How to Plan a Travel Themed Wedding

We usually spend our anniversary looking back at the fun times we had at our Seattle wedding in August.

We love to travel and it’s something that we wanted to incorporate into our wedding theme. I’m a big fan of vintage travel posters and memorabilia so that was a great jumping off point.

Below, I have outlined how we created a travel themed wedding.

Seattle Wedding Venue: The Museum of Flight

The first thing we nailed down was our Seattle wedding venue. Because of our shared love of airplanes, we decided to hold our wedding at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA.

We had the wedding ceremony and reception overlooking their Great Gallery of planes, which made for a fun photo backdrop.

We held the ceremony and reception in the event space overlooking the Great Gallery at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA. Photo credit: Lucas Mobley

Travel Themed Wedding Place Cards: Tropical Theme

We found blank place cards with tropical flowers on them, which aligned with our travel themed wedding. Photo credit: Lucas Mobley

DIY Wedding Guest Book: Vintage Hawaii Postcards

On one of my visits to Kauai, I picked up several different vintage Hawaii travel postcards at gift shops. We scattered them on our guest book table with pens and asked guests to write their well wishes on the postcards.

It was such a hit that a few guests took extra postcards home as a wedding favor!

Vintage Hawaiian postcards are a fun way to get guests to participate in a guest book at a travel themed wedding. Photo credit: Lucas Mobley

After the wedding, we put the vintage Hawaiian postcards in a Hawaiian themed photo album. The album has clear sleeves so we can see the image on one side and the message on the other side.

Another idea would be to incorporate them into vintage Hawaii home decor.

DIY Wedding Program: Vintage Hawaii Travel Theme

Since we also had a Hawaiian wedding theme, we put one of my favorite vintage Hawaiian postcards on the cover of our wedding program. I chose an off-white paper for the vintage travel theme wedding feel.

I designed our wedding program myself using my favorite vintage Hawaii travel poster as the graphic and then printed them at Costco. Photo credit: Marcie Cheung

Hawaiian Wedding Music: Seattle Area Musicians

It was important to me to have a Hawaiian wedding element to our travel themed wedding ceremony. I’ve been a hula dancer most of my life and the Hawaiian culture has been a big influence on me.

Since we didn’t want a Hawaiian destination wedding, we thought we’d bring Hawaii to Seattle!

Aunty Iwalani Kamahele and Uncle Tiko Ka`eo performed the Hawaiian Wedding Song as I walked down the aisle. Photo credit: Lucas Mobley

Ceremony: Time Capsule

We included a time capsule as part of our wedding ceremony. Everything is more fun when a hammer is involved! Photo credit: Lucas Mobley

Wedding Flowers: Tropical Hawaiian

This gorgeous tropical Hawaiian bouquet by Contemporary Floral tied into our travel theme. Photo credit: Lucas Mobely

DIY Wedding Photo Booth

Our wedding photo booth props included Hawaiian leis, hula skirts, cowboy hats, boas, bow ties and more and were displayed in a vintage reproduction suitcase I found at Marshall’s. Photo credit: Lucas Mobley

I’m a sucker for fun photo ops, so I was determined to create a wedding photo booth at our travel themed wedding.

I had a blast finding fun props and displaying them invintage reproduction suitcases I found at Marshall’s. I found most of the props at our local party supply store and dollar store. The rest I made.

To keep the travel theme, we had grass skirts, feather boas, silk leis, cowboy hats, etc.

Hawaiian Wedding Cake: Tropical Flowers

We added purple orchids to the Hawaiian wedding cake for the tropical travel element. Photo credit: Lucas Mobley

Wedding Dress Change: Chinese Cheongsam

Near the end of the wedding reception, I quickly changed into a Chinese Cheongsam and we hit the photo booth! Photo Credit: Lucas Mobley

Extra Fun: Send Wedding Invitations to White House and Disneyland

When we realized we had some extra wedding invitations, we decided to send one to the White House and one to Disneyland.

We sent them about 2 months before our wedding and we received both greetings back in time to display them at our wedding. It added another travel element, which was fun!

We displayed well-wishes from President and First Lady Obama and Mickey and Minnie Mouse at our wedding photo booth. Photo credit: Marcie Cheung

The White House sent us an official greeting from President and First Lady Obama. It’s a lovely feeling to find a letter from the White House addressed to you personally!

Disneyland sent us this congratulatory autographed photo of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They also sent us a couple of celebration buttons, which were a nice touch. We also received a certificate from Cinderella and Prince Charming.

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• Table numbers could be destinations rather than numbers (i.e. Paris, London, Venice.)
• Postcards could be used instead of table numbers or in addition to table numbers.
• The menu could consist of food from one region or from many regions. Additionally, the cake could be a traditional wedding cake from another country.
• The music could be from a particular country or a global mix.
• You could have a world map and invite guests to mark where they traveled from to get to the wedding. This is great if your guests are from out-of-town. Additionally, you could have guests mark where they went on their honeymoons.

The list is endless! Have fun planning your travel themed wedding!

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