Thematic Elegance

Apparently every wedding is supposed to have a theme. It seems like these themes usually involve the word, “elegance”: Simple Elegance, Casual Elegance, Calla Lily Elegance, Victorian Elegance, Autumn Elegance, My-Day-MUST-Be-Perfect Elegance, Barking Mad Elegance, Spray-Tan Elegance . . . . You get the idea.

Image from pbtanandtravel.com.

At the recommendation of Miss Pineapple over on weddingbee.com, I read A More Perfect Union: How I Survived the Happiest Day of My Life. When the author, Hana Schank, and her fiancé (both of whom are Jewish) began planning their wedding, they had this discussion about their theme:

"Well, the magazines say that a good way to start planning a wedding is to pick a theme, and everything else follows."
"Oh man," he said. "What kind of theme?"
"They suggest things like 'Hearts and Flowers,' or, you know, 'The Wild West,' that kind of thing."
"Like, 'Romance Under the Sea'?"
"Yeah," I said. "I'm thinking maybe we should go with 'Man's Inhumanity to Man.' "
"What about, 'Anti-Semitism Through the Ages'?" asked Steven. "I mean, it is going to be a Jewish wedding."
"Ooh, good one. We could do a Czarist Russia table, a Spanish Inquisition table, a Nazi Germany table."
"The possibilities are endless, really. That's what makes it a good theme."

This has gotten me thinking – what’s our wedding theme? As much as I like “Man’s Inhumanity to Man” (wink), it’s not really our style. And since I’m not remotely elegant (I tripped over my own feet today at work), I suppose that anything involving “elegance” is out. The colors we plan to use are black and white, but that’s not a theme, it’s a color palette, right?.

In vain I searched good ole’ Martha Stewart’s website for theme concepts that fit what we are trying to accomplish. And theknot.com wasn’t any help either. But

Courtney over at apracticalwedding.com nailed it. “The theme of our wedding is marriage.” Amen, sistah.