10 ways to make your Christian wedding unique
A Christian wedding is a wedding which marries two Christians. It is our hearts that matter. But you may want to find ways to include Christ and add some unique flair to your special day as well as looking at your heart and making sure it is aligned with the heart of Jesus.
1. Personalised bridesmaid proposal cards.
Ask your bridesmaids and maid of honour to play this special role in your wedding day with these christian bridesmaid proposal cards.
Each card is printed on to lightly textured premium card and comes with an envelope. The design is printed from an original hand lettered and watercolour painted design which includes the reference Psalm 16:3 in the bottom right hand corner and the whole verse written on the back of the card.
I am able to personalise the cards with your bridesmaids names above the lettering currently on the card if you would like to make these cards even more special and remind each woman personally that, as the verse says, she is one of the “excellent ones in whom is your delight”.
You could make these even more special by including a small gift for them to wear, something delicious like these homemade white chocolate and raspberry jam blondies or whatever else you think they would love.
2. Serve others as Christ served you.
Look for opportunities to show Christ as you prepare for your wedding day. Treat your wedding vendors well. Get to know them before the wedding and make sure they are okay on the day. Make sure they get fed and that they get a break.
Speak to your friends about themselves, not just about yourself and your wedding. Be truly interested in how they are and what they’re up to. People will want everything to be about you, but you have the opportunity to shine the light on others, not yourself.
3. Make your own wedding bouquets.
This is a really simple way to make your wedding day unique - no one else will have the bouquet you made for yourself!
I made my and my bridesmaids wedding bouquets. I knew I wanted sunflowers and purple irises, so I ordered those from a florist a few weeks in advance. The rest of my bouquet didn’t really matter to me, so the day before our wedding, I went to the supermarket and bought bunches of white roses, and other white and light coloured flowers.
Photography by Ruth Acheson Photography.
I bought flower pins, florist tape and ribbon from eBay and the evening before our wedding, after our rehearsal, I chatted with my family and a few friends and made the bouquets and button holes.
Photography by AnnaJoy Photography.
Sarah, above, used a lot of flowers from her nanny’s garden in her bouquets, making them so personal and completely unique.
There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube, or you could attend a workshop if your flowers are a part of your wedding that really matters to you, or you have something specific in mind.
I know Memento Floral Design do floristry workshops in their East Belfast creative hub, including their bouquet workshop, Get ‘Er Bouqueted.
4. Consider various options for guestbooks
There are so many fun and unique guest book options these days - from puzzle pieces, to photo books including engagement pictures, from a Journaling Bible to add in notes and underline verses to a tree covered in finger print “leaves” with a verse below your names and the wedding date.
Taking that last idea further, the verse you include below the tree illustration could be song of songs 3:4 which says “I have found the one whom my soul loves” or 1 John 4:19 which says “we love because he first loved us.” Or how about Psalm 16:3 (like the bridesmaid proposal cards) which says “as for the saints who are on the earth, these are the excellent ones in whom is my delight.” You could just write the second part of the verse to affirm your wedding guests as excellent ones in whom you delight.
5. Use the speeches as opportunities.
When will you ever have this many of your friends and family gathered in one room again? Use the speeches as opportunities to share your testimony of God’s faithfulness. Share the gospel. Make the most of this unique opportunity to make it a speech that will not be forgotten.
As a wedding photographer, I went to over 50 weddings. There are three speeches that stand out, and you want yours to be remembered because they are funny, full of character and life changing with God’s power and truth.
6. Use the service as an opportunity.
Your wedding service will be a very special time, because it is the moment you are officially and legally married. It is also a great opportunity to share the gospel and speak to your loved ones, saved and unsaved about Jesus.
I urge you to choose a minister who understands this opportunity, who speaks well to unbelievers and who will do a good and faithful job at explaining who Jesus is and his power to save and change lives.
Speak to your minister well before the wedding day and make it clear this is what you want him to use his sermon for - yes to speak to you as the bride and groom, but also to speak to all your friends and family gathered as witnesses both of your marriage and of the change Jesus has brought to your life.
A Christian wedding should be such a different experience to a non-Christian wedding, and your service is a big part of that.
7. Include scripture wherever you can.
Infuse your wedding day with the word of God.
Add scripture to your invitations, pop Bible verses on the front of your orders of service.
How about making your table names the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?
Or including signs along the aisle with the attributes of love from 1 Corinthians 13?
These are all little touches that draw the attention of your non-believing friends and remind you that your wedding and your marriage is before God and to honour and worship Him.
8. Pray.
A Christian wedding begins with two Christians.
Pray before the wedding.
Pray with your future spouse.
Pray for your wedding guests.
Pray for the wedding itself.
Pray for God’s spirit to move and use your wedding day to further his kingdom.
And pray on the wedding day itself.
Pray with your bridesmaids, parents, whoever you see in the morning.
Pray during the service.
Pray before the wedding breakfast.
And pray for your marriage - before, during and after the wedding day.
9. Prioritise people and their well-being.
I know weddings can be focused on things and how things look, but make every effort to prioritise people.
I also know weddings are expensive, but try to make sure those you employ or those you have bought things from have been fairly paid for their work. Don’t be tempted to get a dress that has been made by a modern day slave in a dangerous factory in China.
Avoid single use items as much as possible and use things like dried petal confetti (you could even dry your own petals from flowers in your garden) and use real crockery and glassware instead of paper plates and plastic cups if at all possible.
Choose wedding favours your guests will actually use rather than something that will just end up in the bin. This is another way of showing you are truly thankful for the people around you and you value them.
10. Avoid materialism.
Weddings these days can be synonymous with excess and materialism. Go against the grain - assess what is essential and what is not and go from there. The book A Christ-Centred Wedding: Rejoicing in the Gospel on your Big Day by Catherine Parks could be a good book to check out - it has a lot of practical ideas to implement this both on your wedding day and in life in general.
