Whimsical wedding themes: bride and groom riding a bike

Traditional weddings are great … for other people. Your wedding should be a reflection of your and your partner’s personalities. If the two of you have always loved the offbeat, the eclectic, and the quaint, then you won‘t be happy to simply follow the latest wedding trends. Instead, you’ll want to add a little one-of-a-kind whimsy to your big day.

A whimsical wedding theme can help you bring yourselves and your story into your ceremony. To help you tell your love story, we‘ve rounded up seven whimsical wedding themes to inspire your special day. Find one that’s a perfect fit for your offbeat love affair and start dreaming up all the details that will make it come to life.

7 Whimsical Wedding Themes for an Oh-So Quaint Celebration

Starting with a theme can make your wedding planning easier. Once you find the right whimsical wedding idea to inspire your ceremony, the wedding inspiration just keeps coming. One simple concept can inspire your invitations, decor, wardrobe, menu, and more. Let’s find your theme so you can start daydreaming about all the other elements of your big day.

Here are our favorite whimsical wedding themes for offbeat couples.

1. Woodland Fairy

A fairy theme will bring a little magic to your woodsy wedding. To create the look, choose a natural setting where you can wed under weeping willows or moss-covered oak trees.

Set the tone for your big day with a fairy-inspired floral wedding invitation.

When you design your wedding decor, add an altar made from branches and wildflowers, string up fairy lights, and incorporate mushrooms into your centerpieces. Your wedding will look like a boho dreamscape.

Choose a wedding dress that’s straight out of “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” And if you want to go all-in on this theme, add a set of fairy wings to your bridesmaids’ ensembles.

2. Vintage Bicycles

Whimsical wedding themes: Bikes and Birds Invitation

Design: Elizabeth Silver

For a totally twee ceremony, add vintage bicycles throughout your decor. This is the perfect personal touch for couples who share a cycling hobby.

Full-size bikes make a dramatic addition to your whimsical wedding decor. Add woven baskets to the front and back of the bikes, and style the baskets with floral arrangements. These look beautiful framing the start of the aisle or placed beside your reception table with your guest book.

Incorporate bicycle figurines into your wedding centerpieces and choose a bicycle-themed wedding invitation. If you want to go all out, you can have the wedding party ride down the aisle on tandem bikes.

3. Birds & Bees

This cheeky theme gives a wink and a nod to your wedding night, but it‘s still so sweet that it won’t overshadow your special day. Birds and bees are très chic at a garden wedding but they also work for indoor wedding venues — just decorate with plenty of flowers.

Ask your florist to incorporate bird and bee figurines into your floral design, look for an invitation with birds or bees, and add a dessert table full of honey-flavored sweets.

You can also add feathers or a bird figurine to the wedding party’s hairstyles or boutonnieres, or choose a wedding dress with feathers incorporated into the design.

For added ambiance at your reception, incorporate ornate bird cages with doves, canaries, or finches inside. You can even work with a bird rescue and showcase adoptable birds — some of your guests may be inspired to take home a new feathered friend.

At the end of your wedding reception, you can release birds instead of throwing rice. Just don’t try this technique with bees!

4. Winter Wonderland

Foil Pine Branches Invitation

Design: Stacey Meacham Design, LLC

We love a winter wedding. There’s something about sparkling white snow that blends so beautifully with the glitz and glamor of the day.

Start by sending out winter wedding invitations. Then, transform your wedding day into a winter wonderland by adding glittering snowflakes throughout your decor. This shape serves as a reminder that your love is one of a kind.

Incorporate seasonal blooms into your wedding flowers — like white poinsettias or snowdrops. You can also add seasonal fruits by placing gold-leaf pears on your wedding tables or designing a floating centerpiece with cranberries, gardenias, and floating candles in a bowl of water.

For a truly glamorous evening, commission some ice sculptures. For a more laid-back affair, add an outdoor area where guests can build snowmen or make snow angels.

5. Fall Fête

Fall Wreath Invitation

Design: Robinson Creative House

Fall weddings come with the most gorgeous wedding colors. You can swap out the classic pastel palette for rich shades of red, yellow, and orange. It‘s easy to find matching invites, and if you get married under a canopy of fall trees, you won’t even have to pay extra to achieve your perfect color palette.

Plus, there are so many fun wedding ideas that are perfect for fall. Have your ceremony in an apple orchard, incorporate barrels of apples into your decor, or set up an apple bobbing station. You could also replace your wedding cake with apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies. (Or serve cake and pie! Now, that’s a dream wedding.)

Fall is also a great time of year to incorporate plaid. Host your reception around colorful picnic tables topped with plaid table runners, and add pumpkins to your tablescapes. Let your wedding party wear boots instead of dress shoes, add a corn maze to your reception, or style your wedding flowers inside rain boots.

The entire fall season is waiting to enhance your rustic wedding style.

6. Hot Air Balloons

If you’ve had your head in the clouds ever since you met your partner, then this whimsical wedding theme is the perfect representation of your relationship.

With their brightly colored canopies, hot air balloons invite you to design a colorful wedding ceremony. You can let each member of your wedding party choose a different color for their ensemble.

Then, decorate your wedding tables with clouds of cotton, and add hot air balloon figurines to your centerpieces. When you make your grand exit from your wedding reception, fly off into the sky in an actual hot air balloon. The procession will leave your guests in awe.

7. Secret Garden

Romantic Secret Garden Invitation

Design: Ana Sharpe Design

Let one of your favorite childhood stories inspire your fairytale wedding. A secret garden wedding is a garden party unlike any other.

Start by finding a wedding venue with a private garden area hidden away behind a fence or tall hedges. Add an extra glam feel to the space by hanging crystal chandeliers from the branches of shade trees. Then decorate your tables with vintage linens and elaborate centerpieces. You can also recreate the look of a secret garden indoors with an elaborate floral design full of draping flowers and greenery.

Attach vintage keys to your guests’ place cards, add flowers to an iron gate and use it as your wedding altar, and bring your dog as a stand-in for all the garden animals. To invite your guests, send secret garden invitations that match your color palette. 

Introduce Your Guests to Your Whimsical Wedding Style

When you’re planning a whimsical wedding theme, the first time guests will see your theme is on your save the dates and wedding invitations.

Give your whimsical theme a grand entrance by choosing a customizable, digital invitation from Greenvelope. There are hundreds of wedding designs to choose from, and you can update the color palette to match your wedding colors.

After you customize your design, you can send invites to guests’ inboxes in minutes and they can RSVP online. Greenvelope keeps track of your RSVPs for you and allows you to send reminders with the click of a button.

Online wedding invitations take the hassle out of wedding planning — and they save the trees and save you money on postage at the same time.

Start your search for the perfect wedding invitation today and you may find invites that inspire even more whimsical wedding ideas.