Love to travel and planning your dream wedding? Find out how to plan a travel-themed wedding that people will be talking about for years! Scroll to see how I planned my own travel-inspired wedding in Seattle!
This post about how to plan a travel-themed wedding was written by family travel expert Marcie Cheung and may contain affiliate links, which means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.
This summer, my husband and I will be celebrating our 9 year wedding anniversary.
We are truly amazed with how much our life has changed in these 9 years: I quit my job, we had a baby, my husband changed jobs within his company a few times, we moved, I launched this blog, we had another baby, and I launched 2 more websites.
In between all this, we managed to travel to Hong Kong, Thailand, Mainland China, Italy, Greece, Maui, Kauai, Disneyland, Vancouver, Victoria, Sonoma, Mexico, Walt Disney World, New Zealand, Fiji, and numerous local trips.
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.

Travel Themed Wedding Invitations: Vintage Airline Tickets
We wanted our wedding invitations to reflect the travel theme of our wedding, so I designed them using vintage airline tickets as the outline. I also incorporated a Hawaiian wedding theme since that has been a big influence on my life.
Our RSVP card featured a vintage Hawaiian travel poster image.

We also had small cards for our rehearsal dinner boat trip, also using a vintage travel poster for the graphic. We wrapped them up in shimmery gold paper and mailed in bright blue envelopes. And we found some travel themed stamps!
Seattle Wedding Rehearsal Dinner: Argosy Cruise

What we appreciated most about our Seattle cruise is that our guests got to mingle before the wedding. Since we rented this private Seattle cruise, everyone was a wedding guest.
This was also fun way for us to chat with our guests before the wedding and for both families to get to know one another.
Travel Themed Wedding Place Cards: Tropical Theme

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!

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.

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!

Ceremony: Time Capsule

Wedding Flowers: Tropical Hawaiian

DIY Wedding Photo Booth

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.
Wedding Reception: Hula Dance
I’ve been a professional hula dancer for 25 years and it’s traditional for brides to dance a hula for their husbands at their wedding reception.
Not only was this a great way to emphasize our travel theme, but it also added a unique element to our wedding reception.

Hawaiian Wedding Cake: Tropical Flowers

Wedding Dress Change: Chinese Cheongsam

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!

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.
[irp posts=”1717″ name=”Disneyland with Toddlers: Tips + Itinerary”]
Additional Ideas to Add a Travel Themed Wedding Element
- 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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Clazz - An Orcadian Abroad
Saturday 4th of July 2020
Awww I love this so much! We were supposed to get married two weeks ago, but we've had to postpone it. This has really inspired me to start planning it again though. We are mixing a travel theme with things we love like Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings. I LOVE the postcard idea, and I just adore how much effort you put in to celebrate both your cultures.
marciecheung
Monday 6th of July 2020
I'm so sorry to hear that! Hopefully your wedding will be even more special once the world is a bit healthier.
Emily
Saturday 7th of April 2018
This is so sweet. I love how this wedding really tells the story of the couple!
marciecheung
Saturday 7th of April 2018
Thanks! It was us in a nutshell :)
Ana
Saturday 7th of April 2018
What a fantastic creative way to have a wedding Marcie! I'm dreaming of a destination wedding whenever I get married, but you provided some great tips to think about if that doesn't happen. I loved all of your ideas from the vintage postcards, to the time capsule, the special dance, to the location for the wedding. I pinning this post for future reference and on a group board to share. Thoroughly enjoyed your post - Thanks so much for sharing your special day and creativity.
Daisy
Saturday 7th of April 2018
Aww this is such a super fun and fabulous wedding idea!! I absolutely love all of your creative and fun ideas that brides can use!
marciecheung
Saturday 7th of April 2018
Thanks so much! Wedding planning can be so overwhelming, so just sharing what we came up with!
Erica
Saturday 7th of April 2018
That's amazing that you're a hula dancer. Your travel themed wedding looked fabulous.