting, but who says it has to be only wine or champagne?

Toast to your future with your favorite Starbucks drinks. You like apple fruit tea and he likes Four Seasons, don’t forget the pink (or whatever your motif is) umbrellas.

Have the host point it out to your guests and let them enjoy the little secret as well. They will be tickled pink and will secretly wish they had thought to do the same thing for their wedding.

Your Own Song List

The church ceremony is solemn and must be done according to strict guidelines. However, the couple is free to let loose during the reception.

A great way to show your personality is to choose the music that will be played as your entourage and you enter the Reception.

One groom insisted the groomsmen enter to the naughty tune of “Jumbo Hotdog”. A couple enter to techno sounds of Usher. For our Twilight-inspired debut, we began by playing the famous baseball scene and pausing it immediately after a main character said, “It’s time”. The doors then opened to reveal the debutante who entered to the song of “Super Massive Black Hole”. Her young guests brought the house down with their hoots and whistles.

Prizes for Games

Choose prizes that reflect your personality and tastes.

Are you and your hubby movie buffs? Give out movie passes to cinemas in the mall. Do you have a favourite CD? Wrap it with a ribbon and gift it as a prize. A fan of inspirational books or Japanese manga, give your guests the chance to get to know you better by allowing them to share in your interests.

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