Five Ways to Make Your Wedding Celebration Unique
by: Michael Kabel

A wedding is given shape by the elegance and care given to its basic arrangements: the beauty of the gown, the decorations in the ceremonial hall and the reception venue, the bridesmaids' dresses, and so on. Weddings are given substance and texture by the fine details that reveal how much careful consideration went into getting everything "just so."

Presented below are five tips for adding personalized touches to your wedding ceremony. They're guidelines more than rules - change them up as you see fit, letting them work as a springboard to fire your own creativity.

Make the Music Your Own

Music is something everyone expects to hear at the wedding celebration, even if it's just "The Wedding March." But just like in the movies, music can work wonders in creating a mood, setting a tone, and celebrating your ceremony by evoking all the right emotions.

Some modern couples prefer to do away with the typical wedding processional (it's real name is "The Bridal Chorus", from Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin) in favor of a more contemporary work that more closely describes their feelings. The song might be the first song heard on your first date, or a melody from another special memory.

Say It With Candles

The unity candle has become almost a regular part of most wedding ceremonies, thanks to its simple yet refined symbolism. For a nighttime or winter ceremony, using candles to line the ceremonial hall's main aisle or illuminate the stage makes for both elegance and romance. As long as the building's fire code allows it, a candlelight spectacle is a wonderful mood that will amaze guests and create a lovely wedding photo opportunity.

Candles - especially tealights and votives – also make an elegant wedding guest favor for the reception.

Your Wedding: The Movie

Probably everyone has a particular movie they consider the most romantic of all time, whether it's Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, or a modern classic like The English Patient. Movie productions spend fortunes on getting their decoration and costumes just right. For your wedding, you can copy their styles to create something that's unique to your own sense of romance.

Your Guests Are the Photographers

Disposable cameras have become so affordable that most wedding celebrations can give one to every guest. While a professional should probably still shoot the ceremony, guests can take pictures at the reception and leave the cameras with you. The final images can go online and in your scrapbook, so that everyone can see how each guest's unique perspective captured the celebration.

Personalize Your Dresses, Gowns, and Favors

Personalizing the wedding attire might include everything from your groomsmen having tails on their tuxedo coats to the bridesmaids wearing different color gowns. You might also give them personalized glasses or designer grooming kits as gifts.

Personalized wedding favors range from gourmet cookies and sweets to candles to organic gifts like seed packets. They make perfect gifts for guests, since they create a unique souvenir of your wedding celebration.