Love & Adventure: How to Plan a Travel Themed Wedding That Rocks

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For a pair of travel lovers like us, planning a travel themed wedding was essential. Nathan and I met while traveling, started a couples travel blog together, and genuinely consider travel one of our greatest passions. Travel is a huge part of our life together. And so, we planned our wedding to be strongly travel-inspired. Here’s how to plan a travel themed wedding that you will absolutely adore! 

On a sunny but cold April 9th, 2016, Nathan and I celebrated with 60 or so of our nearest and dearest in a vintage and travel-inspired wedding day. Living in Asheville, North Carolina that year, we planned what was for us, a local affair, but for our guests it was a true destination wedding (travel themed wedding already engaged!).

In this post, I want to share not only the story of our magical wedding adventure, and photos to inspire your own planning and wedding ideas but a collection of practical tips on how to plan a travel themed wedding that you’ll adore.

Getting Started

You’re engaged!! Congratulations!

Or maybe you’re just browsing for the future. That’s cool too! No judgment here. What girl doesn’t have a secret wedding Pinterest board she’s been pinning to for years? If you’re into a travel wedding theme, there are tons of wedding ideas on there.

Well, it’s never too soon to start thinking about what you want for your wedding. Personally, I found that thinking ahead was pretty helpful once we were officially engaged and began our legit wedding planning. As you start planning, be sure to check out this guide: a great wedding timeline and planning checklist!

I’d already narrowed down my style and any major must-haves. And Nathan’s proposal was not a total surprise. We had talked and knew we wanted to get married and we even had our time frame tentatively set. Once Nathan popped the question, the real planning got underway.

We decided to have our wedding exactly 6 months after our engagement. This would send a lot of bridezillas screaming for the hills, because most wedding planning guides start the timeline about 18 months out!

Not for us. We never wanted to have a long engagement and we knew we could plan what we wanted in a short amount of time. If you’re planning a wedding in 6 months, it is most definitely doable.

Consider Travel Themed Wedding Engagement Photos

The travel theme doesn’t have to wait until the wedding day itself. Consider incorporating elements of travel into your engagement photos.

Our travel wedding theme kicked off with our vintage engagement photos, taken in the fall at an old train station. These not only perfectly set the tone for our plans to come, and were an absolute blast to shoot. 

Keep it Simple

Pinterest is a gold mine for travel themed wedding inspiration. But what you see online is sometimes a little over the top and excessive. Sure, I’d have loved to give our wedding guests hand-engraved golden compasses, but that’s a bit out of the budget.

When you’re doing a wedding with any kind of “theme” it can be so easy to get swept away. (Even without a theme this is true.) But the wedding industry is smart. There are soooo many adorable things you can get for your wedding day.

If you wanted, you could spend an absolute fortune, and you’d have the sweetest little travel-themed details and decorations, but all these trappings aren’t strictly necessary for the big day. 

To save money on your travel themed wedding, we suggest keeping it simple.

Travel themed wedding invitations are so much fun. But what will your design be? Invitations designed to look like airline tickets are totally cute. But all that paper and printing adds up. And chances are, guests won’t be saving your invitations. Instead, consider simplifying that aspect and directing your funds elsewhere. My lovely maid of honor Haley, who is also a talented artist, designed and printed our invitations for us as our wedding gift.

They were so special, so personalized, and so “us,” it was definitely better than anything we could have purchased. Look for ways to DIY something like your travel themed wedding invitations or your save the dates…you’ll be glad you did.

We also kept other things simple. Our flowers were relatively small bouquets, we didn’t have much in the way of extra decor (choosing a gorgeous venue helps with this), and we did a buffet-style dinner. These are great ways to trim the budget while still having all the elements you want.

Incorporate the Venue

A venue with a vintage feel will work great for a travel themed wedding reception! And stylish spots make it easier to save on the decor budget.

We only looked at one place for our wedding venue, and were sold on it right away. Homewood is a gorgeous stone manor in a Victorian Asheville neighborhood called Montford. The place, which looks like a modest and stately castle, purportedly once held such esteemed guests as Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald!

We loved the 1920s feel of this venue, with its warm cherry wood, cozy candlelight, and romantic chandeliers. It was the perfect blend of our literary souls and our traveler hearts.

The venue was also incredibly helpful with planning and organization. I loved that about working with them. In an area with many, many wedding options (Asheville is so romantic, and seems to be a top wedding destination), they are also a venue offering a great value. We held both ceremony and reception in the manor’s great room, and it was beautiful.

Keep it Classic

No matter what theme you want to go with, a classic style is a great way to have a beautiful, timeless wedding as well as an opportunity to save money. Many classic styled wedding items are easier to find and thus come in a larger price range.

For us, the classic feel came out of our venue (a 1920’s stone manor) and our own personal taste. We like vintage things, old books, muted colors, antique globes, etc. Going with a style like this made our color scheme more flexible, which in turn made it easier to find things in a range of prices. Choosing highly specific hues can be a budget-killer, as you may have to pay extra to source the items you want. But I wasn’t fussed.

As I’ve said before, I’m a very non-bridezilla bride. In fact, when the bridesmaid dresses I wanted would have to be rush-ordered, I went ahead and changed the color. I’d rather not stress and be flexible on my color scheme. Doing a classic style helps with this as it can be easier to mix and match when your colors are more traditional.

Keep it Subtle

Big, loud, and flashy often equals expensive. Instead, make your theme more subtle and understated. You can incorporate little touches throughout your wedding to pay homage to your love of travel.

Use postcards you’ve collected as part of your decor, sprinkle your tables with tiny airplane confetti, bring traditions you’ve discovered on your travels into your wedding celebration.

Your wedding can still have a travel theme without needing to fill the room with “themed” items. In fact, adding subtle suggestions of travel, such as vintage maps, sets the wedding be its most personal and unique to you and your partner. 

Going with a classic vintage travel themed wedding also allowed us to be very loose with our centrepieces and table decor. Instead of numbering our tables, we decided to name our tables after countries we’ve visited and which mean a lot to us. Each table had a place card with its name and a lovely illustration.

Our bridesmaid and bridal bouquets doubled as our floral centerpieces, and scattered around these were books, small trinkets from our journeys, antique-styled glass bottles, candles, and other travel memorabilia…whatever we could find. Throughout the venue we stacked vintage suitcases and set up globes and other decor, including a small Eiffel Tower.

Instead of traditional table numbers, we went with location-based table names that fit our travel-themed wedding, featuring some of our most loved cities and countries. Our table cards were designed and created by Bellus Designs. We thought they were simple and gorgeous, and we were able to completely customize them in the way we wanted. They have so many wonderful designs, too, it was tough to choose. I’d highly recommend checking them out if you’re looking for quality wedding stationery.

A map is a must for any travel-themed wedding. You should look for ways to incorporate a map in some way, perhaps with the seating chart. Guests found their seating assignments on the map above. I mounted the map on poster board and used gift tags, thumbtacks, and ribbon to label each country’s guests! It was fun to put together, and many of my guests said they loved it!

You’ll also find that a well-placed globe is a perfect travel themed wedding accessory. Find these at garage sales, antique stores, or online. 

Incorporate a Dreamy Destination Cake

Our cake was perhaps my favorite of our travel themed wedding paraphernalia. Created by Sarah at Asheville’s City Bakery , we had a chocolate chip cake with chocolate ganache and vanilla buttercream. It tasted like a rich eclair and was delicious. But it looked awesome too! We had Sarah create fondant silhouettes of some of our most beloved travel landmarks.

The cake featured the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, Big Ben, the Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Castle, and even the Wallace Monument, which is found in Stirling, Scotland (where I went to grad school).

Our travel themed cake topper was a silhouette cutout of a couple sitting on the moon, which I found on Etsy. This gave our landmarks a night sky to watch over them, and also served as an homage to “Moon River” the song from which our name Two Drifters originates. In fact, we had this song play as we cut our cake! It was very romantic and sweet.

Keep it Small(ish)

If you want to save money on a wedding, probably the best thing you can do is cut your invite list. It seems harsh, I know, but a small wedding is way more budget-friendly. Our wedding included 75 people in total.

A small wedding saves you money in a few ways, but especially in food and alcohol, which are two of the higher cost items. If you know a million people and you want to have all of them at your wedding, you might want to consider minimizing costs by serving heavy hors d’oeuvres or a buffet instead of a sit-down dinner.

Why not have a buffet with foods from all over the world? That’s a fantastic travel themed idea.

Find Some Fun Travel-Themed Wedding Favors

There are so many options, from compasses to postcards, to luggage tags and more. You’ll definitely want some fun and unique travel-themed wedding favors to give your happy guests! Check out this little collection of the best travel themed wedding favors and travel themed party favors I’ve found on the Internet.

Travel Themed Matchbooks/Matchboxes

Matchbooks are such a simple, yet effective wedding favor idea. They are great for those on a budget, and actually come in quite useful for guests after the event has ended.

There are some unique options for the travel lover. I am obsessed with these from Etsy, which are classic and stylish, and each tiny box would look darling at every place setting. 

Luggage Tags

Does anything say “We love travel” more than this wedding favor? Personalized luggage tags are a useful gift to provide your wedding guests as they can use them on their suitcase or bag when traveling.

While you can definitely get tags personalized with your wedding date and names, it may be even better to keep them more general, like these tags from Etsy that read “and so the adventure begins.”

There are so many popular options for designing these luggage tag wedding favors. I also really like these “love is a journey” tags which I wish I’d gotten for our own wedding!

Compass Wedding Favor

Compasses are a wonderful favor to give out at a travel-themed event. While most people won’t use the compass for navigational purposes, these items are solid and meaningful and something guests will truly treasure!

These can be as ornate or as a simple as you desire (and as your budget allows). For a more inexpensive option consider one like this compass and card combo.

These are lightweight, simple, and pretty—perfect for putting at guests’ place settings. 

If you’d prefer a more customizable compass favor that you can personalize with your own wedding details, these are another possibility.

Personalized Drinkware

I’ve attended several weddings where the bride and groom gave out glasses engraved or printed with their names and wedding date. I’ve kept all of these and drink from them regularly, thinking of my friends as I do so. 

A drinking glass can be an excellent wedding favor, and for a travel-inspired wedding, you can opt for travel icons or quotes to include on the glass. 

There are also tons of options from fun shot glasses and delicate champagne flutes to hearty tumblers and pint glasses. Check out some of the cutest ones I’ve seen below:

Rocks Glasses

These are the classic size for a nice evening cocktail, and these glasses are good quality. Two travel-related options to choose from here.

Shot Glasses

Tiny and portable, these cute shot glasses are easy for your guests to take home. Chances are they’ll think of you whenever they mix a drink in the future! Plus, you can have your designs on both sides (one side personalized one side with illustration) and choose from a range of colors.

I really love the classic design on these shot glasses, which also double as votive candle holders. Beautiful!

Wine Glasses

Wine or champagne glasses are just perfect for a wedding. Your guests can even use them during the reception if they want to! 

Stemless wine glasses like these are convenient and useful. For a wedding favor, the simple, yet sophisticated direction design above is especially fitting.

Pint Glasses

Don’t forget pint glasses, with all their design real estate and their large liquid capacity! These glasses featuring the Eiffel Tower is especially sweet for a travel-themed wedding or a wedding with a Parisian flair. 

Travel-Themed Favor Bags

You can make any wedding favor more travel-oriented by putting it in cute packaging. Here are some hot-air balloon designed goodie bags, perfect for stuffing with candy, confetti, or other small items. 

 

 

 

Personalized Playing Cards

What a clever favor (and not too expensive, either). Give your guests a set of playing cards to keep, emblazoned with your names, wedding date, and a gilded map of the world. Very cute and very useful!

Travel-Themed Candles

These are a small item, but are a nice addition to your wedding favor collection. You can personalize these map labeled candles with your names and wedding date for a special touch. 

World Map Coasters

Give your guests a lovely place to put their cold beverages with these map coasters. It will mean the world to them—pun intended!

Keep it Real

Make sure your travel themed wedding is a passport to love and to fun! Don’t take yourself too seriously and be sure to keep a sense of humor about you. Everyone told me that I was one of the most relaxed and stress-free brides ever. Thank you! I love being known in that way, and I really did feel pretty chill. I’m not a perfectionist, and the only real anxiety I felt about the wedding weekend was making sure everybody had rides.

But the wedding could not have gone better. I applaud wedding vendors (particularly our amazing venue, Homewood) for how these big and meaningful occasions are so flawlessly run.

Our wedding ceremony was held on a Saturday, but most guests arrived on Thursday or Friday. This was one aspect I particularly loved. With many of us staying in the same hotel, it was like a big slumber party or family reunion. The Four Points Sheraton in downtown Asheville did a great job booking all our rooms conveniently in the same corridor.

And in general, the hotel was an excellent wedding accommodation choice. Affordable group rates, friendly and prompt service, and a downtown location that can’t be beat. We were able to walk to our rehearsal dinner and our guests could go out in the evenings without concern for parking or driving.

And with many guests in town early, we were able to spend time with them shopping, dining out, and sightseeing.

A wedding is traditionally a formal event, but you have the freedom to be as casual as you want. Approaching your wedding in a more relaxed manner is another option for staying within your budget. Trade tux rentals for button-ups and suspenders, have your bridesmaids go barefoot and wear short dresses, or keep it super relaxed and host the wedding in your backyard.

This type of wedding isn’t for everyone, but it’s a great way to save on unnecessary expenses and still have the wedding you want. And when you save money in one area, you can use it elsewhere, like on your honeymoon! (After all, you do love to travel).

Keep it About the Marriage, Not the Wedding

At the end of the day, the focus of your upcoming event should not be about the wedding itself, it should be about your marriage. Remember that the wedding represents only one day in your lifetime; your marriage will hopefully last for the entirety of that lifetime.

Spending more time considering your commitment and working on preparing for marriage is ultimately more valuable to you then obsessing over linen colors or finding the perfect travel themed decor.

If you find yourself getting overwhelmed or starting to blow out your budget, come back to what it’s all about: you and your partner. If you keep your eyes on the two of you and your future, your wedding will be a wonderful experience, travel-themed or otherwise.

PS: You’ll also want to save money so you can have an awesome honeymoon!

A Bit More About Our Asheville, NC Wedding

You can’t have a North Carolina wedding without a little Southern flair. To that end, we had our event catered by our favorite restaurant in the area: Luella’s BBQ. I can’t stress how MUCH this was the RIGHT CHOICE for wedding food!! With the sophisticated venue, I wondered if BBQ would seem out of place, but everyone was absolutely thrilled with it!

I’ve heard that wedding guests won’t remember your decor or your centerpieces, but they will remember what they ate and if they had fun. Real, hearty, and incredible BBQ was the ultimate in comfort food for our guests, and all were satisfied. I am so proud that everyone was fed, watered, and then grooved their tushies off on the dance floor.

I think we threw a great party. And eating macaroni and cheese at my wedding? Life goal, achieved.

Our DJ, Pat Lance of Spintastic Sounds was so friendly and easy to work with. And he played a great mix of tunes that we requested.

We held our rehearsal dinner at the downtown location of Twisted Laurel. I can’t rave enough about the divine food (lasagna, chicken parm, salad, garlic bread), and the beautiful space. It is the PERFECT spot for a rehearsal dinner.

Wedding officiant Rev. DiAnna Ritola was phenomenal. She put together a gorgeous ceremony that was truly personalized and incorporated a Christian ceremony with touches of other more worldly traditions. We had her perform a handfasting, a traditionally Scottish symbol of commitment.

Flowers came from Brown’s Floral Design of Weaverville.  Our bouquets were stunning, and everything I never knew I wanted. I know nothing flowers, but I described what I envisioned and they exceeded my expectations!

The awesome Mason and the crew at Ananda Hair Studio did my hair as well as my bridesmaids.’ That is one of the nicest salons in Asheville, and the entire staff is so friendly and accommodating.

And our photographer Stephanie Smith, whose work you see in this blog and all over the website, was truly incredible. She came from Raleigh and did a masterful job on all of our wedding images and our vintage travel themed engagement photos. I love Stephanie’s style of photography and the way she captured the dreamy romance of the day, and our happy love.

Both Nathan and I were so pleased with how our wedding turned out. It meant the world to us to have friends and family there, many of them who traveled very far distances!

Our families and bridal parties made everything run smoothly and pleasantly, and were wonderful supports. I am very grateful to my beautiful bridesmaids for all that they did including reminding me to eat on the big day, protecting my hair from the wind, and yelling at Nathan when he accidentally almost saw me beforehand.

And the biggest thanks to our parents. Thank you for birthing us and for encouraging us to grow up as confident and independent people who pursued their dreams. Without that independence that came from our family’s support, it’s likely neither of us would have ended up in that Edinburgh hostel on that fateful day. And of course, thank you for all the love, faith, and care. We have some really awesome parents! XO

 

If you have any questions about travel themed weddings, or about getting married in Asheville, NC, I’d be happy to answer! Just comment below or drop us a line.

 

 

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