Are you a movie buff? Maybe there is a TV show that you and your partner binge watch till the wee hours of the morning or a sitcom that you bonded over when you first met. For most of us, video games, story characters and celebrities are all part of our lives – some more tangible than others – and it’s understandable to want to pay tribute to something you love so much on this momentous occasion. But how do you do it and still keep things classy? We’ve provided you with some tips to use or adapt ordinary wedding invitations into pop culture wedding invitations by incorporating your favourite characters, themes or colours with finesse.
Look for similar colours and designs
One of the easiest ways to adapt an ordinary invitation is to match the colour and design to your theme. Amazingly, this design, ‘Vintage Cobalt’ in cobalt green can be made to suit a fantasy wedding, and would be perfect as Lord of the Rings wedding invitations. If it’s Lord of the Rings you’re after, consider replacing the flourish at the centre top with two rings – a symbol of both marriage and your favourite flick.
Alternatively, this same design could be perfect as imitation royal wedding invitations – Harry and Meghan’s signature colour was a light green!. The design is antique and regal at the same time. For a wedding in the royal style, keep the format as is, unless you prefer another colour.
Another royal wedding invitation which could also work perfectly for a fantasy wedding is ‘Regal Wreath’. This design could be used for Harry Potter wedding invitations, specifically if you consider yourself a Gryffindor. You already have gold in the couple’s names and the logo at the top. Just change the rest of the text and the border to scarlet.
Matching the theme
Anyone who read the book or watched the movie and loved it will be totally into Great Gatsby wedding invitations. If you’re the kind of girl who likes stunning retro headpieces and has that vintage flair in your style, be it at home or in fashion, then a Gatsbyesque wedding is just the thing to make the big day truly you. This invitation, conveniently titled ‘The Great G’, won’t need much adapting. Simple and striking, you could also use it when trying to match any vintage movie, or just following an old Hollywood theme in general.
Consider a drop waist dress with beading and either a victory roll (if you’re brave enough) or finger waves for your hair. If you want to feel like you’ve just stepped out of a time machine – the Roaring Twenties is the way to go! Vintage wedding invitation styles, including headpieces (or even a flower crown) are definitely on trend right now so you could get away with the theme seamlessly.
There are different types of nerds and not all involve sitting behind a computer or in front of a television. If you plead guilty to any of the following then you are a self-confessed book nerd:
- You have cried when a character in a book died
- You’ve often been heard to say about a movie: “The book is WAY better!”
- You have a book in your handbag right now
If any of those sound like you, then you’ll probably get more excited than the average person about book wedding invitations. This design, ‘Classic Letter’ fits with the literary wedding invitations theme and could either be taken as a general theme and vibe, or easily personalised to reflect a particular book or author. As an Austen fan, you could change the stamp in the top right to say something like ‘Pemberley Post Office’; for The Lord of the Rings: ‘Middle Earth Mail Service’. Remember, the pop culture references don’t have to be in your guests’ faces. It’s okay to keep it subtle – and isn’t it kind of fun seeing who picks up on what you’re trying to reference and who doesn’t? Book themed wedding invitations can be the perfect opportunity to shout out to your favourite fictional friends without degenerating into tacky.
What even is a motif?
And how is it different to a theme? While a theme is a fundamental concept, a motif is a symbol, object or image or that keeps appearing to illustrate a theme. One of the main motifs in Beauty and the Beast is a rose, so this design, ‘Wedding Petals’ with the petals floating away could easily be used in Disney wedding invitations. The gold foil could even remind people of Belle’s ball gown. If you want to be a bit more obvious, you could change some of the text colour to royal blue, to match the beast’s outfit.
Personalising your design
The great thing about choosing a Paperlust design is that all of our templates are fully customisable. You could treat this minimalist design, ‘Simplicity’, like a blank computer screen and add in graphics or characters for geeky wedding invitations. There is no limit to what you can do for your nerdy wedding invitations, but it’s probably best not to mix games/themes. A way to incorporate characters or symbols without going overboard would be to have them in a grey outline on this design, or as a black silhouette over a lighter coloured background.
Photo cards can be a great way to personalise your wedding invitations because you can snap whatever you want. Maybe you and your partner want to dress up as Mario and Princess Peach or Princess Leia & Han Solo and get a photoshoot done, or use a photo that you got taken with a stormtrooper at Comic Con. Get creative and make sure your invites are the perfect reflection of you!
Turn your invitation wording into a pop culture quote or song lyric
There are many ways you can transform ordinary invitation templates into killer pop culture references. Apart from the ideas we’ve covered so far, you could also edit the wording of an invitation to reflect a certain theme. This ‘Movie Theatre’ design could be used for Star Wars wedding invitations by using quotes like ‘We would be honoured if you would join us’ or slightly changing phrases like ‘We seem to be made to suffer’ to ‘We seem to be made for each other’ to completely change the meaning and make it romantic. As well as the wording, you could change the font to block and consider yellow text with a black background if you want it to be a little more obvious (not everyone will get the other references). The cool thing is that the more understated the pop culture references, the more you can include in your wedding without going overboard.
Other ways to include pop culture in your day
Here are some examples of how you can include movie, tv and game references in your wedding that don’t involve the invitations. If you are planning superhero wedding invitations – for example, Batman wedding invitations – you could couple that with Batman cufflinks, or arriving to the ceremony in a Lincoln Futura, the original batmobile. If your big day involves comic book wedding invitations, you could rock a beautiful loose Wonder Woman braided hairstyle or shoes depicting your favourite comic book characters.
While we know a lot of ladies out there love their comics and superhero movies (and it’s totally awesome) sometimes it’s more the groom wanting to include these elements in the wedding day. What do you do as a bride if you are cringing at the idea of blue and red Superman invitations but want to make your man happy because it’s his special day too? Some more subtle ways on the day would be a groom’s cake (depicting a suit with the Superman logo peeking out between the shirt), a Lego Movie boutonniere to pair with lego party invitiations or Spiderman socks. It’s all about compromise, after all.
Incorporating culture or setting
Including elements of a movie’s culture or setting is an understated nod to the original, while still retaining everyone’s trust in your good taste. To bring it back to Beauty and the Beast, you could do a French style harvest table at your reception. For a Lord of the Rings setting, consider an outdoor banquet among the trees with bronze lanterns and green tablecloths or artificial grass table runners.
If you and your partner are big Doctor Who fans, you could pose with a telephone booth (if you can still find any) as a reference to the similar looking TARDIS. This kind of pop culture wedding is an easier way to convince a partner who may be skeptical about the notion, so maybe lead with some of these ideas if you think you are going to come up against some opposition.
Try not to go OTT
Everyone knows fans can sometimes go a little over the top… We get that you’re excited but let’s get carried away with the love, not the handmade Yoda shaped mugs for every single guest. We know it’s all about ‘til death do us part’ – there’s no need to pose as naked cadavers in a morgue like the Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro wedding invitations. A wedding should be classy and, where possible, timeless. Although it’s inevitable for style elements to look a little dated as fashions change over the years, you don’t want to look back on your wedding day and cringe (or worse, keep those expensive pictures hidden away, never to see the light of day again). The best way to keep things sophisticated is by trying to find the balance between the pop culture references going over everyone’s heads and no one being able to remember anything about your wedding apart from the fact that you said your vows in Klingon. You want your wedding day to be remembered for the right reason – the love between you and your partner.
If you follow our tips for ways to delicately weave pop culture into your wedding, you can’t go wrong.
In summary…
There are a million ways to include pop culture in your wedding, and to build it into the most unassuming of invitations – so get creative! Think of original ways to combine elegance with quirky tributes to characters and themes that you’ve fallen in love with. While we don’t suggest that you go as crazy as the Dave Navarro Carmen Electra wedding invitations, there’s nothing wrong with adding a little whimsy to your special day. May the force be with you!