Just got engaged? Congratulations! But what if you’re a cool couple, not a regular couple? Luckily, there are alternative approaches you can take to your wedding that will make it not such a cookie-cutter affair. Here are seven alternative wedding ideas for the unique couple.
Combine Your Wedding and Honeymoon
Whether you want to keep your wedding small or want to have a large affair, combining your wedding and honeymoon is a great idea. There are so many fun things you can do with a combined wedding/honeymoon!
For starters, this is a great way to plan a destination wedding. Talk to your future spouse about some possible honeymoon locations, and then start looking at wedding options in or around that space. Many hotels and destinations outside of the United States offer cheap wedding packages to couples who have a room block at their hotel or who are interested in getting married in their country. Even with the cost of travel, throwing a combined wedding/honeymoon in another country may be less than the cost of throwing your wedding in the United States!
Combining your wedding and honeymoon is also a wildly efficient use of vacation time. You only have to take time off once, as opposed to taking time off both before the wedding and before the honeymoon. Plus, your guests will love it. If people are already going to take time off for your wedding, shouldn’t it make sense that they are able to get a vacation out of it, as well?
Of course, you’ll want to carve out some alone time with your new spouse to make sure that you actually get a chance to, ahem, enjoy your honeymoon. After all, you’re only newlyweds once!
Combine Your Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties
Having two separate parties can be expensive, hard to schedule, and somewhat unnecessary. So, if you’re a couple that loves spending time together, why not combine your bachelor and bachelorette parties? That way, you can invite both sets of friends and spend the evening together.
Since it’s going to be a joined effort for the two of you, why not make it an all-weekend thing? You could always rent out a house for your best friends, or make a trip out of the affair. Make sure to pack good snacks, drinks, and it will be a bachelor/bachelorette party to remember!
At the end of the night, you’ll get to fall asleep next to your future spouse…and what could be better than that?
Say Your Vows Under the Sea
There’s nothing more romantic than saying your vows, right? But what if you made that experience an extra special one by saying them under the sea? That’s right, there are some companies in existence that will let you and your sweetie actually get married underwater! In some circumstances, you’ll need to become fully scuba certified before you do so. With other companies, you can just don a basic helmet with no underwater training.
Vows? No problem! You can either say them out loud (glug glug glug), or you can write them down on a special diving slat board so your future spouse can visually see what you’re saying to them.
Either way, it’s so romantic! This is the perfect way to get married for a couple who loves the ocean, or just wants a unique way to celebrate the day they committed their lives to each other.
Have an Adventure Wedding
Some couples just love adrenaline and adventure. If you’re one of those couples, why not consider hosting an adventure wedding? You could either do this with just you and your spouse, or you could invite some loved ones (if they’re also up for the challenge).
Whether you’re skydiving or hiking to the top of Machu Picchu while you say your vows, you can rest assured that your wedding will be an experience that you (and your future spouse) will never, ever forget!
Host a “Festival Wedding”
Do you and your sweetie love festivals? Coachella, Stagecoach, or Summerfest, anybody? Why not host your wedding to recreate a popular festival? You could set up different tents for different “stations” and have low picnic tables and bohemian seating for the reception set-up. A series of live bands could be hired to play music throughout the day to make the festival vibes extra relevant.
Of course, no festival wedding would be complete without an incredible selection of food trucks, so you would obviously want to factor those into your special day, as well.
Host a Summer Camp Wedding
Anybody remember summer camp? Well, it turns out that you can actually rent a lot of these facilities during off-peak season! That’s right, you and your future spouse can actually host your very own summer camp wedding! Depending on the rental you choose, you could either have guests come just for the ceremony and reception, or you could actually have them camp in some of the campsites for the whole weekend. Some facilities offer the cafeteria services for use, so you can have the luxury of having hot meals cooked for you throughout the weekend.
If you do choose to go the summer camp route, we would highly recommend picking a location with plenty of activities and natural beauties so your guests have ample opportunity to enjoy themselves. Some of the activities we recommend looking for are lakes, hiking trails, volleyball courts, basketball courts, and foursquare courts. Game on!
Get Married Every Year
We’ve all heard of vow renewals, but what about the couple who loves each other so much that they want to commit to each other, every year, for the rest of their lives? Couples who take this approach could choose to have it be a big affair, with guests and food, or they could choose to have it be a smaller affair, with just the two of them reciting their vows to each other on their wedding anniversary.
Either way, this idea is just so romantic that it makes us swoon. C’mon…more excuses to eat wedding cake? Yes, please!
Which one of these seven alternative wedding ideas appeals the most to you? Either way, we’re so excited to eat, drink, and be married!
