Our Favourite Wedding Ideas Spotted in 2024 Real Weddings!

Inspiration

Every year we see real life couples come up with creative ways to make their weddings their own! We’ve rounded up our favourite wedding ideas that we spotted in our real wedding features.

From themed weddings to creative money-saving ideas, there’s a lot of inspiration here. Take a peek!

 

This bride’s sister walked her down the aisle

“Our ceremony was beautiful. My sister gave me away as my dad is no longer with us, so this was a special moment. Our son pulled our youngest daughter up the aisle in a wagon which was so cute. Then he and our oldest daughter tied the ribbon together to tie our marriage forever. To have so many people who mean so much to us be part of our day meant a lot to us both.”

Peter Bell Photography

 

A creative wedding theme

The theme of this wedding was “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”. You can see the charming touches of blue in the bridesmaids dresses, flowers and even the cake!

M and M Photography

 

This couple walked down the aisle together

“David and I opted to walk down the aisle together. We chose the song Concerning Hobbits from Lord of the Rings as a nod to our fantasy-like venue. We had a humanist ceremony, led by celebrant Billy MagFhloinn. Our dear friend Gemma played clarinet throughout the ceremony, we can’t thank her enough for the beautiful atmosphere she created.”

DRene Plunkett Photography

 

Hangover recovery kits

They gifted all their guests a hangover recovery kit with the usual essentials in them, minus any medication or chewing gum. They also included some funky glasses and later brought out the foam glow sticks, which were a huge hit! The dance floor was full all night, thanks to their band and DJ, After Dark, who really knew how to keep people up having fun.

R&E Duo Photography

 

Creative money-saving ideas

“We wanted to invite more people rather than spend extortionate amounts of money on things that are irrelevant to us. We preferred our money to go on the food and booze! We didn’t buy flowers, we didn’t have a cake as the dessert and food and petit fours were just so good, we didn’t want a cake to take from the gorgeous menu. We just used an online platform for invites so didn’t waste paper on that. We also put the ceremonial details, poems and songs etc up online on the site to save paper and stay sustainable. We didn’t get too caught up in the small things but just loved it all.”

Couple Photography

 

This bride went big on pre-ceremony photos

“Take as many photos as you can before your ceremony. After this, it becomes a little crazy. Make a list of photos you want to capture and give this to your photographer. The day goes so fast so you don’t want to forget any.”

Paudie Healy

 

Eco-friendly swaps

“Environmental sustainability is really important to us both and we wanted to make sure we were conscious of this when choosing outfits. Wallis got all of the bridesmaid dresses second hand on a clothes swap app. She got her own dress from a supplier of previous season sample dresses, a company called Bridal Reloved. Ross wore his family tartan and his groomsman rented a kilt.”

DKPhoto

 

A music themed table plan

Lisa and Kevin couldn’t decide on a wedding theme, so instead of having one, they chose some of their favourite things. These included some of their favourite music, movies, beliefs and colours.

Emma May Photography

 

Great wedding advice

“Set aside even 10 minutes for each other, away from the crowd and pause for a moment to take it all in. The day will be over in a flash so savour it.”

DKPhoto

 

Flower men instead of flower girls

“We started off in a light hearted manner, with two of the groomsmen (David’s son and brother) playing the role of Flower Men. They had pink bum bags filled with rose petals and pink sunglasses. The guests loved it…  I could hear the cheers and laughing from outside the room.”

The Fennells

 

A horror movie theme

“Our wedding was a little different, we had black tablecloths and chairs covers which I really loved!! The colours were burgundy, black, burnt orange and of course a little bit of white. Theme of our tables was horror movies and Disney/Pixar movies, well our favourite movies.”

David McAuley Photography

 

Centrepieces handmade by the groom

They added their own personal touches to the day too! Lisa made a crisp wall to have beside the sweet cart. She decorated it all herself. Their centrepieces were a little different too – a few months before the wedding, Peter started to draw up and design a few different centrepieces using only old car parts and things from the garage. After lots of late nights and endless hours, he had them welded together, rubbed down, primed and painted with a matt copper bronze colour getting a real rustic look!

Laura Mc Photography

 

Preloved bridesmaids dresses

The wedding party wore champagne colour satin draped neckline dresses which were purchased from the Preloved Page on Facebook. They were never worn with tags on so Fiona was happy and so were the bridal party. These dresses were perfect and worked with the theme. Also the girls can wear them again and that’s all Fiona wanted too.

Bokeh Photography

 

A Halloween themed wedding

They tied the knot right before Halloween so it was an Autumn wedding with Autumn colours and a mix of cute and spooky decorations. Jessica chose flowers to complement her hair colour as well as the dresses.

Matt Brooker

 

A festival themed wedding

“For our wedding weekend we wanted a relaxed, festival style with gorgeous food and great music. We had wild flowers and pop of colour with candles, ribbons and the men’s ties with a matching bow tie and ribbon for our little boy and flower girl. We both love hiking so we had a mountain theme with the tables named after mountains we have hiked together.”

Bokeh Photography