When you're thinking about personalizing your reception, some obvious ideas should come to mind. One of the easiest ways to customize your celebration is to choose a certain flower or color that you love, then carry that idea all the way through your event.

Reception Style

Brides nationwide adopted a daisy theme for their weddings after an article was featured in Martha Stewart's Weddings magazine with the idea. Cakes were covered with daisies made from icing, centerpieces overflowed with daisies, and guests received chocolate daisies as favors. Needless to say, the season's weddings were awash in a sea of pale yellow and white as far as the eye could see.


For example, say you love pansies and the color purple. If so, then go far beyond carrying pansies in your bouquet and dressing your bridesmaids in a royal hue. Use violet- colored satin linens on your tables, and have your caterer sprinkle the salad greens with pansy petals (yes, they're edible) as well as freeze the petals inside the punch bowl ice cubes. Have your florist tuck a pansy sprig inside each napkin band and put a vase of them in the ladies' room. Finally, give violet seeds as favors, and see if you can find a poem about violets to attach to the seed packets.

Creative Style

If you're not into a certain flower or color, put your thinking cap on. Think about how else you could make your reception reflect who you and your groom are. What do you or your groom do for your professions that could carry over into your reception? For instance, say your groom is a city planner in Chicago. How about an ice sculpture shaped like the Windy City's skyline, and instead of numbering the tables, name each table after a city landmark such as the "Sears Tower" table or the "Buckingham Fountain" table? The menu selections could cover a wide variety of Chicago favorites, from deep-dish pizza triangle hors d'oeuvres to an Eli's cheesecake wedding cake.

Reception Style

If menu planning isn't second nature to you, don't worry. Any good caterer should be able to hear your ideas for a certain reception theme and offer a wide variety of menu ideas to help carry the theme through from hors d'oeuvres and appetizers to the main course and dessert.


One bride planned her reception around her career as a gemologist by basing each table on a different gem theme, such as sapphires, rubies, and emeralds.

The "ruby table" glowed with a red velvet tablecloth, deep red roses at the center, and a faux-ruby glued to each place card. Similarly, the "sapphire table" was draped in a beautiful blue cloth with a delphinium centerpiece. The menu helped carry the theme through with blueberries and raspberries in the salad, and chocolate- covered strawberries dusted with edible 24-karat gold powder.

Honeymoon Style

Another way to personalize your reception is to think about where you're heading for your honeymoon. One couple saved for more than a year to go on a cruise to the Greek Islands, and decided to turn their reception into a celebration of their upcoming trip. Centerpieces were created from grapes and ivy spilling over from wineglasses and the all-white wedding cake was shaped like a Greek stadium complete with columns. The menu featured everything from a Greek salad with feta cheese to spanakopita, lamb kabobs, and triangles of baklava next to the wedding cake.

Or instead of personalizing a reception around where you're going, why not theme it around where you've been? If you met your groom on the beach on vacation, why not have a beach-theme reception? Sprinkle sand and seashells on each table and have your baker do a seashell-inspired wedding cake. Have a calypso band playing in the background as your guests feast on lobster, shrimp, and fried plantains.

Holiday Style

Some people tend to shy away from wedding dates that fall near holidays, but planning your wedding around a nationally celebrated date can lend some pretty simple ideas that can really customize your wedding and tie your special day with the holiday at hand.

An obvious choice would be planning your wedding/handfasting around Yule. Not only will the decorations be enhanced at many locations during this time of the year, but it's easy to add your own special holiday touches to your reception.

Instead of doing everything in red and green, select linens in silver or gold satin. Or, if a "winter wonderland" theme in all-white velvet sounds good to you, go for it. Have your florist design centerpieces with materials naturally available at this time of year: pine and evergreens, holly, and bayberry. Give Yule ornaments as favors, or candy canes tied with silver or gold ribbon. Serve a holiday-inspired menu, complete with peppermint ice cream alongside your cake. Have the band mix a Christmas jingle or two in with the regular songs throughout the night, and have your caterer serve eggnog punch, cinnamon-sprinkled hot chocolate, and flavored coffees with your cake. Send your guests off into the chilly night by lining the sidewalk with luminaries to bid them a warm farewell.

Other obvious holiday and seasonal themes that can be incorporated into your wedding celebration include Valentine's Day, Ostara, July Fourth, Samhain, and New Year's Eve festivities.

Planning Details

Here are a few final considerations to keep in mind as you begin to plan your wedding reception:


Make sure your reception reflects the formality of the wedding/handfasting itself. Having your guests dress in black-tie and evening gowns and then assuming they'll enjoy boogeying barefoot at a beach reception is probably not a great idea. Likewise, don't have an informal morning wedding followed by a white-gloved ten-course dinner. Your guests will only be confused and uncomfortable at the change in surroundings.

Don't assume that your guests are expecting a ten-course meal at your reception. Sure, hors d'oeuvres during cocktail hour, a several-course meal, and full dessert bar in addition to wedding cake are nice, but it's not in everyone's budget to provide that type of reception menu. It's perfectly appropriate to only provide light or heavy hors d'oeuvres rather than a full buffet or plated dinner. Or if you like, do several food stations around the reception room, so that your guests have to get up and mingle while they nibble. Or, if the idea of serving a meal isn't really in your budget at all, an elegant alternative is to provide a dessert buffet and coffee bar in addition to your wedding cake. (After all, many of us would prefer desserts to solid food any day of the week!)

Use your wedding/handfasting and reception invitations to reflect the style of your upcoming wedding. Many of your guests will get their first glimpse of your upcoming wedding when they open your invitation. Let your invitation reflect what's to come by selecting a style and wording that offers some insight into what the event will bring. If you're having a first-class black-tie formal affair, select an ultra-formal invitation and be sure to indicate "black-tie" in the text. Likewise, if you're having a garden wedding with a dessert buffet to follow, find a delicate floral patterned invitation, and make sure to indicate that a "dessert buffet" will be served at the reception, so your guests don't show up expecting a full-blown lunch or dinner.