Is a Theme Always a Good Wedding Idea?

I was shown to my seat by a Vulcan or a Klingon, I’m not exactly sure. An old college buddy of mine excitedly invited me to his Star Trek wedding. He insisted it was a great wedding idea to have members of the wedding party dressed as characters from Star Trek, the TV show.

The wedding invitation even suggested that I come dressed as an extraterrestrial – thankfully the “costume” rule for the guests was optional (and judging from the attendance, all the guests opted for decidedly less-than galactic outfits). The vows were read in Klingon, which I’m sure the wedded couple thought was a great wedding idea, as well.

The look of the mother of the bride was priceless – a cocktail of emotions that included happiness, joy, pride, sadness, confusion and (possibly) contempt. Looking at the bridesmaids and groomsmen all decked out in various forms of body armor, capes, masks and wigs, it looked like we were filming an Ed Wood movie. I had to disagree with my old college friend, a Star Trek theme was definitely not a good wedding idea.

Weddings shouldn’t be cookie-cutter copies of the traditional ceremony – adding the personal touch or a humorous feature is an excellent wedding idea. The important thing to remember is not to allow the personal touches to consume the wedding. Having a few cages of lovebirds is a lovely wedding idea; having your bride covered in feathers, while she “flies” down the aisle to the soundtrack of bird calls in not a lovely wedding idea.

Even having the rest of the wedding part dressed in Renaissance costumes can be effective, just as long as an eye is kept on good touch and elegance, or your wedding party can end up looking like a troupe from the Renaissance Fair. Once the Renaissance theme starts to seep into the reading of the vows, the toasts and the menus, then there is a problem. Eating whole turkey legs without cutlery may seem authentic, but it is definitely not a good wedding idea (nor a very sanitary one, for that matter).

The main problem with a wedding theme is that it can take over the whole ceremony, turning the ceremony into a tacky or gimmicky evening. There’s a thin line separating tacky with tasteful, and often in a desire to stay within the confines of a theme deemed brilliant, the wedding couple can opt for the former.

A wedding ceremony is a party, and the point is to have fun, but that doesn’t mean that you can turn the wedding into a carnival sideshow because you want to make the wedding ceremony memorable and different. A good wedding requires meticulous planning, and input from a person not getting married, so that someone with an objective viewpoint so that he or she can shed some harsh, yet often necessary, beams of reality over the proceedings.