Your wedding isn’t just any wedding— it’s the most special day on the calendar, and it deserves a celebration that sets it apart. You’ve likely spent hours scoring bridal catalogues for ideas to make your wedding out-of-this-world wonderful, and may have ended up with half a dozen pages bookmarked or a file full of scrap-paper scribbled with notes. But how to take all these ideas, good as they are, and make them into a united whole? Something that gives that perfect atmosphere, that sweep-you-off-your-feet experience? It can be incredibly frustrating.

That’s where a wedding theme comes in—a way to bring your wedding personalizations together and make all the little bits and pieces meld into a perfect whole. You’ll find these six wedding themes to be six very different ways to use personal touches, wedding décor, lighting and special effects to make your wedding day truly spectacular, a celebration worthy of the occasion.

Golden Elegance

Let’s start with some classic colours here: red and gold.  They’ll bring a deep hint of nobility, even royalty, into your wedding preparations, and take out any notion of  the commonplace and mundane. Red is also the colour of passion and a strong, undying love, and as such it is perfect for your wedding day.

• Rent uplights in amber and crimson, and set them up to bathe the walls of your venue in alternating gold and red lights. This is a hugely important first step in creating atmosphere.
• Coloured bar wall wash lights on the other walls of your venue will allow you to continue that theme and mix it up at times with more colours fading in and out when you want the place to have a little extra vibrancy.
• Bridesmaid dresses can be golden yellow, deep red, or white with red trim, depending on your preference.
• Deep red tablecloths with gold-cloth runners will set the tone for a beautiful table setting. For a rich, luxurious effect, make sure your tablecloths extend at least three inches of the sides of the table.
• Do a red and gold candy buffet in gold-coloured dishes, and have gold leaf forms sprinkled over the table setting as a form of decoration. Some good candy choices are red cinnamon balls, red liquorice sticks, jellybeans (red and gold, in separate bowls), red and gold sixlets, chocolate coins, gold butter rum hard candy sticks, gold stars, and foiled chocolate cigars.
• Crystal sun catchers at the windows and strategically placed near your light fixtures will catch coloured beams and scatter them everywhere.
• Try for a sound active lighting effect for the dance floor too; this can be rented for the evening, and is easy to set up to have the lights dance with your music.
• Rose petal confetti is perfect for that moment when you and your prince charming come walking down the aisle; taking the first steps in your new life.

Summer Time Waves

For a summer wedding, there’s no better theme than that of water: beaches, waves, sun and sand. That doesn’t mean you have to have a beach wedding, though—an indoor wedding in your venue of choice can quite as full of all the good feels as the outdoor ‘real’ thing, and you won’t have to worry about sand between your toes!  The trick here again is to put all possible tools to work for you: lighting, décor, special effects, and tasty eats.

• Start with LED Water Effect lights, which you can rent just for the night. These’ll beam out in some central locations to create ‘pools’ of beautiful shimmering light, a wonderful focal point for your wedding.
• Add in some amber and blue uplights, trained up on the side walls of your venue to create a cool, summery ambience.
• What else should you have by way of lights? Your water effects and coloured uplights takes care of the main part of your evening, but when it comes to dance time you’ll want to spice things up a little more. A couple of effect lights for the dance floor will make the floor time really lively. Rent a fogger as well, and you’ll be able to feel the energy.
• Turning a bubble machine on during the dance routine will also add an element of fun, and if the machine is on for that first walk down the aisle you’ll be able to go out in a cloud of ethereal bubble-joy.
• White tablecloths with pale blue runners are perfect to go with your summertime mood. Scatter small seashells and sea glass over the runners; larger shells or similar beach trophies can be used as centrepieces
• For refreshments, consider providing seashell chocolates—tasty little morsels that look so good they could just as well be décor themselves. A tropical fruit buffet will also add a special element to your summer time theme.
• Fishing nets draped over your desert tables will add drama and character too.
• Make sure you have plenty of summer-time drinks—a cold cocktail bar and lemonade options would be ideal.
• How will you invite your guests to your summertime wedding celebration? You could scarcely do better than invitations shaped like surf boards: coming out of the envelope as one and unfolding into twin boards.
• For the wedding program, try printing the details of the event on fans that your guests can actually use to keep comfortable.

Lilac Charm

Water and summer fun are wonderful, but there’s more to life than that—take, for instance, the beautiful charm of an old-fashioned lilac garden, which can be brought into your venue to create a very different but also wonderfully sensual wedding experience. Fresh flowers are crucial here, as are uplights in beautiful lilac shades.

• Set up uplights in a pink blue combination, beaming up on all the major walls of your venue and bathing them in delicately tinted light.
• Choose white or light coloured tablecloths, and sprinkle the lace runners with dried, scented flower petals. Vases of fresh flowers—either lilacs, lavender, or other blooms in matching shades—can make beautiful centrepieces for all your tables.
• Set up a pink and blue candy buffet, using vintage floral crockery to hold your candy and perhaps some other sweet treats. Good candy choices include pink sticklettes, pink lollipops, pink strawberry saltwater taffy, blue chocolate drops, blue sixlets, blue striped candy sticks, and twirly blue lollipops.
• Give your bridesmaid and flower girls lilac wreaths to wear, and let them carry mixed bouquets in various shades of pink and purple. Simple lilac bouquets work nicely as well!
• On the dance floor, use effect lights combined with a medium fogger to help your guests get the mood on. Using lilac scent in the fogger will send a faint ethereal scent over your venue; a delicate extra touch.
• Tie lavender sprigs to the end of the pews or rows of seating for the ceremony.
• Old-fashioned children’s chalkboards with directions and labels for key spots in the reception area (buffet, lounge, meet and greet area, photo station) would fit perfectly in with this theme.

Night Club Extravaganza

If you and your significant other are more about the high  life than walking dreamily in lilac fields, a night club extravaganza may be the perfect wedding for you. A complete authentic night club wedding experience is within your reach, and though you may need to hire a DJ or lights operator to make all the disco effects go smoothly, this can be done at the same time and place you put in your lighting reservations.

• Send out invitations in a minimalistic format, using bold colours on thick card squares. If you’re not worried about looking cheap, flyer format is another possibility.
• For the wedding ceremony and reception, you’ll want multi-coloured floodlights to beam on all the walls. These lights can be set to fade in and out through all the colours of the rainbow, giving vibrancy and life to your venue.
• Use a combination of different seating options in your reception area and beside the dance floor: both high tables and bar stools as well as lounge areas with low couches.
• For your table centrepieces, use floating candles or LED submersibles.
• On the dance floor, you’ll want lasers, sound active effect lights, strobes, sound active LED bars, and, for some really cool light-play, UV lights as well. A fogger added into this mix will bring out the full capabilities of all your lights and make the air thick with all the nightclub good feels.
• Set up a graffiti wall; a large area covered with removable poster board. Small cans of spray paint, markers, and other writing utensils should be ready to use on a table nearby, and in lieu of a guestbook your guests can leave their best wishes, hopes, and memorabilia on a full-scale wall you’ll be able to take with you anywhere.
• Glow sticks or glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets make good wedding favours that will liven up the venue after the lights dim, and be fun remembrances of the occasion for your guests as well.
• Red carpet and red velvet rope to partition off areas can add a touch of ‘definite authenticity’ to your nightclub wedding.

Snowflake Wonderland

Winter doesn’t have to be drab and grey—it can be a beautiful wonderland glowing with shades of white and blue light, full of magically intricate snowflakes and ice sculptures that leave your guests in awe. A snowflake wonderland theme is the obvious choice for a winter wedding, and you’ll find it surprisingly easy to implement something that strikes at the very heart of winter.

• Lighting to create atmosphere always comes first, so start by renting uplights that’ll drench your walls in a cool white, blue, and amber combination—think wintery sunrise in the Snowy Mountains.
• Layer your tablecloths: pale blue satin underneath, covered by white lace in snowflake designs.
• Set up a white candy buffet, with meringues, mints, yogurt balls, white sixlets, white rock candy sticks, pearl gumballs, coconut balls and white jelly beans.
• Provide hot drinks for your guests at the reception: hot chocolate or hot apple cider are good options.
• Use white furry muffs around your drink containers, candy thermoses, and vases.
• Ice sculptures and icicles are essential for the ‘frozen wonderland’ feel, but if you go with frozen water it’ll melt, so buy or rent glass and plastic look-alikes to trim your eaves and for centrepieces.
• But snow? That doesn’t have to be fake. Rent a snow machine that’ll produce gobs of the magical fluffy stuff to shower gently down on you and your brand-new spouse as you walk down the aisle. This can be wonderful for the dance floor too.
• Rent sound active effect lights and some moving head lights with a snowflake gobo for the dance floor, and get the full effect from them—and a mountain-top feel to boot—by setting up a low lying fog machine rental for use in your dances and perhaps during your grand entrance as well.
• You’ll want your wedding invitations to be part of the snowflake wonderland theme; use pale blue trimming or snowflake motifs on pure white paper, and consider some lacy snowflake overlays as well.

Fairytale Dream

This theme is wonderful for any season of the year: a beautiful fairy-tale beginning to your personal ‘happily ever after’. This is your day to be a fairy princess, and here’s a wedding that’s steeped in deep glorious magic of the real, solid kind that brinks no illusions and yet completely sweeps you— and your over-awed guests—off their feet.

• Send out invitations in castle silhouette cards, or with royal fleur-de-lis cut outs along the edges.
• Uplights in pink and blue, set up to bathe the walls of your venue, are the first step in lighting: and you’ll find that a change in light changes the atmosphere like nothing else.
• For a special touch, rent a milkway special effects light as well: this’ll create a glorious star-spangled across the ceiling of your venue for when you want to up the living-in-a-fairytale feel.
• The bridesmaid gowns should long and sweeping, and made of a light, fairy-ish fabric; organza is a good choice. Use dreamy pastel colours that’ll fit in with your lighting.
• You’ll want your table settings light and delicate; the tablecloths, lightweight, pastel coloured, and long, reaching at least a third of the way down to the ground and possibly much longer.
• For centrepieces, choose small, delicate flowers such as bouquets of fragrant jasmine.
• In the reception area, set up a buffet of ‘fairy food’ in delicately sculpted vessels: flower candies, ambrosia cakes, and sweet nectar to drink.
• Rent a low lying fog machine for the dance floor, and you and your partner can have a first dance over the clouds.
• Moving head lights and a couple of sound active effect lights can also be rented for the dance floor: they’ll really work that low lying fog for some splendid effects.

An amazing themed wedding is within your reach—it isn’t nearly as difficult to orchestrate as your amazed guests would assume . Perhaps the hardest part is shopping around for lighting and special effects—but there’s an easy way out; you can simply rent Lightsounds’ themed packs, with all the lights, special effects and machinery you need to make your special wedding a reality. Then there’s just the décor and refreshments left for you to put together, and you’ll have it made!