Five ways to use photos to personalize your wedding

Search the internet and you'll find that wedding themes are a hot topic on wedding message boards. Brides search high and low for a unique theme, and many feel that their wedding must have one. Unfortunately, what passes for unique usually leans more toward the ridiculous than the sublime. From Under the Sea to Renaissance Faire the effort that folks go to put a personal stamp on their wedding would make the parents of a toddler draw comparisons to Barney birthday parties. (And not flattering comparisons, either.)

What's overlooked by these overzealous brides (and the wedding coordinators who aid and abet their behavior) is that all it takes to make a wedding truly unique is to make it about the one thing that is actually unique to each wedding: the people involved. Below are five ways to incorporate photos and family memories to make the wedding a real family affair:

Video photo montages

A popular addition to rehearsal dinners and wedding receptions alike is the video photo montage. Using photos of the bride and groom (childhood to the present) set to music, couples share their history -- and their love story -- with wedding guests by creating a multimedia montage. While it can be as simple as a slideshow, professionally produced montages can also include home movies and a variety of special effects that when employed properly will take the audience on an emotional journey through the couple's lives.

"Through the years" montages can be shown as part of the program -- sometimes during the toasts at a reception or rehearsal dinner -- or play on a loop throughout the cocktail hour. They can be shown on a big screen (using an LCD projector) or on a plasma TV, flat screen monitor, or any other display -- depending on budget and space limitations.

However it is displayed, the most important thing to remember when developing a montage, whether producing it yourself or with the help of a professional montage production company, is the audience. First, if it will be shown it as part of the event -- before the couple enters the reception or along with the toasts, for instance -- keep it short. Audience attention to even the most dynamic montages will fade after 7-8 minutes. Remember that each of the photos, no matter how important they are to the bride or groom, will mean something to only some of the guests. To make sure more guests enjoy the montage, be sure to include a wide range of pictures. People like to bask in the reflected glow of the couple during their big moment, so if they a part of the show they'll enjoy it even more!

Photo posters

In many cultures, enlarging a formal engagement photo of the couple and matting and displaying for guests to sign at the reception is an important tradition.The signed poster is then framed and displayed prominently in the couple's home. Consider modifying the tradition a bit and using a funny photo of the couple, or even making posters of baby photos to collect the guests' well-wishes.

Beforehand though, determine how it will be displayed or stored. It's hard enough to find room for all the regular wedding keepsakes, but posters are even trickier to store in good condition.

Custom cake toppers

Not that many years ago, formal miniature bride and groom figurines adorned most wedding cakes. Cake decorating trends have moved away from the 1950s-era figures and into more contemporary cake designs. Whether your cake is decorated with flowers or stands zen-like, boxy and unadorned save the fondit, you can stilll have a little fun by putting the bride and groom -- in the form of figurines custom-designed to look just like the happy couple -- on top of the cake. Specialty companies can sculpt small clay figures from photos of the bride and groom, and the miniature statues will last years after the last bite of cake has been eaten.

A sense of history

Bring some family pride and pay homage to the couple's family history by including wedding photos of parents and grandparents in the reception. Track down wedding photos from both sides of the family and display them in frames on the seating card table. Or put them inside the reception on or around the cake table.

To save money and to preserve what might be fragile and one-of-a-kind prints, instead of using original photos, make color copies and fit them in standard frames that match the room's décor. You'll spend just a few dollars and will generate priceless smiles.

You might even take the idea one step further and create a whole display of family photos and set it up in the reception. Just as with the video montages, guests will enjoy seeking themselves and their friends and family in the collage.

Photo-themed wedding favors/seating cards

Take the traditional wedding favor up a notch and personalize them even more with photos. Put copies of photos of the guests --- culled from personal collections and parents' albums -- in small frames and use the framed pictures either as wedding favors or in place of seating cards.

Inevitably, even the savviest couples won't be able to find photos of every guest. A short, personalized note from the bride, attached to the frame, with the simple message that she looks forward to sending them a picture from the wedding to fill this frame will make even the most distant family member feel included.

By creatively using images from the couple's past and present to present a more meaningful "theme," the wedding will be about the couple -- instead of, for example, a Disney creation -- and it will stand the test of time. On the couple's tenth or twentieth anniversary it's unlikely they will look through their wedding album, see the old family photos and say "What were we thinking?!"

Return to Big Moment Films: Resources