Coordinating Your Wedding Around a Phrase, Quotation or Object
A harmonised wedding is about more than matching colours. Bring the whole day together with a key phrase or concept.
Planning a wedding involves so many minute details—necklines, fonts, texts—that it's easy to fixate on individual items while ignoring the overall effect you wish to produce. To bring everything together and create a unified feel to your wedding, picking a theme is a good way to focus. Rather than simply thinking 'Do I like this or not?', the thought 'Does this fit with the key theme of the wedding?' can bring much-needed clarity to decisions.
Picking a theme does not necessarily mean flying to the Maldives or asking your guests to dress up as pirates. A phrase, a quotation or a concept can be the theme; or the bride may choose to theme her wedding around a specific heirloom object. In many cases the guests may not be aware of the theme, but they will notice the harmonised mood of the wedding.
Focusing Your Wedding Around a Key Phrase
Sometimes a short phrase can summon up exactly what the bride wants her day to embody, whether it be 'Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face', 'Diamonds are a girl's best friend' or 'Scarlett O'Hara picnic'. This phrase can then be brainstormed to correlate to specific details—fonts, flowers and fabric.
For example, a Christian couple may choose the phrase 'a threefold cord shall not be broken'. Their wedding may be decorated with twined cords and tassels, plaited ribbons, a colour scheme of three shades, Celtic knotwork imagery and braided hairstyles.
A multiracial couple might theme their wedding around the concept 'two cultures joining', and celebrate their wedding with whimsically-combined cultural icons, customs and styles.
Or a couple whose marriage will blend two families might choose an 'All of us together' wedding which focuses on the whole family. Photographs of the children could decorate the tables, and the wedding might involve child-friendly food, bubble-blowing wedding favors and a service customized to acknowledge the children's presence.
Other theme phrases could be a line from a Shakespearean sonnet, a proverb, or a quotation from a book or film.
After choosing a phrase, brainstorm ideas with your planning crew so you are all completely sure of what it means. Then write the phrase on a card and carry it around to the fabric store, florist or shoe shop. If the item clashes with your theme, don't buy it!
Focusing Your Wedding Around an Object
A variation on the theme phrase is to use an object instead of words to evoke your dream wedding. This can be a useful tool for brides who 
have no idea what they want. Instead of haphazardly choosing choosing various colours and styles you like, wait until you see an object—shoes, dress, teaspoon, clock—you love, and then figure out what goes with it! Something as simple as a Victorian hatpin or a child's teddy bear could hold the key to a dream wedding.
Again, brainstorming ideas based on the object is essential. Look for similar items on Ebay or the internet to gather ideas for items of a similar style or time period to yours. Then take a photo of the item, stow it in your purse and use it as a reference when purchasing.
