Have you ever longed for a handsome prince gently guiding your foot into a glass slipper? Or for a mysterious royal to whisk you away on a magic carpet ride? You might think that the Disney wedding of your dreams is beyond your reach, but when you wish upon a star, someday your prince or princess will come!
To help you put together a wedding worthy of your Prince Charming or Disney Princess, we’re going to explain how to integrate those beloved stories into your big day. With so many ways to transform yourself into a princess on your special day, there’s every reason to explore the possibilities. Read on to learn how to add “an element of fun” to “every job that must be done”!
General Disney Wedding Advice
There’s a lot involved in orchestrating even the smallest themed wedding, so if you need some general advice to get started, check out these pointers.
Guys, I Want a Castle: Choosing Your Location
The fairytale begins with an appropriately magical location. Through the Disney Fairytale Weddings service, you can realize the dream of getting married at a Disney park or resort, but there’s other places you can try, too. Many Disney movies take place in real-life locations, such as 101 Dalmatians in London, Oliver & Company in New York City, or The Princess and the Frog in New Orleans. By hosting a destination wedding in any of these cities, you’re already halfway towards capturing the right atmosphere.
If traveling overseas or across the country isn’t feasible, though, there’s something about a DIY Disney venue, too. When tastefully decorated and carefully coordinated, any church can be Notre Dame, any backyard or garden Sherwood Forest, and any beach home to the Little Mermaid.
Be Prepared: Decorating with Disney
Brighten your day and enchant your guests with the décor you would only see at a Disney wedding. These details bring your ideas and favorite animated worlds to life, so even if you aren’t staying at the Hollywood Tower Hotel, you can still enjoy every minute as if you were!
Our best advice is to take a single character or movie and let that be your wedding planning lodestone. If you haven’t been able to Let Go of the idea of a Frozen-themed wedding since you first saw Elsa, then make generous use of faux snow, glistening glitter, and ice sculptures. Meanwhile, if you can’t get enough of Winnie the Pooh, it would be oh-so-sweet to surprise your guests with cute miniature pots of honey. You could even rustle up some tropical flowers and colorful lanterns for a Lilo and Stitch-themed la’au!
Tale as Old as Time: Creating a Storybook Wedding
Creativity and storytelling are important when it comes to planning a Disney-themed wedding. For example, do you know someone willing to put on a costume for the duration of the ceremony? Have them welcome guests as Cogsworth or Lumière as they walk through the door. Bring the music ringing from your chest – and not your nose – by adding some Alan Mencken, Howard Ashman, and Randy Newman classics to your playlist. How about cookies shaped like the Mickey Mouse ears silhouette for food and refreshments, or a range of tropical fruit juices inspired by Moana? Every table could also be assigned a movie or set of characters – the kids can be “The Lost Boys,” or both partners’ parents can be rechristened “The Incredibles.”
The Greatest Gift and Honor: Rewarding Your Bridal Party
Bridesmaids and maids of honor are like Rescue Rangers, there to circumvent any crises that could occur at the eleventh hour. So, when the ceremony is over, and everyone is ready to live happily ever after, it makes sense to reward the bridal party for their help and support.
And – as you might have guessed – we do have a couple of Disney-themed favor and gift recommendations. A set of personalized mugs will have your recipient exclaiming “Oh boy!” every time they sip their morning coffee. Meanwhile, a cute, themed t-shirt will have each of your bridesmaids blushing and mumbling “Gawrsh.” And for the true Disney aficionado and BFF, a sleek table lamp, cozy blanket, or princess-themed pillow are other ways to say, “Aw shucks! You’re the best, pal!”
A Spotlight on the Disney Wedding Collection
Now comes another fun part. Your guests will immediately realize you’re planning the wedding of a lifetime when they receive your Disney-themed Save the Date card. You can also pair a dazzling invite with a matching envelope, return address label, or RSVP card.
The beauty of the Zazzle lineup is that there are collections devoted to several legendary characters, including Mickey and Minnie, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella. That makes it easy to extend your theme across the board!
Something Sweet: Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney’s most beloved tales, whether you grew up with the 1991 movie or experienced it anew in 2017. In both versions, Belle is fed up with trips to the boulangerie, leading her to discover a prince cursed to take the form of a savage monster. In a love story for the ages, Belle learns to see past his grisly exterior, and the Beast, in turn, grows warmer and more patient with his unexpected house guest.
If you’re a fan of this sweet, meaningful story, then our elegant, gold-tinged designs from the Beauty and the Beast suite are for you. Discover enchanted roses, romantic castles, and your details presented in Baroque fashion. And, as we always say, if it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it.
Everybody Seems So Happy: The Nightmare Before Christmas
If your tastes tend toward the dark side, then consider a wedding that follows the theme of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Originally released in 1993 by Tim Burton and Henry Selick, the movie is heralded as a stop-motion classic and a holiday perennial. In Nightmare, Jack Skellington is the undisputed king of Halloween Town, but even he’s grown tired of the same old routine. However, when he stumbles into Christmas Town and its “electric lights on strings,” he develops a new obsession: kidnapping the “Sandy Claws.”
Our Nightmare Before Christmas suite features somber colors and eerie fonts, but there are pops of color, too. You can live like Jack and Sally if you want with our collection of stickers, party supplies, and stationery.
A Wish Your Heart Makes: Cinderella
A traditional rags-to-riches story, Cinderella loses her birth parents as a child and is forced by her cruel stepmother to serve as a maid. Cinderella’s fortune changes when her fairy godmother gives her a dress, a coach, and a beautiful pair of glass slippers to attend a ball. There, Cinderella meets the handsome Prince Charming, and they fall in love – much to her sisters’ chagrin.
Released in 1950 as an animated film and in 2015 as a live-action movie, Cinderella is the archetypal Disney story. And we bet that, while planning your wedding, you’ve wished for a fairy godmother of your own. While we can’t conjure up a pumpkin carriage or coachman, we can at least direct you to our Cinderella wedding suite. The regal-looking couple takes center stage here, reminding your guests that gorgeous, personalized invitations are only a bibbidi-bobbidi-boo away.
A Hot Dog Day: Mickey and Minnie
The Disney couple that gives us all the feels, Mickey and Minnie, have been an item since their first appearance together in 1929. Talk about a long-term relationship! Mickey is the plucky, brave star of Steamboat Willie in 1928 and Fantasia in 1940 and is well known for his associations with Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck. Meanwhile, Minnie is Mickey’s cute and playful other half and a fashion icon in her own right.
Sprinkle a little luck over your wedding, then, with wedding invitation silhouette designs from the House of Mouse. To further integrate Mickey and Minnie into your big day, consider using their classic black and red color scheme for your wedding day décor. Use patterns like polka dots to emphasize their unique style!
Once you’ve laid out all of your ideas and stationery, you’ll be more excited than ever. Bringing the Disney wedding of your dreams to life will make your special day more magical than ever imagined! If you need more advice – or want to feature some non-Disney characters in your wedding – take a look at our article on “Incorporating Your Favorite Characters into Your Wedding Theme.”
Eoin is a Content Specialist at Zazzle in Cork. He’s recently bought a house with his fiancée, and thus most of his time these days is spent trying to keep the walls from caving in and the wolves from the door. Still, he’s always open to book, game, and movie recommendations, so if you have some, let him know: he’ll add them to a very, very long list.
