My husband and I really wanted to reflect our love for travel in our wedding. So like any human being gearing up for a wedding, I did my Pinterest research. I got some great ideas, but I really wanted to put our own personal touches on it. Some of our decorations were DIY-ed and some were way beyond my scope, so I either Etsy-ed or bought it online. Scroll for some inspiration/ideas.

Seating Chart

The Seating Chart area is a great way to incorporate some travel details. We rented our vintage suitcases from Simply Country Weddings, stacked them on top of each other and topped them with a mix of Etsy and DIY details: handmade pinwheels made from old maps and pencils I spray painted gold, handwritten chalkboard compliments of the Target Dollar Spot, hand-painted globe I got from Etsy. For the seating chart frame, I filled an Ikea frame with a blush and gold map. Names and tables were printed on index cards cut to look like luggage tags. My sister and I DIY-ed the heart garland in the background by using a heart punch tool, string, and a lot of caffeine. The majority of the maps we used were actually all maps of our hometown.

Table Names

Table names are another great and easy opportunity to slip in some travel and personal touches. We named our tables after cities that my husband and I have visited together from Los Angeles to Kobe. I used Canva, a free design software, to add city names and table numbers to photos of us in each place. The frames were gold spray painted 79 cent frames from Ikea.

Candy Bar

Candy Bars are pretty standard fare at weddings, but I thought it’d be fun to put a global twist on it. I went to town at 99 Ranch, Mi Rancho, and Otos Marketplace, searching for our favorite candies from countries we’ve visited.  We had everything from those lychee jelly cups to Kopiko to matcha Kit Kats.

Lawn Games

In addition to the classic beanbag game present at many outside weddings, we also had a bucket of kendama. Kendama are pretty nostalgic for me, since my elementary school students in Japan taught me how to play this traditional folk toy. We picked up a bunch at Daiso.

Ceremony Accessories

This was an Etsy Find. Instead of going with the traditional lace-embellished pillow, we opted for something more personal. This pillow was printed with a map of where we were married. I DIY-ed the flower girl’s basket, adding a map pinwheel embellishment.

Signs

Signs are yet another easy way to personalize. Since our wedding brought two cultures together, many of our signs were in three languages: English, Vietnamese, and Japanese.