How to Have a Travel Themed Wedding

Today is our wedding anniversary, so first of all – shout out to my handsome husband – whoop, three years! Actually, we’ve been together for 8 years but ya know, dating for 5 years before you get married is cool too.

When I think back to our wedding day all I can remember is SO much love and happiness. I literally cannot explain how much I loved our wedding.

Today I will probably watch our wedding video approximately 5 times. The one you see below, and also the full length unedited version that’s about 2 hours long including everyone’s speeches and every hilarious amazing detail.

Yay, love!

But today I want to share with you how we incorporated travel into our wedding.

For me and my husband, travel has always been a big part of our life. We have both done quite a bit of traveling, both separately and together.

As I was planning our wedding I didn’t initially have the thought to make it centered around travel. In fact, a lot of aspects had nothing to do with travel. I’d say it was a good mix between handmade/rustic, and travel. I liked it that way though, just little hints here and there.

Wedding planning and preparations were stressful (this is required of wedding planning, right?!) Not only was I planning our wedding, but Bobby had already moved to Texas, I was finishing up Chiropractic school, and moving out of our apartment. There was a LOT going on.

So it was up to me, my mom and my sister. THANK GOD FOR THEM. My mom has an amazing way of making my every dream a reality. I wanted a wooden ladder – she found the perfect one. I wanted a vintage chandelier and a trellis – she made it happen. I designed, cut, and printed every piece of stationary. Every sign was hand drawn by my sister. Together we crafted and DYI´d every detail of our incredible wedding.

But it is MORE than worth it when everything comes together and you are able to celebrate the big day with all of your closest family and friends.

I will always remember our wedding day as the best day ever!

Invitations

I personally designed and cut each piece of stationary that was at our wedding. I carved the state of Wisconsin out of a slab of rubber. I spent hoursssss dipping the stamp into this special gold powder and heating it so it was textured on the paper. The invitation suite was gorgeous and I loved it. Maybe too much, but hey it was my wedding and I was gonna do what I wanted!

I knew I wanted a map for the events of the day, so I recruited Bobby to put his artistic skills to work. I love his finished product which shows the different events throughout the day, with different countries in place of the cardinal directions.

Entry Map

Throughout wedding planning, I was OBSESSED with finding maps and globes. I had been on the hunt for an old vintage map for months. I looked in antique stores, garage sale ads, and craigslist until I came across the perfect one. Incidentally, it’s a map for seismic activity! This map didn’t really serve a huge purpose, other than to hold those cute little handmade flags denoting places we’ve traveled to.

Canvases

Obviously this idea came straight from Pinterest! But it’s a good one, and it turned out to be a good way to photograph our rings!

Bobby is from Arizona, and I am from Wisconsin. I drew the outline of the states and painted little hearts in our hometown.

Not pictured is the canvas of Texas (where we were moving to immediately after our wedding) where I “merged” our hearts.

Guest Globe

This is my favorite travel piece from the wedding. The globe was another obsession I had, and I was on a quest to find the perfect one. Again – craigslist, thrift stores, etc. I even enlisted my mom and sister to be on the lookout! I absolutely love the antique look of this globe, and it was the perfect “guest book” for us.

 

Centerpieces

I think one of the most time consuming things about wedding planning is deciding on centerpieces. I wanted a very simple rustic fall look, Bobby loves books so we threw in some vintage books, and spent an entire day spray painting glass bottles and aluminum cans.

The table names was the easy part. We chose places we had traveled to, and I made my sister hand paint the signs for all 20 tables! The wood was from a broken down barn near my parents house. I loved everything about our centerpieces!

Initials

These initials were placed in front of us at the head table. I found an old atlas at a used book store for like $2 and ripped out Australia and New Zealand (where we met) and modge podged that shit on huge letters from Michaels.

Damn it, now I’m starting to get nostalgic about all of these items! We used to have these items as decorations around our house. and now they’re just sitting in storage in Houston!

Card Suitcase

Another favorite is this incredible vintage suitcase find. I have to give all the credit to my mom on finding this one! The suitcase card box fit perfectly into the travel theme, and we added our own touches to “wedding-ify” it. Craft props (banner and LOVE clips) again go to my talented sister!

 

Etc.

Our cake had absolutely nothing to do with travel, but I love it so much. Every little detail, so simple yet so wonderful. And that birch cake stand? Ugh. So much time and energy goes into those tiny details. You know when they say just make sure you get to eat your wedding cake? Nope, I didn’t. Just that tiny little bite that the bride and groom exchange just for the photo or tradition or whatever. Oh well, at least it looked amazing.

 

 

Here is another example of nothing that has to do with travel but was one of my favorite things at our reception. I loved all of those handmade details. My sister has an amazing talent for hand lettering and creating beautiful pieces like this – I seriously think she should start an Etsy shop!

 

 

But in the end, the best thing ever was marrying my best friend. Every time I think about our wedding day all I can remember is happiness. Just the most amazing feeling in the entire world. Everything was perfect, even if it rained during our outdoor ceremony or if the bridesmaids bouquets were three times bigger than I wanted them to be. Nothing could have bothered me on that day.

Travel wedding, success!

 

Wedding photography by the brilliant Sawyer Creek Photography – I can highly recommend them!

P.S. I want to make a convincing case for anyone planning a wedding to make a budget for videography. Absolutely hands down must have.  My little brother is a film producer and editor, so we had him do our wedding and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I of course love our photos and those will be timeless, but I LOVE watching our wedding video. I tear up EVERY. TIME. because that’s what video does, it captures the emotion of the day.

If you live in the midwest, here is my brothers contact info – he is amazing! Our wedding was the first one he did, and it turned out great. I think he keeps getting better with each wedding he does.

Here’s our wedding highlight video, enjoy!

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Question: Did you have a “theme” for your wedding? What’s been your “best day ever”?