If you and your partner are book lovers, you may want to incorporate your love for literature into your wedding. You could either choose a specific book, book series or the whole oeuvre of an author, or you could go with the concept of literature and books itself. Read on for some tips on planning your literary themed wedding.
Venue for your Literary Themed Wedding
Naturally, a library would be the perfect venue for a literary themed wedding, and in and around London you have a large choice of venues for your library wedding, depending on the number of guests and if you’d like to go more modern, mid century or traditional. Alternatively you could choose a museum, for example the Picture Gallery in Dulwich, or even the beautiful neo gothic Strawberry Hill House. You may even be able to hire out a bookstore for the day.
Table Decorations for your Literary Wedding
With the decorations for your literary themed wedding you can run the gammit. What are you basing your ideas on? Literature in general, or a specific book or series? With a more general book lover theme you could use stacked books under vases – or cups and teapots if you’d like to lean into the Alice in Wonderland theme – filled with flowers or inkpots and quills / pen holders, or vintage typewriters. You could of course also combine these with candles, lanterns, etc. And don’t forget, you can never go wrong with a cloche!
Instead of stacked books you could place your favourite books openfaced on the tables and combine them with candles or items that you love or have a relation to the story. If you bring in natural wood, mushrooms, moss, red apples or crowns you could achieve a fairytale or fantasy look.
You could also create table runners or individual place mats out of book pages. If you do not want to take an actual book apart, you can print out pages on card stock instead.
You can make or buy table scatter for your Literary Themed Wedding. This allows you to integrate your theme into the table setting without taking up much space but will give it a coherent look and tie in your theme, expecially if your tables themselves are wooden or covered with a white or cream table cloth.
Flowers for your Literary Themed Wedding
A classic idea would be paper flowers or fleurogami (Origami flowers) either by themselves or combined with real / faux flowers for the tables and the bouquets.
Table Names, Seating Charts and Escort Card Displays for your Literary Themed Wedding
You could choose the names of different books or the chapter names of your favourite book as your table names.
Why not create or buy book marks with your guest’s names and hang them from a central display (stacked books, a tree etc.) as escort cards or display them at their seat so your guests know where they will sit. They could then double as a favour as well.
You could also make tiny book shaped signs to help your guests find their seat once arrived at their table.
Stationary for your Literary Themed Wedding
- Menu: instead of “Starters” you could name it “Foreword”, “Chapter 1” etc.
- Make or buy confetti cones from book pages or sheet music
- You could print signage, invitations and the menu on book pages or vintage looking paper
- You could include your favourite quote
- Create signage with book pages in a frame
Other Bits & Decorations for your Literary Wedding
- You could use an archway consisting of books for the ceremony or at the entrance to the reception. Alternatively you could create an XXL scroll with your favourite poem, song text, book excerpt or, for an extra special touch, the couple’s wedding vows.
- An oversized book or display of bookcases as background for a photo booth or dedicated photo area.
- Favours: books, bookmarks, cookies in the shape of books or letters
- Literary inspired food and drink, for example cocktails
- A wedding cake in the shape of stacked books, an open book, the outside of the cake covered in writing, “book pages” or featuring your favourite literary characters.
- Cookies in the shape of books, letters, cupe cake wrappers made from printed paper
- Flowers, 3D hearts, rosettes and stars made from book pages
- Hanging books with cascading folded pages
Thank you for reading my tips for planning a literary themed wedding. If you found it helpful, you could also have a look at my tips for planning the perfect confetti moment.
If you’d like some help with the styling or planning of your wedding or making any of the above mentioned items, I would be happy to be your event assistant, reduce your stress and help you to make budget friendly decisions. Please have a look at my wedding planning and wedding styling services here and please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
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