How To Incorporate Heirlooms Of The Family In Your Wedding

Looking to incorporate heirlooms of the family in your wedding? Apart from the wedding day being unique to you and your partner, it is also unique for each of your family plus your extended families. It is a milestone for a generation that parents, the grandparents, the great grandparents, uncles, and aunts may have experienced too. To honor those who came before you, you can decide to include some family heirlooms such as a wedding dress that was used by your mother.

Whatever the heirloom might be, whether it is a veil that your grandmother used, or your great grandmother’s wedding gown, honoring such items that survived the test of time and have meaning and history behind them might be what it is all about.

Heirlooms for the family can be anything from written words to objects which hold some sentimental values. They can be gifted or borrowed to the groom or the bride. When included intentionally in your wedding, they can honor and represent a story, personal heritage, or a family legacy.

How you decide to choose and utilize your family’s heritage on your special day is all up to you. However, it requires some keen planning and thought. Firstly, you want to ensure that you are honoring your family and the heirloom in a respectful and meaningful way. Secondly, you want to ensure that you don’t neglect or misplace it when you meant to.

Check these ideas on how to incorporate heirlooms of the family in your wedding!

• Carry or wear an accessory or an article of clothing

It is one of the easiest and most common ways to incorporate in a treasured heirloom. Heirloom attires include shawls or wraps, veils, and wedding dresses, which might be re-fashioned or in their original state. Accessories might consist of all kinds of jewelry, clutches, and shoes. For a groom, heirlooms might consist of cufflinks, bow ties, tie bars, flasks, and pocket squares. They are some of the ways you can honor relatives on your wedding day.

• Family-owned glasses

While you might not be excited to use special Serving ware for guests at your wedding, it is a great honor for the family if you use specific stemware belonging to relatives. If you are sitting alone, you can toast with these unique glasses at your sweetheart table.

If you are sitting at a table together with your parents, you can mix a set of unique glassware from each family at every place set to share mixed memories from each end of the family. It is a great way to start a conversation that will bring out great memories of those who are no longer with the families.

• Display family photos

A family photo can be an heirloom. Generational wedding photography has become more common at most modern weddings together with surrounding celebrations. They are snapshots that are treasured into the history of the family. Capturing a certain sense of nostalgia, they will become a showpiece or installation that guests admire as they attend your wedding.

You can incorporate framed photos into escort’s boards or welcome tables! However, try to keep frame aesthetics and colors in line with your overall wedding color theme.

• Reuse of family cake topper

Do your grandparents or parents still own a cake topper that they used during their wedding? You can put it into good use again. Anything from rubber ducks to porcelain couple, crystal figurines, teapots, and even paraphernalia for sports have been passed from one generation to the next and can work as your cake topper.

• Wearing family jewelry

Putting on family jewelry is an heirloom that is common at weddings. It could be your grandmother’s pearl strings, your aunt’s locket, or your mother’s diamond earrings. Your great grandmother might have handed down jewelry from one generation to the next that might be the perfect accent for your bridal bouquet.

When you are choosing to use a family heirloom, you have to remember that you are doing something that means a lot to the family. It is an ultimate tribute to the legacy of the family.  You have to ensure that you document the heirlooms and envision how you are going to use them in your day for future generations to also see and incorporate them at their weddings.

If you think that there is something which feels dated, you can respectfully modernize it. This way it incorporates well into your wedding theme and color palette. If it is a recipe, you can replace it into a bite-size version for the cocktail hour or having to pair it with a piece of vintage jewelry together with your wedding dress.  That is why something new can pair up well with something old.

Final Thoughts

The heirloom will make the entire family feel that they are part of your wedding. It is a way to bring the family together. When they look at the heirloom you chose, they will feel proud that they are of your lineage. Both families will feel honored by both of you and, thus, be proud of you.

You should not limit yourself on how to incorporate the heirloom. Be creative and bring the exciting part of the heirloom out for the world to see. It might be great, especially if you are having a vintage themed wedding! This will allow you to use family stuff, thereby reducing your budget. Meaning, it will be easy to get most of what you will require. Form your vintage themed wedding revolving around your two family’s heirloom, and you will not regret it. It will make the wedding planning to be comfortable and fast.

We hope you found a way to incorporate heirlooms of the family in your wedding! For more information regarding other ways to make your wedding unique, check our Ultimate Bride’s Survival Guide. It has all the information you might require to plan a well-organized wedding. It has everything from engagement to the bridal showers to the wedding day to post wedding day dos and don’ts. Get it right by checking out the guide for guidance.

 

Header Image Credit: @jd.ph0t0graphy