Gettin Hitched (June, 2008)

Do you love the Old West and the Open Range? You don’t need to live in the country or in the mountains to want the romantic charm of a Western wedding. In carrying out your theme and creating the setting – making guests dream of wide open spaces – here are some of PrescottWeddings.com favorite ideas.

Give your guests the first glimpse of your special day by having your wedding invitations designed and formatted as a WANTED poster.

Hang a horseshoe, a symbol of good luck, over the door where you’re getting married or at your reception site.

Hire a horse and carriage to transport you in style to your ceremony and reception, or arrive on horseback.

Walk down the aisle to the music of a guitar and banjo.

The Groom and Groomsmen can be wearing black Wrangler pants, white western shirts, and perhaps a vest. And don’t forget the cowboy boots and cowboy hat.

Your Bridesmaids could wear traditional bridesmaids dresses with gingham-printed sashes or trim stitched on, and decorated parasols as their “bouquets”.

Build a hitching post and place “his” and “her” saddles upon it.

Have the minister officiate mounted atop the “Pastor’s Horse” (usually a mule), as in the example at right.

Decorate with bales of hay (that can also act as extra seating) and create a gift table by pushing two or three together. Drape lassos on fence posts (or hooks).

Create an old bar scene by setting out silver galvanized buckets filled with ice cold beer.

Cover the tables with crisp linen tablecloths, topped by square of red and white or blue and white gingham cloth. Wrap the silverware place settings in bandanas that will also double as napkins.

Have fun with your table centerpieces – perhaps cowboy hats filled with wildflowers, such as daisies, sunflowers, buttercups and black-eyed susans. Or you might want to use reproduced railroad lanterns that can serve as additional light when night falls.

When it’s time for dinner, ring the dinner bell.

Keep the “home-fix-n grub” simple. Serve buffet style. Some of the items on your menu could include a big vat of chili and honey corn bread.

Host a wagon ride around the area. For kicking up the legs, hire a country-western band or have a DJ who specializes in country western music.

If your area permits it, light a bon-fire at dusk.

And as your guests depart, give them old-fashioned stick candy in mason jars as a take-home party favor.

Yipee yahoo! Enjoy your hoedown.

When It Comes to Weddings, Theme Your Troubles Away (February 2002)

By Georgene Muller Lockwood

During the time I was writing my book on Victorian theme weddings, I participated in three weddings. The first was my own, which prompted the book in the first place. The others were those of my two stepsons. In one way or another, we, as a group, bore out just about all the statistics that describe trends in how couples marry today.

Today's marriage statistics show that, overall, couples are: marrying later (both my stepson's were pushing 30 and marrying for the first time), sharing expenses for the wedding (we paid for one son's wedding almost entirely and we shared expenses for the other with the bride's family and the couple themselves), living together first (all of us had lived with our intended spouses for one year or more), of more than one religion (all three couples had mixed spiritual/religious backgrounds), and marrying more than once in a lifetime (both my husband and I had been married before).

What we have is the classic "blended family." There are ex-husbands and wives, stepsons and daughters, and even, in my husband's case, the family of a deceased spouse. We are not alone. In fact, we are fast becoming the norm.

Now, imagine the typical American wedding and then our typical blended family. Who "gives the bride away?" How should you arrange the parents for photos? Who stands next to whom in the receiving line? And what about those obligatory dances? After the groom dances with his mother and the bride dances with her father, then what?

The traditional American wedding portrayed in either version of "Father of the Bride" would never have worked for us. But what do you do with a family that just doesn't "fit?"

Enter: The Theme Wedding.

"What's a theme wedding," you ask? I like to use the definition in Webster's of the word "theme" that refers to music, "a short melody used as the subject of a musical composition," because, when you're planning a wedding, you're orchestrating an event. A theme provides an overriding style or personal statement that becomes the joining thread for the whole celebration. Themes make weddings fresh. They offer a new perspective. They're different and personal. And they're a great way to meet the challenges of today's families head-on.

The best part about a theme wedding is that it takes people off guard. Nobody knows what to expect. It's easy to, say, change the processional or dispense with the receiving line or do the dances and music a different way, because this is an unusual wedding, and people begin to anticipate the extraordinary.

A theme wedding can reflect a historic period. It could be medieval or renaissance, 1920s or 1890s, Civil War or colonial. Ours sought to bring in details from Victorian America. According to the diaries and journals of the period, Victorian brides were not necessarily escorted down the aisle by their fathers. Sometimes the couple walked in first followed by the wedding party, and sometimes the order was reversed.

We chose to have the men waiting on the veranda, while the women in the wedding party came down the winding staircase, out the door and took their appropriate places. No one questioned the change since they knew in advance that this wedding was going to be "different." Afterwards we were told what an elegant ceremony we had.

Another way to personalize a wedding ceremony that is becoming increasingly popular is to have it on a favorite holiday and let that become the theme. Christmas is a beautiful time to celebrate both the joy and solemnity of marriage. Some choose Valentine's Day for its romantic overtones and playful spirit. I know one couple that married on New Year's Eve. Their whole ceremony emphasized the wonder of beginnings.

Still others choose to use an interest or hobby to frame their special day. Although it may sound a bit odd, my husband and I went to a "clown" wedding a couple of years ago. The bride and groom met while pursuing their hobby (it was part of their church's ministry out-reach), semi-professional clowning and mime. The ceremony and reception were very sophisticated, with small touches at both bringing in their theme. At the church, ushers were dressed as clowns. Instead of seeming silly, they added a festivity to the occasion, especially since this was a wedding where a lot of children were invited. Their giggles and bright smiles filled the hall with a special presence. At the reception, the favor for each guest was a bottle of bubbles. Before very long, the hall looked like a holdover from the Lawrence Welk Show. It was positively delightful.

Shared interests that I've seen become themes have ranged from vintage dance to sky diving to an herbal wedding that reflected a couple's interest in gardening and natural healing.

New families call for new ways of celebrating. Since our wedding, two more members of our blended family have taken their vows. All were lovely affairs, unique and personal. Now all the children have found their beloveds and I like to say, instead of a blended family, it's become a smoothie!
––––

Georgene Muller Lockwood is the author of nine books, including the bestseller The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life, as well as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Simple Living and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crafts With Kids. Her first book, Your Victorian Wedding: A Modern Guide for the Romantic Bride, a complete guide to creating a Victorian wedding from authentic to approximate, is out of print, but can be found in libraries and through used book stores and search services. You may contact the author for comment at glockwood@bigfoot.com

Copyright © 1992 Georgene Muller Lockwood. All rights reserved.