10 Travel Themed Wedding Ideas + A Travel Theme Real Wedding!

We’ve got a double feature today! First, I want to share a some travel themed wedding ideas with you. Then, there’s more inspo at the bottom of this article with a real travel-themed wedding that has a lot of personal details!

I receive all sorts of wonderful, gorgeous, summery photo submissions that feature not only eye-catching weddings with inspiring décor, but also the lovely warm sun, waves crashing again the rocks and guests wearing summer attire.

I keep day dreaming about being on a tropical island with a cold slushy drink in my hand, as I listen to a steel drum band.  I got back to the real world, logged off Expedia, and put together some travel-inspired wedding ideas for you all!

Travel Themed Inspirational Ideas

1)  Travel Themed Save-the-dates

Are  the first impression to your wedding style, feel and what your guests can expect.  Why not send out boarding passes to announce the upcoming event and theme!

2) Travel Themed Wedding Programs

Wedding programs are a great way to let your guests know what is going on and can also introduce the wedding party.  For a travel theme, why not make them into passports.

Photography by Christine Farah

3) Extra touches

Add little travel charms, such as these that you can find on eBay. Extra touches really tie the whole theme together.

4) Confetti & Confetti Alternatives

If you are allowed to have confetti at your wedding venue location, you can make confetti holders out of maps made into cones.

Have the guest throw airplanes instead of rice (via Make Moments). Use them as centerpieces (via Wedding Bee) or to send off for save the dates (via Martha Stewart). Simply add them to your engagement session.

5)  Travel Theme Place Cards

Here are a few unique ways to display your guest’s place cards for a travel theme.

Folded air planes listing guest names and table number.

6) Travel Inspired Centerpieces

Use globes, old books and vintage suitcases for centerpieces to keep with the travel charm. Use dinner menus as another way to display the travel element by adding either a flag or pictures of a certain destinations on the back.  Paper Pinwheels made out of maps adds character and can save you money from having to buy extra flowers.

7) Travel Themed Guestbooks

Write instructions on a chalk board asking guests to “Send you Across the World” by writing their names and their most favorite destination is in the world is–what a fun idea!

Or get guest to sign a post card and leave them in the mail box. 

8) Travel Theme Wedding Cake Topper

Find a cake topper that is travel related like a plane, map & trunk, or better yet make the whole cake a suitcase!

9. Vintage Suitcases

Have your flower girls carry them instead of a basket (via Green Wedding Shoes). Use them as centerpieces (via Green Wedding Shoes) or as a card box (via Style Me Pretty).  Have them as a prop via Love and Lavender.

10. Maps

Clip up some maps for a unique photobooth backdrop (via Green Wedding Shoes) or use them to line your shoes via Caroline Tran. Pin guests’ seating assignments to a map (via Style Me Pretty) or use the maps as envelope liners. (via iDiY)

Travel Themed Real Wedding

Jennifer and John were definitely DIY masters as their wedding was overflowing with homemade decor!

Here is what Jennifer said about her wedding day: “After several years of airplanes and adventures in our long distance relationship (we had 3,000 miles of continent between us), our wedding was designed as a nod to our cross cultural relationship. John is a first generation Canadian, his family immigrated from Holland. I am an American and we met in Uganda.  It is a celebration of our motto that life is a journey — marriage simply begins a new chapter of that journey.”

“I never really considered my budget to be small.  In fact, I was honored to have almost $7000 to use. With almost half of that devoted to the photographer, all my dream decorations, food, and festivities had to come out of an even smaller budget. Occasionally I felt the pinch, but I’m thrilled with what I was able to do for less than average.”

“We designed our wedding around the inspiration found in a 1970s National Geographic: full of adventures, experiences, and muted colors. I threaded that theme throughout the day by letting our guests (who flew in from literally all over the world: British Columbia, Holland, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maryland, Arkansas)  experience a horse drawn carriage ride to the ceremony site, creating the adventure of a woodland wedding ceremony (complete with spiders and squirrels!), all while filling the day with pops of happiness yellow.”

“I chose to use maps everywhere to enjoy not only the many miles we’d traveled full of adventures as a long distance, multi-cultural couple, but also to symbolize the continued  journey as we continue our life together (we started the journey with a honeymoon road trip across the country — 3200 miles in twelve days).

“I collected globes from friends and family, I used mod podge and vintage maps to create our cake topper monogram, I cut photos out of National Geographic to create the bunting streamers. I painted vases yellow and filled them with pinwheels made of maps. I scoured thrift shops and collected 50 picture frames, repainted them yellow, and lined the pathway with these symbols of adventures-yet-to-be-had, photos-to-be-taken. I collected vintage suitcases and filled them with part of my collection of National Geographic.”

“One of John’s uncles handed us ice cream (homemade & delicious!) as we were finishing family photos; we slipped a few feet away from the crowds and sat down on the front step of the cabin we’d converted into a reception hall.

“Sitting there with our ice cream, we watched my cousins play lawn games, we heard the ice cream machine clunking through its routine, we saw family becoming friends and friends mingling with family.  The nieces were playing with flowers and pinwheels, the littlest cousins were weaving through the party on bicycles, and everyone was reveling in the day.  So many smiles. That is the perfect moment.”

Advice to Other Brides

“Dr. Seuss said it well, ‘Why fit in when you were born to stand out?'”

“To other brides wanting to create a unique, memorable wedding day, I say DO IT.  You have a vision unlike anyone else, so follow it!  In my case, the very people who couldn’t fully grasp my vision of a middle-of-the-woods-with-burlap-roses wedding (and questioned my decisions along the way) are the same people who had loads of fun at our wedding and raved about it for months afterwards.”

Vendors

Dress:  Hong Phu in Ho Chih Minh City, Vietnam
Cake: The Bread Basket, Floyd, VA
Photography: Red, White, and Green
Hair: Sheri Killion of Floyd, VA
Venue:  Mountain View Bible Camp in Dugspur, VA