CDH and I are moving into a new house in 16 days.  This is the first time we will be living in a house without flatmates, so all the interior decorating falls to me (this is not a bad thing). I’m thinking a lot about how to tie the somewhat worn furniture we have to the fresh, new, gorgeous house we will be habitating. I’ve been wondering about themes, and that got me on to thinking about wedding themes.

I’ve always been of the school of thought that any event – especially an event as large and important to you as a wedding – needs a theme, if for no other reason then to tie your thoughts together in your mind, and help you decide which of your seven-million ideas to use and which to discard.

But is a theme actually necessary? I always advise brides and grooms to think of their theme as one of the first activities of wedding planning. But what if that’s limiting? What if that’s taking precious time away from thinking about the complexities of marriage, and placing the focus on the wedding “aesthetic”.

I do think aesthetics are important, because I’m a girl and I like to look at pictures of our wedding and think “dam, we looked kick-ass!” But do some couples worry overly about theme and aesthetics and creating a “look” and a “feel” and lose something of the aspect of their wedding?

Can’t a theme simply be “stuff we like”? Couldn’t a theme be “hey, we’re getting married. How cool is that?”