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As regular readers will know, my husband, Daniel, and I are very recently married. What regular readers may not know is that our wedding was book-themed. For one of my guest posts on The Broke-Ass Bride, I describe how we stumbled upon a “literary vintage” wedding theme. Of course, given that we are both avid readers and writers, it seems obvious that this theme would have emerged.
Today, I would like to share with you all a few elements of our wedding (and some that I wish we would have found) that were book-related. Even if you have no intention or prospects of marriage, keep reading to learn a little about me and see some gorgeous book porn.
1. Literary ceremony reading. Daniel and I are not religious, so instead of a traditional Biblical reading, we had a passage from Homer’s The Odyssey read during our ceremony. We loved this, because we were able to share great literature and speak to our trials in our long distance relationship.
2. Love Storybook. Many couples have a brief recounting of their love story lurking around, especially at big weddings. We did not do this, but this is something that would be easy to make into a storybook and modeled after books you love.
3. Favors. Daniel and I gave out bookmarks as our wedding favors. They contained the passage from The Odyssey from our ceremony. This allowed us to encourage reading as well as help people remember a unique part of our ceremony.
4. Centerpieces. This is the best place to put physical books in your wedding day. Stack them in the center of a table, fold their pages into cool designs, decorate them with flowers — the possibilities are endless.
5. Guestbook. Why not make your guestbook a literal book? Daniel and I had our guests sign the inside of our Barnes & Noble Collector’s Edition of The Iliad and The Odyssey. This way, we will be reminded of our loved ones each time we open it — and we don’t have to keep track of a random guestbook we will never display again.
6. Stationery. One of the easiest ways to incorporate literature into your wedding is through the paper accessories. Make your invitations look like books, use old library check-out slips as your place cards, put your table numbers on books or book pages — just get creative!
7. The Cake. I have seen some incredible book-themed wedding cakes: from ones with symbols and cover art from books to ones that actually look like books. For our cake, Daniel and I simply exhibited our love of comics with the bat symbol.
8. Shoes. Speaking of comics, one of the coolest literary accessories I’ve seen are comic book heels. Essentially, artists take clippings from comics and decorate heels with them. Even if comics aren’t your thing, the same could easily be done with book pages. Check out this tutorial for more info.
9. Rings. What better way to express your love of language than to engrave your rings with your favorite book passages? The passages will have to be short, but you can always abbreviate with just the title, chapter or page number, and line number.
10. Flowers. My favorite literary aspect from our wedding was the bouquets, which were made from book pages. Mine was made from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, my favorite novel. My bridesmaids also chose their favorites: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey. Not only did this make for a highly personal self-expression, but they also made great bridesmaids gifts, as they transition easily into home decor. Win-win!
Overall, Daniel and I are extremely pleased with how our wedding turned out. We were able to surround ourselves with literary goodness and express ourselves as book nerds.
I hope this article gave you a bit more insight into my love of books and sparked some ideas for incorporating books into your own wedding — or even your everyday fashion and decor!
While I won’t be writing anymore about my wedding on this site, if you are interested to know more about my journey or creative weddings, in general, you can check out all my guest posts on The Broke-Ass Bride for more inspiration.
Kate M. Colby 
Love the idea of a book wedding! While it’s not looking like a wedding is in the cards for me, I’m pretty sure had I had one, it would have ended up being movie-themed. I still like the idea of walking down the aisle to the either 57-second Wedding March by Queen from “Flash Gordon” or perhaps the Wedding Music from “Ladyhawke.” Assuming I hadn’t already jetted off to Ireland for a ceili! 🙂
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Haha great song choices. My aisle song was the acoustic version of “Summertime” by My Chemical Romance.
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