Wedding Themes vs. Aesthetics

When you get engaged and get started on your planning process, there’s a few questions brides and grooms will get asked right off the bat: “Where are you getting married?”, “What are your colours?”, “Did the bride get her dress yet?”, and one of the harder ones to answer: “Have you decided your theme yet?”

Here’s the thing, there’s a difference between having a wedding theme and having a wedding aesthetic. Both contribute to your decor, your colours, your attire, etc, but they’re very different.

You can get a bit more engrossed in a wedding theme. I once went to a 50’s themed wedding and it was a lot of fun! The bride, groom, and their attendants all had a very 50’s feel with tea length dresses, 50’s inspired hair and makeup, suspenders and bow ties, and hats for the guys. Their music had influenced elements and to top it off, they had an Elvis impersonator during their cocktail hour! They had also expressed to their guests what their theme was and many guests came in 50’s attire as well.

If you’re a Starwars fan and May the 4th falls on a weekend in your wedding year, you should also consider yourself lucky. A friend of mine and her now-husband did this for their theme and had so much fun with it! They even did some cake cutting pictures with light sabers!

If you’re at all like me, you’ve definitely considered a Disney themed wedding. And again, you can get very engrossed in this. You can have Disney movies in place of table numbers, the music aspect is easy, have dresses and attire inspired by your favourite Disney film.

But here’s the difference with a wedding aesthetic: this one really give an overall feel for your wedding and creates a certain atmosphere. For example, a popular one in Alberta, and one I’m working with presently, is rustic. It seems many Western brides want this. But all ‘rustic’ really means is that you have trees and greenery as part of your decor, typically there’s lace either on the bride, bridesmaids, or incorporated into the decor, and rustic weddings are usually fairly minimalist as well, but that depends on the couple and their preferences.

There’s tons of aesthetics you can incorporate into your wedding day though: timeless, chic/trendy, beach-ey. All of these affect your wedding day style, decor, and colours (as an example, a beach-ey wedding aesthetic will almost always have a teal blue of some sort in it).

But probably the most beautiful thing about wedding themes and aesthetics is that the same one can mean something different for another wedding couple. One wedding I’m working with is very much partaking in the minimalist rustic aesthetic, but another couple might want a different version of rustic.

I know that trying to answer that question of “What’s your wedding theme?” can be a little overwhelming and tricky when you haven’t quite figured it out yet. But that’s why you should fill out our contact sheet and come see me in my new home office space where we’ve got inspiration boards galore to help you figure out the answer to this question! I can’t wait to help you figure it all out and help find your creative elements.

With love,

Krissy Clowater