How to Host a Geeky Wedding

Posted June 21, 2017

I’m happy to announce that my husband and I will be celebrating our 1st anniversary this coming Sunday! While the past year has slipped by quickly, I’m more lamenting that June is already nearing an end, meaning my summer is zipping by way too fast!

Last year I shared a few of the DIY projects we made for our wedding. I never got around to doing a full round up of all the little ways we made our day extra geeky though. Keep reading to learn how we hosted a geeky wedding day!

Magic the Gathering Wedding Cake Topper

For anyone who doesn’t know, my husband and I met at Collector’s Connection. We both went weekly to play Magic the Gathering at Friday Night Magic.

It only made sense to make the focal fandom of our wedding cake be Magic the Gathering. Check out my prior post to see how we made the custom acrylic light-up MtG cake topper at our local Makerspace.

While we’re on the topic of cakes, I might as well share our whole cake at this point too. We wanted to highlight some of our favorite fandoms while again not being too over the top. We decided to go with 3 different symbols in a monochrome color scheme.

Ron chose the Legend of Zelda Hyrule emblem. I went with the white tree of Gondor banner from The Lord of the Rings. We both chose the Borderlands symbol since that is a video game we often play together. We had tried to come up with something not too demonic from Supernatural, but couldn’t decide on one.

LED Magic the Gathering wedding cake topper

Magic the Gathering Save the Dates & Totoro Invitations

Our save-the-date cards were definitely the most overt geeky item in our wedding. We did have both our mothers “proof” them to ensure they’d be understood by all the non-geeks we were inviting. They passed the test. There are a few website that allow you to make custom trading cards. I think we used Magic Card Maker.

There’s something whimsical, magical, and (often) romantic about the stories Hayao Miyazaki creates. I’ve been a big fan of his works since I was little (starting with My Neighbor Totoro). Using Photoshop and Illustrator, I designed our invitations myself based on inspiration I found online.

Settlers of Catan Wedding Centerpieces

My husband and I love playing board games together. Full credit for the idea of our centerpieces goes to him! His wonderful idea and hours of testing different iterations yielded centerpieces that were super nerdy for those who play the game, but still beautiful for those who didn’t have a clue.

Check out my prior post on our Settlers of Catan centerpieces to see how we represented all the different in-game resources.

Wool Settlers of Catan board game centerpiece

Of course we had to have a seating chart to go with our tables. We created a giant posterboard with our “island” and listed everyone’s names and table numbers underneath.

8-Bit Heart Wedding Guest Book Shadow Box

The wedding guest book seemed like one of those traditions that was a little dated for our tastes. We didn’t want a book that would collect dust on some forgotten shelf. We decided on a twist of the modern shadow box guest book idea.

This would allow us to hang it on the wall as an art piece and as a reminder of everyone who helped us celebrate the special day. A family friend built the wooden frame shadowbox as our wedding gift. I custom ordered the 8-bit heart shapes from Casey’s Wood Products.

Here’s the file for the instructional sign I created for the shadowbox.

Super Mario Video Game Card Box

The idea for our card box also came from my husband…and he likes to say he isn’t creative…pfft. Our card box gave a nod to our passion for playing video games; specifically the NES, N64, and Super Mario. Take a peek at how we made our Nintendo 64 video game card box.

Entertainment -Game Table & Giant Dice

We realized that not every enjoys dancing, so we wanted to offer another option for our guests. We setup a simple game table that included decks of cards, dice, Yatzee! score cards, and instructions for Farkle. The back page of our wedding program also included coloring pictures for the little folks (and creative artists) in attendance.

I don’t know about you guys, but I cannot stand glass-tinking at weddings; meant to get the bride and groom to kiss. We humored our guests the first time, but then instated our rules for the night. We had a giant pair of foam dice that people had to roll. A successful roll of 7 (aka ‘the robber’ in Settlers of Catan) was the magic number to get us to smooch.

Geeky Wedding Ceremony Music

When it came to the actual wedding ceremony, my husband and I opted to keep that more traditional. We take our vows seriously, so wanted our short and sweet ceremony to also share that sentiment. That being said, we made a couple nods to our geekiness.

The first is the music we chose to be played while guests were waiting for the ceremony to start. There are many beautiful options to choose from when looking for music. I’d recommend just about any piano or string instrument rendition of your favorite themes and scores. Here’s some of our playlist:

Before the Ceremony-

The Fellowship of the Ring Soundtrack-02-Concerning Hobbits
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Joe Hisaishi
My Neighbor Totoro Theme or “Path of The Wind” by Joe Hisaishi
Halo 2 Theme
Harry in Winter –Harry Potter

Wedding Party Processional-

Final Fantasy: Main Theme

Bride Processional-

Lord of the Rings – Aníron (the song was cued when Enya starts to sing)

Bride/Groom/Wedding Party Recessional-

Star Wars The Throne Room/End Title

Second, we did custom write our vows together and gave a small nod to our game playing within them, “I will always be your player 2…”

Geeky Wedding Gifts

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the ‘thank you’ gifts we got our wedding party -all of whom are nerds themselves.

My husband got his guys drinking horns (picked up from our local Renaissance festival) and superhero shirts.

I got my ladies weapons from their favorite fandoms. A Luna Lovegood wand with display stand to add to my Maid of Honor’s collection, and a purple lightsaber for my bridesmaid.

More Geeky Wedding Inspiration

Looking for some geek themed love quotes? Check out the fandom themed list I curated.

Having a Star Wars or comic book themed wedding? Check out my comic book Star Wars shoe tutorial.

Want inspiration for a geeky proposal? Check out the “birthday” scavenger hunt my husband sent me on. Or the giant list of geeky engagement and wedding rings I rounded up.

Remember, at the end of the day it is you and your partner’s day. Make the day special to the two of you, whatever that means for you guys. Congratulations and happy planning! Remember to take things one step at a time and to start as early as possible 🙂

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