If you are planning a wedding, choosing a style or theme for your big day is one of the first steps to take. Aside from personalizing your event, working with a particular style significantly beautifies the whole thing, and making wedding decisions becomes so much easier. If you are hiring a wedding planner or stylist, all you need is to specify the style you want, and these providers can easily work their magic.
Listed below are timeless wedding styles that will work for any budget. Complete with definitions and essential elements such as décor and venue for each wedding style.
Is a Wedding Style Important?
Ultimately, it is really up to you if you wish to create your dream wedding day under a cohesive theme, but wedding experts recommend that you do this for the main reason of making the entire process of planning a wedding easier. Having a wedding theme sets the tone for your guests’ experience and can help create an overall aesthetic that is Pinterest-worthy and truly memorable.
If you’re unsure what style to pick, Big Day details such as venue and date should guide your decision. Will it be too cold to have an outdoor wedding? Will the hotel allow you to set up certain décor within their premises? Or, if you’ve had your heart set on a particular theme, this can help you decide your location, date and set your spending limits.
Timeless Wedding Styles
Bohemian
Boho weddings are preferred by many because it has great style potential with relatively less effort (and, sometimes, cost). It’s the “woke up like this” of weddings, to be social media-ish about it. Bohemian themes are great for a casual, laid-back experience for your guests, especially if you’re the type of couple who prefer comfort to luxury.
Of course, if you have the budget for it, you can go all-out with more expensive décor and food choices, but a Bohemian wedding is perfect for budget weddings, too. Just remember that the color scheme prevalent in a boho-themed wedding is typically those found in nature. Imagine sunset and bright sky colors and plenty of playful but sophisticated patterns. Tribal or native prints and patterns are often used.
You may consider unique dresses for your bridesmaids or even tell your guests that big and gaudy bead necklaces get a token during the party. For your flowers, use a lot of wild, wispy blooms like baby’s breath, palms, or pampas grass. Boho weddings usually work best in greenhouses, botanical gardens, or grainy dessert locations.
Classic
A classic wedding is always tasteful and perfect for any season. This wedding style is more traditional, with plenty of defined lines and colors like white, gold, or ivory. For a more romantic touch, add splashes of color using soft pastels instead of gold. This is perfect for couples who are more traditional, romantic and want a formal event.
Your classic wedding could have a cocktail hour while guests are serenaded with jazz music. Imagine flutes of champagne and dainty canapes before a sit-down dinner with multiple courses eaten with fine silverware on a table with candles and fresh flowers. Your bridesmaids can wear long dresses made with light, airy fabric with simple designs and barely-there colors.
A classic-themed wedding will be perfect in a courtyard, ballroom, vineyard, or under a huge silk tent in a garden for an evening wedding.
Rustic
If you’ve always wanted to have a reason to have naked cake, then this is the wedding for you. Rustic weddings often take place in barns, ranches, or gardens and give a farm-to-table vibe from beginning to end. Use plenty of natural elements like stone, wood, lace, twine, flowers, and organic fabrics like burlap. Keep your color palettes neutral and earthy tones. This is a great wedding theme where creativity and resourcefulness can come out and play. Think shabby-chic: candles and fresh flowers arranged on coarse chopping boards, mixed and matched glassware, bronze-toned flatware, and so on.
DIY
Though perfect for budget control, a DIY wedding takes more time and effort. A DIY wedding has a lot of personal character, down to the smallest detail. A lot of the charm of a DIY wedding comes from hand-crafted, personalized elements, and this is why this wedding style is perfect for small and intimate wedding parties. The best thing about a DIY wedding is that it is assuredly unique and can be held even in a small yard, a beautiful beachfront, or a breathtaking mountainside.
Think carefully-curated dessert bars and cocktail bowls or platters on each table filled with dainty sandwiches, macarons, or finger foods. You might also consider serving coffee in individual carafes per table. Or you can buy small coffee maker machines online, one for each table.
Planning a wedding is much easier when you have a theme or style to work with. Besides that, it makes the entire event more beautiful and memorable; it helps decisions along. Timeless wedding styles like Bohemian, classic, rustic, and DIY will work for any budget, big or small.
