The pandemic may have slowed down wedding season, but TikTok user @kelseymckinleyyy helped fill our need to live vicariously through picture-perfect receptions by asking others to share the most unique things they had or did during their nuptials.
Kelsey went first: "Ever since I was a little girl, my mom and I collected old vintage china plates from yard sales. I loved all the floral patterns. When I got engaged, I knew the one thing I wanted at my wedding, and that was old, mismatched china plates."
Upon hearing her story, other brides quickly jumped in. Here are some of the most creative responses:
1. "For our table numbers, we put pictures of ourselves at that age. So table one, there's pictures of us at 1 year old..." and so on.
2. "We had a tattoo bus outside, so this is me, getting this little tattoo on my wedding night. We probably had a total of 10–15 guests that got tattoos."
3. "At our wedding, there was obviously two brides. We didn't want one person waiting on the other and then turning and only one of us having the first look, we both wanted it. So... instead of having one center aisle, we had two side aisles... Our dads walked us down the side aisles...and we got that first look when we turned."
4. "My husband and I got married right on the Canadian-US border line. ... We had our American family on one side and our Canadian family on the other side. Due to the border closures during the pandemic, this was the only way we could have both of our families present for our wedding."
5. "We had all of the women who would be participating in the bouquet toss grab one of these cool skeleton keys. ... When it was time for our bouquet toss, we had all of them line up and they got to try their key to see if they could unlock the glass box that we were keeping the bouquet in. I thought it was different, it was cool, and it didn't mean that just the tallest chick would catch the bouquet."
6. "Anthony had me make an end table for his bride using their wedding bouquet."
7. "My uncle made this awesome donut display...it was like my favorite part! We put our dog's face on our cocktail napkins...and [guests] used a Polaroid camera to take pictures for our guest book and sign."
8. "A puppet minister...and a DeLorean for our photos."
9. "We had food trucks. ... My choice was a taco truck and my husband picked a BBQ truck. ... This ended up being less than $10 per person, and we got huge portions, and everyone was saying how good the food was. I 20 out of 10 would recommend a food truck wedding."
10. "We had Pop figures that look like us as our cake topper and, because I love ice cream, we had an ice cream cart that served all our favorites."
11. A tube man!
12. "My partner and I both met in a costume store. ... Our theme was based on Peter Pan...and, because we're both a part of the cosplayer community, we invited our friends to come in cosplay. ... The groom's side was all pirates and my bridal party was all fairies."
13. "We chose to have a bottle of whiskey as our guest book. And not just any bottle of whiskey – a Jameson bottle of whiskey because Jameson is my maiden name. Every year on our anniversary, we take a shot out of that bottle together."
14. "My dad died before we got married, and I added this charm to the back of my shoes so he could walk me down the aisle and be with me on my first dance."
15. "Because we were blending two families together — my husband had four kids and I had two — we wanted to do something unique. ... We took this tree, which will bloom very pretty flowers, and we all added dirt into it. ... We're currently building a house, so that tree, with that soil, will be planted at the new house."
16. "We did cakes as centerpiece. It saved us so much money and everyone loved it!"
What is something unique you had, or want to have, at your wedding?
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.