9 Ways to Add Unique Touches of your Personality into your Wedding Day in Chicago

Assuming you’ve already established some kind of personal theme that you want shown throughout your day, it can be hard to know exactly where to add in those personal touch points. Your personality, hobbies, and things you like are of course vast and, well, personal, but there are some overarching ideas that may help inspire you to find things that will be unique to you! Here are some places that you can add some personality to your wedding day.

1. Venue

Your venue can be a really easy way to add personality to your wedding day as it’s usually the first thing your guests know about and see. Whether you wanted to get married at a Gold Pyramid, Salvage One, an antique shop, something unique like Lacuna Lofts with all of their murals, it will definitely say a lot for your guests that are used to the typical ballroom or hotel wedding. If you love plants, consider a conservatory! If you love going to museums, you can find a local museum or art gallery! The opportunities are endless here in Chicago or the Chicago area.

2. Invitation

The first thing your guest will actually interact with for your wedding day is actually your wedding invitations! This will set the mood for your wedding day, so if you can incorporate your personality more into this element it will really get your guests excited for the wedding day. We had a couple that had plants throughout their whole wedding day and it started with their invitations which we loved! You can add your pet into the reception card, have an artist (or you yourself!) can add a watercolor painting or drawing of the venue or a place that is special to you, or you can do something like this wedding, where they introduced these gingko tree leaves from the get-go that was a nod to the gingko tree that the bride had at her childhood home. We’ve also had a bride who was an artist and customized her invitations to have the same lily from the lace in her wedding dress which was really neat!

3. Color

Of course you can add your favorite color as the wedding party attire, but really showing that color off in multiple places is the easiest way to make your wedding feel more unique and personalized! Most weddings have white linens with a colored napkin - you could have a colored, textured linen for your tables, have all of your signage have color, or pick a really colorful venue! Even a venue like The Joinery has these iconic teal-colored chairs that really stick out for your guests, or Columbus Park Refectory has a mosaic black and white checkered floor that adds some color and personality too!

4. Your Look

Your dress, suit, or other attire is definitely a place that you can show off some personality! Picking something that’s a little out of the box definitely makes your day a bit more unique. You can add a color to your attire, jewelry, veil, shoes, socks, tie, or anything else. Instead of color, you can also do other things like have an embroidered veil or tie, have an outfit change into something you can show off your dance moves in, or find pieces of your outfit that nods to your lives - that gingko tree wedding also had gingko leaves in her wedding dress and veil! If you’re feeling even more adventurous, you can also have the guests wear a certain color or have them wear a unique dress code that can add more personality and really make your wedding extra interesting and fun!

5. Ceremony

Wedding ceremonies are something that happens at every wedding and often are forgotten for things that can be personalized. You can have a really personal ceremony that talks about your relationship, an officiant that is a close family member or friend, or have a personalized unity ceremony. One of the best examples of this that we’ve seen was a unity spice ceremony - the couple are food bloggers and that matched their personality perfectly and any time I talk with couples about personalization, that example sticks out to me! We also had a unity beer ceremony that was lots of fun too! You can also include other people - or pets - into the ceremony, like when we have had dog ring bearers at a few ceremonies which we live for!

6. Food

Food is a very easy way to nod to your favorite things or to your culture that means something to you. As long as your caterer has some extra options, you can definitely find vendors within your culture for the dinner and cocktail hour! If you’re looking for something else, having a unique dessert desserts or late night snacks is another way to make your wedding more personalized. We LOVE an ice cream cart from Ben and Jerry’s, or another wedding had cinnamon buns instead of cakes and that was a huge hit with all of the flavors! If you have a favorite food, there is likely a vendor that can come in and do that for your wedding day. In Australia, there’s a cannoli vendor that walks around and makes the cannolis right in front of you! If you don’t have any ideas for food, you can also do a signature drink - if you have pets, you can do what this wedding did and have your pets names as the signature drink names too!

7. Decor

The decorations for your wedding day really are something that you can play with. If you’re travelers, your seating chart can be on top of a world map! If you’re from Chicago and you love it here, you can have your table numbers as classic Chicago landmarks! If you’re a plant lover like we are, you can rent and buy houseplants for centerpieces! You really can make a personal spin on just about every piece of signage and every decoration. Your cake toppers, your welcome sign…. really anything is an opportunity!

8. Entertainment

In our favorite, and most noticeable section, you can really play with the entertainment you’re providing for your guests. You can do simple things like having bags for games or having live music or a pianist for your ceremony or cocktail hour, or you can go bigger and have way more fun with it like having a live painter or a magician during your cocktail hour that’s a huge hit with your guests! If you have some ideas for your guest book, you can really have your backdrop or the theme be about you and your personality too. Another way to really entertain your guests is to have your first dance be choreographed doing the same dance together that you did at your quinceañera. The music in general also is important - if you’re into pop punk you can do a punk cocktail hour for your guests to enjoy too!

9. Favors

Wedding favors are definitely something that gets left behind UNLESS you do something cool, useful, and memorable. Your guests will always take home pictures they get of themselves at your photo booth, but they also will likely take some houseplants that you used as centerpieces if they are also plant people like you! One we really loved though was our food blogger wedding had given away some of these little spice containers with theirs and their family’s recipes on them, and we know those were a HUGE hit!

If you’re not sure what kinds of things you can add to your wedding day to personalize it, you can check out this blog post for some general ideas as well, or see our styled shoot that was inspired by a couple that were artists and wanted to add their personality into their wedding day. If you’re still looking for some help to figure out things that fit your lives personally, reach out to us here and we are happy to help you find really fun ways to make your wedding day memorable!