Hiatus

Alright, I’ve got a bit too much on my plate right now, so these Wacky Wedding Ideas of mine will have to take a backburner to my other projects. You can find me blogging over at maryqin.com and I’ll do my best to post new ideas whenever I can. If you have any you’d like to share, please do let me know! 🙂

The Dollar (Store) Idea

Alright, the ideas have been getting wackier each time, so let’s bring ourselves back to earth with something much more attainable, shall we?

The Dollar (Store) Wedding

The Scene:  Imagine an intimate at-home wedding, where the challenge was to use only what you had at home already or could find at the local dollar store! Everything from the flowers and table cloths to the party favors and materials to make the wedding cake. The only exceptions would be the clothing that everyone wears and the rings (though hey if the couple’s down for some fun plastic rings, who’s to stop them?). Centerpieces could easily be put together with the selection of glassware, candles, rocks, and fake flowers at the dollar store. Rather than buy loads of fake flowers that you may not need again, why not opt for some fun pinwheels to place along the aisle? This would be especially nice on a beautifully sunny day with a slight breeze, so the colorful pinwheels spin as they welcome the bride down the aisle.

Whether you want disposable or to add to your home’s collection, there’s plenty of tableware to choose from!

A little DIY handiwork can quickly transform these into wonderful centerpieces.

As the wedding party takes some photos on each others’ cameras, guests can mingle over boxed wine (I think they offer that at the dollar store) or soda. You don’t have to get drunk to have fun, right? Come time for dinner, you can expect a mishmash of homemade foods and a simple cake made from a box. It may not be fancy, but it certainly is homey. Maybe a few of the guests can even help with the food preparation! Yes, this is a very hands-on, interactive, and DIY sort of wedding. Roll up your sleeves, join in, and have fun socializing! It’s all about the company and good times tonight.

Spring is a great season for a discount wedding! Just check out all those cheerful colors.

The fun thing about dollar stores is that they always have a robust seasonal section, so you can really cater to the time of year that you’ll be holding the wedding. Right now all the Easter decorations are out, so the newlyweds may opt to have an Easter egg scavenger hunt, where guests have to find their own wedding presents hidden in the yard and around the house. You can find some really fun Easter eggs like sports balls, animals, or assorted neon colors. Within each, the bride and groom may choose to have pieces of candy and some small trinkets as momentos. On the tables, guests receive a lovely photo frame decorated with the couple’s names and the wedding date, which they can later use when they print out a picture of themselves with the bride and groom. Then when the dancing starts, glowsticks are passed out and help illuminate the dark yard. Ever rave at a wedding? This may be your chance!

The Location: Since this is to be a budget wedding, the most sensible place to hold it would be at a home. Now this can be your home, your parents’ home, or even just a friend who wants to volunteer their wonderful yard! Don’t be afraid to ask if someone is willing to lend you their place for the day, but be sure to clean up after yourselves and be courteous guests. Depending on the time of year, you may choose to do it out in the yard or inside the home. As long as the weather permits, an outside wedding provides fewer restrictions and is far less likely to cause extended damage. But hey, if you really hate the outdoors, you can have a house party and mingle from room to room throughout the night.

The Challenges: One of the most difficult things will likely be having enough space and furniture. Most households aren’t designed for a big shebang like a wedding, so some creative measures to make the most of your space will probably be necessary. Maybe you’ll opt for a super-quick ceremony where guests stand in a circle around you to save space. Also, you might need to borrow some furniture from your neighbors to be able to seat everyone, or even encourage your guests to BYOC – bring your own chair! Then of course is the issue of pulling off a cheap wedding that doesn’t feel “cheap,” if you know what I mean. With a focus on family and friends, love and friendship, and a sense of camaraderie and community, this can be a really intimate event where everyone pitches in and feels good about it too! DIY doesn’t mean the guests can’t do some of the doing too. 🙂

If you had a budget wedding, would you want to pull it off like this? Would you consider this a “wacky” wedding? What would you do to personalize it?  Or, do you know someone who managed to have a “dollar” wedding?  We’d love to know.

The Airplane Idea

The Airplane Wedding

Guests may find themselves wondering what they’re doing in line at an airport… for a wedding.

The Scene:  Imagine wedding guests meeting at a hotel with just the instructions that they will be taken to the mystery venue from there and should have their schedules clear for the rest of the day & night. They are then shuttled to the airport and given their boarding passes. As curious guests try to understand what is going on, they check their tickets to see they’ll be going from LAX to LGA (or whichever airports you choose). Ok, so this will be a destination wedding? Excited, they pass through security and find their gate, which is clearly marked with all the flowers, ribbons, and balloons. Travelers going about their day stare at this parade of dressed-up people heading towards their fancy gate with no luggage.

Once all the guests have boarded, the flight takes off like any other commercial flight. Soon after reaching cruising altitude, the screens in the headrests turn on and music begins to play. On screen, guests can see the bride emerging from the back of the plane. From the cockpit, the groom and the officiator appear, with the officiator asking everyone to stand (assuming there’s no turbulence of course). As guests scramble to get up ever so awkwardly, the bride begins down the aisle and they realize that this is it; the ceremony has begun, midair! For those who can’t see, the video screens in front of them provide live shots. When the bride finally reaches the front of the plane, you can see that her train extends the entire length of the airplane!  The bride and groom exchange their vows and then make their way back down the aisle, gathering up her train as they go.

Who said airplane food had to be bad?

As guests sit back in their seats, the flight attendants make their way down the aisles offering drinks and little bags of peanuts or pretzels. Everything from the cups to the snacks bags to the napkins that guests are served with have the couple’s names and the wedding date on them. As the bride changes in the back, everyone else enjoys some light chatter and some Sudoku competitions with the Sudoku cards in the front seat pocket (much like on certain international flights). The rest of the itinerary pops up on the screens, showing guests that they have half an hour for the “reception” where they can get up and mingle as needed before the meal is served. Come dinnertime, the bride has made it to First Class to join the rest of the wedding party for the meal. Flight attendants come around serving a typical First Class meal to all guests, with a nice salad, side, and entree. Bread and butter are handed out with the next round of drinks. Guests are free to call attendants with the call button when they need refills or want to request something. As the trays are cleared, dessert is brought out – ice cream sundaes with a Toblerone snack!

As the final “dessert,” travel pouches with the wedding date and a plane outline stitched on are passed out as wedding favors. Each includes handy items like travel toiletries, bandages, ear plugs, cozy socks, relaxing sprays, lip balm, and other travel essentials. Not long after that, everything is collected and the flight attendants take their seats for landing. The fun has only just begun! Now the entire plane is off to explore the Big Apple (or wherever the destination is). A tour bus or two come to get the guests and take them around town. The wedding photographers scramble to get as many shots as they can at each of the locations. The wedding party poses in front of major tourist attractions for the wedding photos, making this experience special and memorable. So this did turn out to be a destination wedding after all! A few hours later, weary guests file back onto the plane and get ready for their redeye back home. This was certainly not how they envisioned their day going!

The Location: Any airplane with the appropriate capacity will do, though a Boeing 737 might be a good bet since it has a single aisle down the center and three seats on either side. Boeing 747s have two aisles, which makes things too lopsided – which aisle would you use? Smaller planes are very tight and don’t really have any leeway for maneuvering in a wedding dress. Of course, you could opt for a simple dress with no train and limited “poof” if you want to squeeze into a smaller jet. The secondary location would be where you would fly from and where to. It could be cross-country or it could be more local – it all depends on your preferences. A slightly more cost-saving option would be to just fly in a big circle and return to your original airport, in which case you wouldn’t have the second half of the experience.

The Challenges: First and foremost is the question: can you reserve a commercial jetliner for a wedding? This can be a major challenge, but if you can convince the appropriate aviation folk, it should be pretty easy to get a flight route and tickets for your passengers. You better hope that the weather cooperates with you, or you might find your flight grounded for hours, which kind of throws a wrench in all those plans. If you do make it off the ground, be sure your pilot makes an extra hard attempt to avoid turbulence so you don’t find yourself falling over halfway through the ceremony. Hopefully none of your guests are afraid of flying or forgot their IDs that day, since those would make the experience rather unpleasant. Other than that, it should be smooth sailing (or flying), right?

Is this idea wacky enough for you? Would you want to wed like this? What would you change?  Or, do you know anyone who has pulled this off?!  Do tell!

The Legos Idea

In honor of my boyfriend’s birthday tomorrow, a wedding themed after one of his favorite things: Legos.

The Legos Wedding

Perhaps you’d want to surprise guests with creatures made of Legos.

The Scene:  Imagine the entire venue decorated with Lego sculptures.  Everything from the altar to the seats and tables to the flowers!  Guests arrive and are seated in their giant Lego chairs (with cushions for those sensitive tooshes).  Along the aisle, flower decorations made of Legos adorn the chairs and ground.  Even the podium is made of (wooden) Legos!  When the groom and his groomsmen arrive, everyone gets a chuckle at their Lego bowties; then the bride arrives with a Lego crown and Lego jewelry (which doesn’t have to be the original plastic pieces, but can be smelted from various metals).  She can even bling out her wedding dress with little metal Lego pieces instead of jewels.  You may not see it, but her shoes are covered in little Lego pieces as well.  If both the bride and groom are Lego-obsessed, then the rings themselves could have little Legos on them.

After the ceremony, guests enjoy a cocktail hour with drinks and hors d’oeuvres served in Lego glasses (either Lego pieces melted/glued together or normal glass with Lego -piece adornments) and Lego trays (similar construction to the glasses).  Truly dedicated newlyweds can also provide Lego standing tables or Lego chairs and tables.  Come dinner, guests may find themselves still using Lego furniture and tableware.  Each table is dedicated to a particular Lego shape, which is the same type of piece that guests’ names are carved into.  At the tables, Lego keychains and jewelry can be the wedding gifts, or the Lego glasses themselves can be a keepsake.  Centerpieces can be a variety of interesting Lego sculptures like the ones at Legoland (but scaled down to fit).  You can even have some floating Lego sculptures with candles inside if you want to try a challenge!

The Location: Just about anywhere, as long as the staff is ready, willing, and able to help construct a variety of Lego creations.  Of course, doing it at Legoland would be cool, but certainly not necessary.  This could potentially work for an indoor or outdoor wedding, but if you opt for the great outdoors, double- and triple-check that your location doesn’t get high winds and that the week of your wedding day is expected to be clear, clear, clear with no sign of precipitation.  After all, trying to move all those giant Lego pieces can be tricky if you don’t glue everything down (and even if you do, the glue might not withstand brisk moving).

The Challenges: One of the major things is actually getting enough Lego pieces to outfit everything.  Of course, wooden and metal ones will need to be custom-made since they aren’t commonly available.  You can cut down by adorning the out layer of everything with Legos rather than constructing the entire structures, but if you’re a true fan you might not want to “cheat” like that.  Assuming you secure all the materials, you need to carefully design each item that is made so the structures don’t fall apart and come crashing down.  This might require the services of a Lego expert borrowed (aka hired) from the Lego company itself.

So what do you think? Would you ever consider a wedding like this? What aspects would you keep and which would you change?  Do you know someone who had a Lego wedding?!  Tell us more!

The Elephants Idea

Now here’s an idea for those animal-lovers and adventure-seekers.

The Elephants Wedding

The Scene:  Imagine the bride and groom each atop their own elephant (adorned with flowers and ribbons and whatnot).  Guests line the “aisle” in raised platforms so they can see what’s going on and don’t get trampled.  The groom’s elephant waits by the altar and the officiator may choose to sit on his/her own elephant, or to stand on a special platform that will allow him/her to be eye-level with the bride and groom.  The bride then enters sitting on her elephant throne similar to the one pictured, with her mahout guiding the elephant.  She probably shouldn’t opt for a long train, just in case her elephant trips on it.  Her flower girls can walk along the platforms on either side, strewing flowers along the way.  The elephants can then stand side by side for the vows, allowing the couple to hold hands.  If you have time to train the elephants ahead of time, you can have them holding the ring boxes in their trunks, which they can then present at the appropriate time.  Once the rings are exchanged, the groom can hop over to join the bride, or she can opt to join him if she can maneuver over (so much more entertaining this way).

For wedding gifts, the couple can offer rings, bracelets, or pendants made of elephant hair.  The pendants can be used as keychains, put on a chain as a necklace, or just kept as a cool keepsake.  (See an example of an elephant hair ring.)  The reception can be held nearby and offer paintings custom-done by the elephants for guests.  Don’t forget to include some tasty tree bark for the elephants to munch on!  Your mahout can recommend some delectable ones.

The Location: You’ve got two distinct choices here – either a destination wedding in Southeast Asia/Africa or a local zoo/park.  If you choose to go to Southeast Asia or Africa, you can find certain elephant sanctuaries where they raise and care for elephants.  These are probably the best places to go since the elephants are used to humans, are well-trained, and have experienced mahouts to guide them.  You can probably even get a baby elephant trained as the ring bearer or flower girl!  On the other hand, if you want to stay closer to home and opt for a zoo or park, you will probably have limited elephants to work with.  While it would be more cost-effective, it might present more challenges in getting approval.

The Challenges: Well, most obvious is the use of such giant creatures.  While elephants are usually gentle and kind, frightening them can have serious consequences.  Of course if anyone in the wedding is afraid of large animals, this could pose a problem too.  Assuming that everyone is comfortable with elephants, getting a space that they can maneuver in and that also lets the guests see what’s going on would require some special structures.  Securing the location is also difficult, whether convincing a zoo to let you hold a wedding there AND use their elephants or finding a time when an elephant sanctuary in a foreign country isn’t busy with visitors.  Of course, having plenty of funds can help with these issues and you can likely reserve the sanctuary, but your guests would still need to fly in!  Nevertheless, for a unique experience like this, it might well be worth all the trouble.

Does this wedding idea strike a chord with you?  What would you want to add to it?  What would you be most scared of?  Have you ever heard of someone who had a wedding like this?!  We’d love to know!

The Swimming Pool Idea

Welcome to the very first Wacky Wedding Idea!  When thinking of wedding ideas one day, I suddenly thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool (literally) to have it in the pool?”  Sure it’d be wet and not at all formal, but being a former swimmer and lifelong water-lover, it seemed like a hilarious and fun idea.  That got me thinking about tons of other crazy scenarios that people could have their weddings in, which you’ll hear about it the weeks to come.  To kick it all off, I present to you:

The Swimming Pool Wedding

The Scene:  Imagine the bride wearing a white swimsuit with ruffles as the dress and a long tulle veil trailing behind her.  To ensure the veil doesn’t sink or drag out of the bride’s hair, you can affix it with little floaties so it remains above water.  The groom can opt for swim trunks with a tuxedo pattern and a bow tie around his neck, or a full body suit with a tuxedo pattern.  Beach balls and blow-up toys float around the pool as decorations and the couple has to dive down to retrieve their rings from the bottom of the pool.  After the ceremony, the reception is held right by the pool and guests are free to splash around.  Beach towels with the couple’s picture and wedding date are given out as very practical wedding gifts.  If the pool has a pool house/clubhouse, it can be set up for the dinner and dance portion of the night, or dinner can be a casual BBQ on the grill.

The Location: Any pool you can reserve!  Shallow ones would be more practical and ones with lanes would help ensure you walk straight(ish).  However, if you’re in for a challenge, opt for an Olympic-size pool and offer swim lessons as part of the wedding preparations (or use life vests painted to look like tuxedos for the men and gowns for the women).  Children, including flower girls and ring bearers, can make use of floaties on their arms or sit in a tube that is dragged down the “aisle.”  Really ambitious folks can swim down the aisle in the stroke of their choice; butterfly stroke would be most epic, of course.  Just make sure that you can reserve the entire pool area or else you might some neighborhood kids crashing the party.

The Challenges: Most of it would pertain to whether the wedding party can swim (if they can, it’s easy breezy and if they can’t, it can be a nightmare).  Of course, much of that can be alleviated by using various flotation devices and limiting activity to the shallow end of the pool.  Other considerations would be the weather if it’s an outdoor pool, since nobody wants to be in a pool during a thunderstorm.  Let’s not talk about how easily inappropriate the “wedding attire” could be and just hope that everyone would have fun in the spirit of a splashy wedding!

What do you think?  Would this be something you’d like to attempt at your own risk?  What other obstacles might make it difficult to pull off?  Or, do you know someone who had a wedding like this?!  Let’s hear it!

Welcome to Wacky Wedding Ideas!

It all started when Mary Q. was watching some wedding shows and found everything to be rather ho-hum and predictable.  She started to fantasize about the most fun, innovative, and creative wedding ideas that she could come up with and eventually got so carried away that a list had to be formed to keep track of them all.  These ideas entertained her so much that she shared them with her boyfriend and they both had a good laugh trying to envision some of the silly concepts.

Right around this time, Mary met with a friend of hers from college (Ms. King), who told her about the blogs that she had been writing.  Ms. King, despite being in law school and busy as ever, still managed to keep three blogs!  Each had its own theme, like the trials and tribulations of learning to cook or the journey of personal improvement, and audience.  This inspired Mary to turn her wacky wedding ideas into this blog, Wacky Wedding Ideas!

Our goal is to bring you one Wacky Wedding Idea each week, providing both entertainment and (hopefully) fodder for your own wedding plans, if any.  We’d love to hear from you as well, so if you have ideas you’d like to submit, please fill out our Wacky Wedding Ideas submission form.  Or if you decide to try anything on this blog, let us know!  Also, please support us by liking our Wacky Wedding Ideas Facebook page and following our Wacky Wedding Ideas Twitter account (@funweddingideas because @wackyweddingideas exceeds their character limit).