How To Design A Wedding Theme -Example: fantasy wedding with Lord of the Rings Woodland Elves aesthetic

Have you ever thought about designing your own wedding theme? A wedding theme is what ties everything together: your dress, the venue, cake and all the other little things. We get asked a lot about how can you design your wedding by yourself without going crazy or losing the point.  Inspired by Coryleigh’s ask we are going to walk you through the design process. As a case study we have Lord of the Rings themed Woodland Elves wedding. Get your learning pants on!

What comes to your mind when you think about a certain theme? Those can be colors, materials, shapes or just an overall feeling. The first impression of a theme is important because it will guide you through everything else. Using a pen and paper or our handy wedding theme planner are great tools when getting started. When you are putting together a design you can always come back to your first impression and double check if all the elements are aligned with it.

Example: I’m making a theme for a Woodland elves wedding I will put down what first comes to my mind. I have watched Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies many times so the visual inspiration of Mirkwood is strongly colored by the movies itself. Elements that pop into my mind are amber decorations, vines and art deco inspired shapes, lanterns, brown and green color, and antlers.

 3. Make an inspiration or aesthetic board

We love to make picture collages! It is a great way to capture the overall feeling of something specific and it also helps to put the ideas together. Images and visuals are essential for designing a wedding theme and putting them on an inspiration board really helps keeping everything together. I recommend to look at many images when putting together a wedding theme. When you go through lots of images you are automatically editing the elements and the mood.

I usually use Canva for inspiration boards because it makes visually appealing designs but also saves me the trouble of resizing and cropping images. It’s really great but you can use any picture editing software you are familiar with. 

When I do a board I start with few elements I think are essential for the theme. Like a general image of the venue or a dress. Then I keep collecting more images for different elements, like cake, table decoration… 

Honestly, inspiration boards are so useful! Planning a wedding theme? Make an inspiration board! Designing a collection? Do that again. If you aren’t sure what an inspiration board looks then here are some ideas that we at Heili Bridal have made:

Blush and Olive Wedding Inspiration

Living Coral Wedding Inspiration

Elegant Seaside Wedding

Colorful Autumn Wedding Inspiration and how we used it in Real Wedding in Jewel tones

1. Main Elements

“I loved the Fantasy Wedding blog post but I have one question: How do you choose the main element for the wedding theme?” -Coryleigh

We feel you, Coryleigh! Deciding the main element for a wedding theme can be a tricky task especially if you have very little or a huge amount of inspiration material. 

But what is a main element in the first place? Well it’s the number one key element you basically put everywhere in your wedding theme design. It goes to the venue decoration, stationary, cake, flowers, even the outfits.

How to find the main element is different for every theme. Sometimes the main element is very clear but often you have to think a little bit more about what the theme is all about. It’s not rare that you just have to decide on something, maybe more abstract element, like a color, and then to start gathering the other elements to beef it up a little. The point is to have something recognizable to set the mood all over the design. Think about what determines the feel of a certain theme.

2. Fine tuning

You have the main element pinned down so now it’s time to start fine tuning it. This means planning where and how you are going to use it in your wedding. This can be anything from the whole venue styling to the little details in your gown. I recommend using the main element as widely as possible in order to create a coherent theme that flows seamlessly through your whole wedding.

I have created a handy pdf list for you to get started with where you can use the main element. It can be so much more than just the venue decoration and invitation! Download the list from below!

Example: Pinterest has tons of woodland wedding ideas but the trick is to figure out how to bring the fantasy and elves into it. In my mind the elegance and lightness is the main difference between mere woodland theme and Tolkien’s Woodland Elves.

Instead of tree trunks as cake stands, think about carved wood or glass mimicking the tree shape. In the books elves are brilliant craftsmen so keep things beautiful and elegant instead of shabby chick. No sticks but branches or beautifully crafted wooden items.

To fine tune the tree and woodland design I would use things like:

1. Raise the decorations up.

Make the ceiling and upward lines the main focus. Think living under the treetops or inside the caves and how often eyes search the branches and cave ceilings. Try to create an idea of pillars or tree trunks and use plenty of organic materials like wood and living plants. Decorate the ceiling with vines, lanterns or fairy lights, draping, chandeliers, ribbons or anything that catches the eye.

2. Depending the season, keep the color palette in browns, greens, whites and amber.

Remember, real amber comes in plenty of tones from milky honeys to dark greens. Pick the tone that suits best the season

3. Mimic the amber in details.

The amber itself can be almost clear like glass or flecked or milky and not see through. Think about glassware, lanterns, jewels, see through paper details like place cards, hard candies (salted caramel, anyone?).

4. Lanterns.

That would be one of my main decoration element with amber and greenery. I would put lanterns everywhere. Hang them from the ceiling, use them instead of bouquets for bridesmaids, on or above the tables, on the ceremony spot and by the aisle, on the entrance etc.

5. Greenery, vines and branches with few well picked blooms.

I would forgo big flowery things and keep the bouquets and table centerpieces very green and trailing downwards or creeping up. Different vines and creepers would be my pick for the main element. If the wedding would be in the spring I would pick light, white and small blooms to go with. Something similar that grows in the woodland areas. In summer maybe just few bigger blooms like orchids or very old fashioned cabbage roses or lillies, in the autumn berries and grasses would be the main decor elements. In winter time bare branches with something silvery like lamb’s ears.

3. Small details

You can also pick few things that come straight from your source material. The small details are just that, small. They might not be very visible but they are nice little touches that your guests can find and enjoy. As the small things are not very dominating in over all look you don’t have to match them so exactly to your colors or motives. The small details are meant to finish things off. They can also be included into entertainment like music etc. 

Example:  For Mirkwood theme the small details could be a wine bar with barrels and cheese platter with apples. The guests who have read the book could have a good laugh.

Also a classic detail in more general LoTR themed weddings is the ”No admittance except on party business” sign which almost anyone who have watched the movies or read the books will recognize.