Vintage Themed Wedding Ideas That Shine

What’s old becomes new again when you opt for a vintage themed wedding – we can promise without hesitation that vintage wedding themes are something that will never go out of style. While some of us yearn for the simpler times of yesteryear, it’s important to understand that those simpler times were usually poorer times too, which means that lavish weddings were an extravagance not many could afford. So don’t think that a vintage wedding filled with nostalgia and romance has to be expensive. It needn’t be.

Sure, if you go for a Gatsby-style wedding then the dollars will add up quickly, but there are plenty of other eras and styles that you can choose from. We’ve put together the following list of vintage themed wedding ideas that will be beautiful, thrifty and very chic.

Starting with the venue, avoid the opulence of a traditional wedding venue and head to the country to find converted barns or an old timber winery. You’ll save money on the venue hire and decorating with vintage flowers, lace, old timber crates and bunting lights and tea lights in mason jars all combine together beautiful for a vintage venue. Lighting is one of the easiest ways to capture a vintage style, so why not pick up some battery powered fairy lights from your local $2 dollar shop (make sure they emit yellow light, not blue/white light) and then you can use these to wrap around features of the room like archways, mantels or lecterns.

Use a wide range of mismatched gold rimmed crockery on your tables to give a luxe look for less. The combination of creams, turquoise and pink won’t overtly impact your otherwise white wedding at all.

Both outside and inside you can use old chalkboard signs with decorative calligraphy to great effect. Use them to provide directions outside, to present seating plans and to label jars of your candy buffet. The impact of these will be huge and not be expensive at all.

Run this chalkboard idea into your wedding bomboniere by using our faux-chalkboard vintage wedding chocolate bars with silver foil and be really clever and thrifty by adding guest names to each one so that they double as both a wedding favour and a place card. Take this one step further and add your menu to the chocolate wrapper so your favour becomes a vintage triple-threat.

If chalk isn’t your thing, you can opt to use lace throughout the vintage wedding, using it for table clothes, wrapping it around chairs, centrepieces, floral bouquets and more. For more ideas on lace, check out our other post, Ideas For A Lace Wedding.

Other items that certainly lend themselves to a vintage wedding include hessian, pearls and calico. Hit the op shops and find yourself as many mismatching crystal decanters as you can to use as decorative water bottles on each table. Create an arrangement of decanters, candles and flowers on an old mirror in the centre of the table to really add a little drama.

Use old picture frames to create photo wall of your life together so far or if you can stretch the budget, why not rent a few old polaroid cameras and as photos are taken through out the night, have your guests peg them to a twine line by the entrance. This will look great, and you can bag them up on the way out and enjoy them during the honeymoon.

You may have noticed we haven’t touched on the wedding dress yet – when it comes to vintage you have three options. Find one at a thrift shop, buy one new (which seems at odds with the whole plan above) or borrow one from one of your relatives. Wearing your grandmother’s wedding dress gives such a lovely nod to your family heritage. You can add pearls, or feathers or veils to give it your own vintage twist – the choice is yours.