Georgina Clatworthy

If you are fed up of trying to incorporate all the wedding day traditions into your celebrations or simply want a wedding without all the speeches and toasts, then a non-wedding wedding could be perfect for you.

It is interesting that many of the wedding day traditions we know today were incorporated into weddings in the 1950’s. In countries like the U.S and U.K, people saw weddings as big social occasions and an opportunity to put aside the hardships of the previous decade and the Second World War and splash out on a wedding day which was luxurious, lavish and full of social etiquette. So the modern wedding now incorporates traditions such as speeches, toasts, cake cutting and the first dance, as well as much of the wedding etiquette we love to hate!

So if you want to abandon all of that and enjoy your wedding day under your own terms then here are a few tips on how to do it.

• Keep your ceremony small and intimate, so book a little chapel or room in a venue licensed for civil ceremonies.
• Choose a reception venue such as restaurant of bar for a low key celebration that is big on enjoyment rather than tradition.
• Pick a menu that is delicious but unfussy. If you prefer burger and fries over fillet steak and sauté potatoes, then put it on your menu and if you would rather have donuts over iced cake, then make sure they are included.
• Keep your daytime celebrations to minimum with just a few guests and then move onto a larger venue where you can party all night with lots more of your friends and family. The idea is to create a celebration which resembles a party rather than a wedding.
• Spend more on your food and entertainment and keep things like flowers and expensive decorations to a minimum. Many couples are also choosing to forgo wedding favors and traditional style wedding cakes.
• Book a post wedding photo session so you can have some great wedding photographs without all the formality of traditional wedding shots.