Things you can do to make your wedding day great and memorable

I'm pulling out all the stops here with as many ways as I can think of to wow your guests and make your wedding totally you. These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. Use your creativity, imagination and Wow Factors to find even more ways that fit your personality.

·         Use a vintage striped linen-silk band 

This makes a neat sash for the flower girl's simple white dress wide satin ribbons tied around her feet at the arch dress up simple ballerina shoes while a small fabric flower pinned to her hair continues the theme. Complete her outfit with a basic Nantucket basket that's spruced up with a ribbon fringe and handle – perfect for holding her petals.

·         Use custom flourish

Give a custom flourish to all your printed material with your own logo—an image that's meaningful to you and your spouse, like a hobby or place.

·         Give each reception table a name

Give each reception table a name (for example, "Richmond Avenue") that relates to your courtship. Have a tent card on the table with a short explanation: "We had our first apartment here—a 6th-floor, 300-square-foot walk-up!"

·         Traditional guest books

Traditional guest books often end up stashed in a closet; instead, choose a coffee-table book covering a subject you love and that you'll want to display at home; guests can write on the photos or in the margins.

·         Walk down the aisle to a song

Walk down the aisle to a song (with a slow tempo) that was meaningful when you were dating.

·         Coldplay more than Vivaldi

Into Coldplay more than Vivaldi? At your ceremony, have musicians play contemporary songs as instrumentals. "It's a refreshing change from the expected classical pieces

·         Attach a ribbon

Attach a ribbon embellished with your birthstone to your bouquet

·         Personalize the bridesmaids’ bouquets

Personalize the bridesmaids’ bouquets by selecting flowers that pair with each girl’s birth month. Stick to a single color—pink peonies, pink tulips, pink roses—to unify the look

·         Order custom labels

Order custom labels for wine and water. Check out myownlabels.com and personalwine.com

·         Offer cookies

Offer cookies baked from family recipes; provide recipe cards for guests to take home

·         Instead of a groom’s cake, have an FIY (frost-it-yourself) cupcake bar, with unusual flavors— mango, gingerbread, coconut. Don’t forget the sprinkles!

·         Use engagement can

Your engagement can play a starring role in the decor: One bride included a blueberry branch in each centerpiece because her husband proposed to her on Blueberry Point. (A note card at each table explained this.)

·         Put your best flea-market finds on display

Put your best flea-market finds on display, like an antique pitcher filled with flowers for the escort-card table or china cows mixed in with centerpiece flowers.

·         Use valentine card for vow

For your vows, consider words he wrote in a Valentine card, or something from a love note you sent him (but nothing too personal

·         Customize simple satin pumps

Customize simple satin pumps with shoe jewelry such as rhinestone ribbons (custom crystals. com or advantagebridal.com or etsy.com)

·         Match the color of your jewelry

Match the color of your jewelry to his tie and cuff links. Something blue

·         Honor your families

Honor your families by placing their framed wedding-day photos on an entryway table.

               Surprise your guests

Surprise your guests with a midnight snack to keep them happy and full all night long! Pattern

it after your favorite midnight snack. Love making a milkshake run at 12am? Mini shakes served in shot glasses will work.

·         Put everyone in a romantic mood

Put everyone in a romantic mood with cocktail napkins in shades of pink and white dressed up with old song titles or favorite lines of poetry. For a more personalized treatment, write down the story of how the two of you met, and use excerpts from it on various napkins. Guests will have fun piecing your love story together

·         Make an impression on guests

Make an impression on guests by adding eye-catching detail to basic cookies with ordinary rubber stamps, which come in a wide range of designs, or ceramic cookie stamps. Since rubber stamps can be custom ordered, create your own, like our monogram. Use cookie recipes that don’t use any sort leaveners, such as shortbread. Tools for the Task: Rubber and Ceramic Stamps

Use inexpensive ready-made rubber stamps with graphic patterns (polka-dot stamp by Outline, stripe stamp by Hero Arts). Or order a custom rubber stamp; ours from Wax-Works has the monogram recessed, so the letters will be raised on the cookie. Ceramic cookie stamps, such as the bird cookie stamp by Rycraft, come in many pretty motifs.