It’s officially a year since Jon and I got married! Apart from tying the knot with my one true love and sharing that special day with family and friends, Jon and I were really enthusiastic about expressing our passion for travel on our wedding day. Having shared so many experiences while exploring the world together, travel has been a major part of our relationship and we wanted to reflect that on our special day as we declared to the world our promise to live a life together.
READ MORE: Our Travel-themed Wedding in Central Otago, New Zealand
Planning the wedding is part of the fun and with a travel-themed wedding, it’s easy to make everything personalized. Let your creativity flow and get family and friends involved with the preparations. Jon and I also made sure to include not just typical travel-related items but also some actual souvenirs from our travels around the world – check out how we included hand-made lanterns from Hoi An, Vietnam for our wedding arch!
If you’re planning a travel-themed wedding of your own, here are some creative ideas for your travel-themed wedding:
Travel-themed Save the Date
Luggage tags are relatively easy to make. I created these Save the Date tags about 6 months before our big day. You can choose to either send Save the Date invites by mail or share snaps for your electronic invitations. It’s a great idea to create personalized stamps and you can use these for your invitations and wedding programme too. I used the online editor, Canva for most of my wedding stationery but if you have time, Adobe Photoshop could also be an option for higher quality prints.
Boarding Pass Invitations
I really enjoyed the idea of “coming aboard” to the wedding so I used boarding passes for our wedding invitations. I made all of the invites myself, give me a shout if you need some help on the dimensions for the boarding passes.
Passport Wedding Programme
Continuing with the flight theme for the invitations, I used passports for our wedding programme where we also included the names of our wedding party and our families. We didn’t end up following the timeline of the programme on our wedding day but it didn’t matter in the end. Everyone had fun and completely lost track of time!
A Destination Signage that Highlights Your Adventures
It took me about two weeks to hand paint and stencil these signs made from old wooden fences and it was definitely worth the effort! My mother-in-law’s partner did a great job setting the whole thing up as well. It definitely fits in with our travel-themed wedding. For the destinations, we can chose to put some of the relevant cities in our relationship. You can also choose places where your guests came from.
A Travel Map Guest Book
Some people use globes, others opt for a map. For our wedding we laid out a vintage looking map for people to sign their names and their well-wishes. We also included an Instax camera in case anyone wanted to part with some photos. This actually turned out to be quite hard to execute so make sure you let people know that it is available if you don’t have it in a noticeable location.
Name Tables by Your Favourite Places on the Table Centerpieces
There are so many travel-themed wedding ideas out there for table centerpieces and you can go all out if you want! I wanted a more casual note which showcased a small vintage globe, a pot of succulent, some candles and framed some photos we’ve taken to use as table numbers. We didn’t end up having a strict table arrangement since we had a small guest list. People just sat where they wanted but I still loved these centerpieces.
Showcase Some Vintage Luggage
I’ve always been fascinated by vintage luggages and we were quite lucky that our family friend, Jennie had a collection. We were so pleased that she lent us some to use for our wedding (they must have cost a fortune!). If you don’t know anyone who has vintage luggages, start looking out for them at second hand shops or antique shops. They really stand out in a travel-themed wedding.
Use Vintage Globes for Decorations
A Welcome Board that Showcases Timelines of Your Love Story and Your Travels Together
Similar to the timeline we have in our travel blog, I thought it would be a great idea to include the highlights of our journey in one board. Jon and I were passing the time to check in to our hotel in Kuala Lumpur when we came up with all the stats from our travels! It’s amazing how many means of transport we’ve been on.
Display Souvenirs and Gifts from Your Travels
It’s so easy to personalize a travel-themed wedding with actual souvenirs from your travels. It’s also a great talking point for guests to know more about where you’ve been.
Showcase the Local Cuisine (and Include Some Favourite Delights from Overseas)
If you’re doing destination wedding, food is a great way to introduce the local cuisine to your guests. We had a variety of New Zealand treats and desserts for our wedding and also included some international treats such as French macaroons and chocolates. Central Otago wine and New Zealand cheese were also served prior to the wedding ceremony.
Hand Out Unique Travel-themed Wedding Favours
My cousin, Anne did an amazing job with our wedding favours. She made these intricate handmade luggage decorated with stamps. Inside each luggage is small leather journal intended for guests to use for their own travels.
Do you have plans for a travel-themed wedding or a destination wedding? Do you have other awesome ideas for a travel-themed wedding? Let us know.