It’s your big day. Your once in a lifetime. Today, you and your spouse are the hero and heroine of a fairy-tale; and everything is all about you.
You may be up to your ears in wedding plans; simply trying to figure out how to arrange a basic, fool proof ceremony and reception often seems overwhelming enough. But is a bland wedding really what best reflects you? Maybe not.  Here are 50 creative ideas that can  personalize your wedding and set it far above the norm—and which cost less than $100 apiece to implement.

1. On the big day, make your grand entrance in style: hire a fogger and have the bride (and possibly groom) appear shrouded in clouds of slowly dissipating mist.
2. Have you seen too many identical wedding invitations? Yours can be something else. Print your wedding details and invite in tiny print on a balloon, and enclose it in an envelope with just three words ‘blow me up’.
3. Rather than a one-size fit all wedding favour that may end up being thrown away, have your guests choose their own treats; set up a buffet table with a selection of candy and/or savoury treats and let the guests fill their own gift bags.
4. Does your family have a special signature food for holidays or celebrations?  If practical, make samples for a special personal wedding favour and give them to your guests in little mason jars with decorative tags. Jam, pickles, granola or chocolate cookies: it’ll be a take-home that really means you.
5. Another favour idea—get seed packages of both your and your spouse-to-be’s favourite flowers, add a special tag, and send them home with your guests so they can ‘grow love in the garden’.
6. Rent a bubble machine and have a bubbly first dance—it’ll spice up the evening like nothing else!



7. A squealing baby can change the mood of a wedding, and not for the better: get a babysitter for your youngest guests, and set up a nearby room with a few toys, a TV and DVD player for cartoons, and a soft rug and blankets.
8. For an evening wedding, darken the room and use stage lights to spotlight the bride and groom’s grand entrances and special moment at the front.
9. Another evening wedding idea: dim the lighting for just that first dance, then  use UV lights to light up that first dance.
10. Rent a low-lying fogger, and use low-lying fog to give a special touch to the first dances: that mist around everyone’s feet will give an incredibly romantic feel to the evening!
11. Instead of a traditional guest book, create a beautiful coffee-table book with professional photos from your engagement or pre-wedding shots in tux and gown, and leave wide margins for your guests to write in. It’ll be a memento to be treasured forever!
12. Or—especially if you have a small gathering—get a game of Jenga and have your guests write their wedding wishes and sign their names on the pieces. This will create a special heirloom that gives you warm fuzzy feelings whenever you play!



13. Write special notes to each guest on the back of their name cards or escort cards. It’ll make them feel like a million dollars!
14. Here’s another out-of-the-ordinary guestbook idea—provide squares of cloth and permanent fabric markers for your guests to write special messages on; after the wedding, compile them into a beautiful memory quilt.
15. Decorate your reception area with photographs of you and your guests; or place photos of special moments you spent with your wedding guests on the tables besides the nametags.
16. Get your wedding programs printed on brown paper bags rather than on fancy wedding paper; then fill the bags with confetti for the guests to shower on the bride and groom as they walk out from the ceremony.
17. Set up a photo station in the reception area and have guests get their picture taken with themed props or in a special wedding frame with the occasion and date as a label. You can make your own station and it’ll hardly cost you a thing!
18. Or print out a full-sized, dress-up picture of the two of you and turn it into a photo stand-in where you let your guests picture themselves as bride and groom.



19. You can also set up the photo-station with a chalk-board, and have your guests write messages or advice to you and take pictures holding the board.
20. Invite any of your guests who sing or play particularly well to provide a song for everyone; a portable PA system can be rented inexpensively.
21. Get a caricature artist to take running sketches of your wedding as it progresses; the pictures can afterwards be made into a small wedding book or a keepsake collage.
22. Give your guests slips of paper to write song suggestions for the DJ on—that way, everyone will get excited and moving when it’s dance time! Live music is much more energizing than pre-canned CDs, and you can rent a DJ table inexpensively.
23. Liven up the dances by renting a subwoofer to deliver some deep thumping bass; it’ll make the wedding hall really resound with all the good dance feels!
24. Decorate an old mailbox, vintage style, for a wedding card box and place it on your gift table, surrounded by flowers.
25. You’re likely to want to wear your own wedding dress for the ceremony—but if your mother has saved hers, borrow it and take a series of wedding pictures with the groom in a retro suit. These pictures will make much treasured gifts to your parents after the wedding is over.
26. Your shoes may not be as important as your dress, but they still count. Make your wedding shoes personal and special by having your new name stencilled on the heel strap of each shoe.
27. Exchange love letters before the ceremony. Read them in quiet, separate places just before you walk down the aisle—but if you want a memento of your feelings on the occasion, have a photographer watching.
28. Or write a short love-note to your future spouse and hide it (or get the best man or bridesmaid to hide it) inside the coat or corsage of the wedding dress, to be found and read during those high-emotion moments when the last preparations are being made.
29. Take some time before the wedding to write letters to the future; sealing them in envelopes and giving them to your spouse with directions written on the cover: ‘open after we’ve had our first fight’, ‘open after our first baby is born’, ‘open at our five year anniversary’. You’re created an emotional continuum from your almost-married selves now to the married people you and your spouse will be then.
30. Get a vintage-style chalkboard and write the timeline of your love-story down, from first sight to today’s I do—and a happily ever after tucked in after that, if you like! Display it near the entrance of your wedding venue.



31. You can also get a large photo collage printed; your love story illustrated with pictures. It won’t cost much to make a large quality print at a print store; use the same paper used for science paper presentations.
32. Or have significant moments from your love story timeline printed on an aisle runner—or on paper/cloth mats pasted down on the aisle—and walk down your own history to today’s special moment at the front.
33. Book a projector and entertain your guests with a selection of special ‘first sight to altar’ pictures during the reception- or make a home-made video of the same.
34. Name your tables after significant places in your life, and create a framed picture display of the two of you at that place.
35. Or find pictures of both you and your future spouse as little children, and put them on your table numbers: pictures of the two of you as one year olds on table one, two year olds on table two, and so on.
36. Write down a nice long list of reasons you love your future spouse; and have him do the same for you: get them printed on quality paper, framed beautifully, and display them at the wedding. Later, they’ll look beautiful in your bedroom!
37. Set up a kid’s table with crayons, markers, and paper, and ask your younger guests to draw pictures of the bride and groom or wedding while the grown-ups mingle during the reception.
38. Make the entrance of the wedding cake a special moment by dimming the lights and having it carried in by ushers with sparklers and indoor fireworks.
39. Or do a cake contest rather than one single wedding cake: ask your guests to bring their own decorated cakes, and the bride and groom will judge between them! Have fun doing the judging, and don’t forget speeches, pins, and prizes. The winner can be the centrepiece cake and your own wedding topper can be placed on top.
40. Ask some little page boys (or girls) to march down the aisle ahead of you with flags on which you’ve printed “here comes the bride!’
41. Are your ceremony and reception areas walking distance? At the close of the ceremony, give each of your guests with a helium balloon in coordinated hues, to carry with them as they walk over to the reception area. The effect will be lovely, and you can either do a timed release afterward for a photo-op or  else have them tie the balloons to their chairs as extra decoration.
42. If your dog is well-behaved, have him be the junior ring bearer: dress him up in a collared doggy-suit and let him follow the human ring bearer down the aisle.
43. Make your wedding go viral: provide a Wi-Fi hotspot, and announce the fact with a chalkboard or poster that also gives a suggested Instagram hashtag for photos of the big day, uploaded on the fly. It’ll be great fun to browse through after!
44. For a Christmas season wedding, set up a tree in the reception area, and have each guest bring a special tree ornament, then hang it on the tree with a little note explaining why they chose it. You’ll have lots of wedding memories to enjoy when you get out the Christmas decorations every year in your future home.
45. Here’s a fun ice-breaker for a wedding dinner or reception: have the best man play master of ceremonies for an all-out quiz about the two of you. Each table of guests can work together to try to figure out the answers; the winners are presented with a special cake to share.
46. If you’re having a rustic outdoor wedding, consider doing the ceremony on horseback: the bride can have a side-saddle to accommodate her sweeping traditional dress, or wear a stunning riding outfit instead. Just make sure that the aisles are wide enough!
47. Decorate the venue with paper lanterns; strung with LED lights for an evening wedding: it’ll add a colourful, classy touch with very little cost.
48. Have your wedding bouquet include your mother’s, your grandmother’s, and your own favourite flowers—you choose the colour for a unified effect.
49. Ask grandma to be a special maid of honour or flower girl; it’s been a long time since she’s had an official function in any wedding. These moments with her will be moments you’ll treasure so much when she’s gone.
50. Rent a tandem bicycle to make your final getaway; those pictures of the two of you escaping on a ‘bicycle built for two’ will be pictures your children and grandchildren will love!

There you are—fifty creative wedding ideas that can change the mood of your wedding from ‘just another standard ceremony’ to something special and unique. It’s your day—make it really yours!