Use pictures as background on your table numbers

There are many ways to personalize a wedding. One very popular idea is to use pictures as part of your wedding décor. Most couples find that using pictures as focal points at their wedding and reception will not only make their “wedding-scape” truly one of a kind, but really helps break the ice between guests. Pictures bring back fond memories for guests to share with one another, relieving that awkward silence between people that only have the bride and groom as their common denominator. And the cherry on top of this idea? This couldn’t be a more budget friendly idea; you have the pictures and even if you buy new frames, you can use them for your home décor after the wedding. Personal, budget and green friendly; how much better can a decorating idea get? Here are a few ways to incorporate pictures in your celebration:

Show off your parents' cake cutting pictures on your cake table

Guest book – Instead of a traditional guest book, have your guests sign the matting that surrounds your engagement portrait.
Altar pictures- Place small pictures of your dearly departed, (or those who cannot attend your wedding), on the unity candle, communion or ceremony table.
Personal jewelry –A locket with your beloved’s picture in it is a nice accessory to wear when you say, “I do”.
Reception entrance – Display pictures at the entryway of your reception, either on stand-alone easels or on your placecard table.
Tabletop centerpieces – Set three or four pictures of various sizes on each dining table. Make sure you include baby pictures and those awkward pre-teen pix as well as recent couple shots of the two of you in the mix. Add votive candles and scatter flower petals, some decorative stones, crystals, or mirror discs around the pictures and you have yourself some great conversation pieces. People will walk around to see what pictures are featured at each table.
Head table –A framed picture of each attendant (hopefully you are in the picture with them as well) at their place-setting is a very special way to designate who sits where at the head table.
Cake table- Flank your wedding cake with pictures of your parents and grandparents cutting their wedding cake.
Entertainment – Many photographers and videographers have the ability to produce and present a video or slide show of your love story. If you or friends are on the creative side, try it DIY style and have your masterpiece shown at your reception.

Last but not least, be sure to include a picture from the wedding in your thank you cards. From beginning to the end, pictures can add so much to your wedding experience.

Question for our Experienced Brides: How did you use pictures in your wedding decor? Brides2Be want to know!

Some of my favorite venues for Fall weddings are wineries, apple orchards, farms and rustic looking clubhouses with big old fireplaces.

Natural decorations that show off the beauty of the season can be inexpensive and stunning. Outlining a processional aisle with autumn leaves easily sets the tone for a fall wedding and can cost you nothing if you have your cadre of friends collect them the month before your wedding. Remember Runaway Bride when Julia Roberts finally married Richard Gere? The only decoration at that ceremony was a hill full of beautiful fall leaves.

I love to decorate with barrels of apples and apples as place-card or candle holders. And I am nuts about nuts in table-scapes. Decorative bowls of nuts (with nutcrackers handy) on each guest table, tall vases filled with nuts and topped with fall flowers, or nuts just strewn around a centerpiece provide some great accents. My girlfriend had a chocolate iced wedding cake decorated with maple candy leaves and marzipan fruit. The cake was surrounded by a variety of nuts and candles on a gold tablecloth; it was…fabulous.

I went to a wedding last year that served hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks and also had hot buttered rum drinks. At the end of the evening they handed out waxed bags filled with warm mini apple cinnamon doughnuts for the trip home. I am certain no doughnuts actually made it all the way home! At another wedding they had caramel apples as their wedding favors – what could remind you of a fall day more than a caramel apple?

Tell us about your Autumn themed wedding. We’d loved to hear your creative ideas!