Five ways to include your family history in your wedding

If you’ve chosen to get married at Royal Holloway, chances are you enjoy a good bit of history. After all, Royal Holloway is steeped in historic value, with a plethora of famous alumni, beautiful architecture and one of the country’s finest private collection of Victorian art. So we thought that to celebrate Royal Holloway’s history, it could be fun to introduce your own family history as part of your wedding theme. Here are a few ways to incorporate your own heritage into your big day:

Celebrate your culture

Your cultural heritage is a big part of who you are, so don’t be afraid to incorporate your own cultural traditions into your wedding ceremony or celebration. Whatever your background, you don’t have to follow tradition to the letter – pick and choose elements that move you.

Use family heirlooms

A brooch, an old veil or any other precious family heirlooms can be used as part of your wedding outfit (something old and something borrowed in one neat package?) or as part of your décor scheme. You could have elements of your cake designed around lace or jewellery that belonged to an ancestor, or have something lovely sewn into your dress. The possibilities are endless.

Be creative with your table names

Be inventive with your table names. You could name each table after an ancestor, or a place that your family has lived, or anything else that means something to you and your personal family history.

Display family wedding photographs

Another way to include your ancestry is to display photographs of past family weddings, dating as far back as you can find. You can leave an album for people to browse through, display the pictures in frames or find creative ways to use them as decorations around the venue.

Say it with music

Ask your family members to each pick a song that defines an era of your family history to play during the reception – nothing takes you back in time like music!

Are you incorporating any family traditions into your big day? How do you plan to include your own history? Contact us with your comments!