Vintage Book Themed Wedding

Pastel colours make this vintage book inspirational photo shoot extra pretty. A backyard swing, a gorgeous three tiered cake and colourful books, of course, are additions to the day.

Details for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

You love books, but not just any book – one of your favourite things is to hold an old book in your hands. You love the smell of vintage books, and you prefer a hard copy of a book to a Kindle or reading from a tablet any day of the week. Since you already love books, consider hosting a Vintage Book Themed Wedding for your big day.

You may want to choose your favourite vintage book in order to further personalise the theme of a Vintage Book wedding, and there are many classic books that incorporate romance and weddings into their main scenes. Any book by the Bronte sisters and most of Charles Dickens’ classics feature at least one romantic couple as leading characters. You can use this inspiration to craft wedding gifts and favours as well as plan the table setting at the reception hall. You can even decorate as if you are sitting in a vintage library.

What to Look for in a Venue for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

You can choose an indoor venue or an outdoor one for the Vintage Book Themed Wedding, but being able to rent out a portion of a local library would really set the tone of the wedding’s theme. Indoors, brides may work to give the venue the look of a local library with vintage books on the shelves. In fact, if a real-life library isn’t available, seek out a historical home with a personal library for the nuptials. Another great indoor venue for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding is a museum.

Should you choose an outdoor venue, there are many great ways to decorate the space so that the Vintage Book theme shines through. Set up easels or signage with quotes from Jane Eyre or Sense and Sensibility. You can even choose quotes from Shakespeare or even something a little more modern, The Princess Bride.

Food for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

If you’ve chosen a particular vintage book, then your food can reflect the time period during which the book was written. For instance, choosing a classic such as Emma or Wuthering Heights would inspire food from the Victorian era.

Individuals during this time period would always partake in an afternoon tea, and should your wedding reception take place in the afternoon, a tea menu would be the perfect way to pay homage to the Vintage Book Themed Wedding.

An afternoon tea menu included sandwiches – tuna, watercress, and cucumbers – and you may also want to consider tea cakes and other pastries such as scones. For an evening wedding menu, you may offer lamb, roasted turkey, or roast beef as the main course. Apple tarts and mince pies, popular during the Victorian era,  are also tasty items to offer the guests.

Budget for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

Many of the items you’ll definitely want for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding can be found in vintage, second-hand stores near home for a low price, which can help to stretch your budget.

Visit your local library to inquire about purchasing library cards (such as were used in a card catalog) for place cards; however, you may have to custom order these items since most libraries see the card catalog as outdated.

Create unique garlands made from recycled books. Custom bookmark favours can now be made online for much less than visiting a printing business.

Visit a few garage sales to find older books, and have family and friends assist in looking for vintage items at a bargain price. Shopping at vintage stores and flea markets where you may find a load of vintage books adds to the fun of planning a Vintage Book Themed Wedding.

Bouquets and Boutonnieres for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

You might opt for a traditional bouquet for the Vintage Book Themed Wedding, but there are some absolutely darling ideas you can use. One of these ideas is a paper flower bouquet. These bouquets are made using the pages of an old book, and you can find the instructions for making the bouquet online for a unique, DIY bouquet. Be sure to add ribbon to the bouquet for a romantic effect.

Not only may the bride’s bouquet be made from paper flowers, but the boutonnieres may also be made with these flowers. Change up your bridesmaids’ bouquets. In fact, toss the idea of your attendants carrying a bouquet and have them march down the aisle with a vintage book and a calla lily tied with a ribbon.

Wedding Invitations for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

The Vintage Book Wedding Theme calls for unique and fun wedding invitations. There are multiple ways to create memorable Vintage Book Wedding Themed wedding invitations.

First, you can use invitations that might reflect a particular time period. If using a vintage Bronte Sisters book, you would want to create elegant and traditional wedding invitations with calligraphy and use vintage-looking stationery.

You could also make a vintage book for the wedding invitations. Use a dark cover and bind the invitation inserts to the cover that you created. These invitations call for calligraphy also, especially if the script looks like the handwriting of someone from the Victorian era.

Favours and Gifts for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

What better way to pull off the Vintage Book Themed Wedding than to offer classic copies of books as wedding favours or gifts! A second-hand book can be found easily and (typically) cheaply, too! If planning to provide this gift to attendants, seek out a vintage copy of one of your attendants’ favourite books. You can also add an autograph at the beginning of the book thanking them for assisting in your big day.

First, head over to the local library. Many libraries will give away older books that are no longer in circulation; if they don’t sell them, it’s possible you could procure them for a very low price. Another place to look for vintage books is at a flea market, where you can often find these books for pennies on the dollar.

Ceremony Decor for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

Create a faux bookshelf as decor for the ceremonial backdrop. Borrow a shelf or two – or build them for the special day – then fill them with vintage books. A table with a vintage typewriter alongside the shelf would also be appropriate.

Set up a wooden easel at the entrance with a love quote from one of your favourite books, written in script.

The flower girl can also enter with paper confetti, fashioned out of the pages of a book,  in hand rather than flower petals. The ring bearer may also carry the rings on the open pages of a vintage book as well.

Reception Decor for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

Set the reception tables with place settings inspired by cards once used as a part of the card catalog, and place bowls of the paper confetti throughout the reception area tables.

You may also use paper flowers as centrepieces for the tables at the reception. Utilise recycled pages of vintage books by wrapping them around vases and candle holders. Some may also want to set up photo booth props using books and shelving. Tables may also be numbered with faux bookmarks and guests can take them home as wedding memorabilia.

You can still use some old bookshelves in the reception area, or you can set up some vintage school desks (particularly those that used an inkwell) as guests enter the reception area.

Outdoor Wedding Ideas for a Vintage Book Themed Wedding

You can use a scene from one of your favourite vintage books to muster up some decorating ideas for your Vintage Book Themed Wedding held outdoors.

Many romantic books that were written during the Victorian Era in the United Kingdom offer scenes set in a lush garden space. The garden itself won’t require much in the way of decorations, and it is a beautiful place to say your vows.

You can also set up your ceremony program as a table of contents page, but perhaps the most unique idea involves creating a spiral book archway set outdoors. Globes may also be utilised, as libraries of yesteryear often contained at least one globe for research and educational purposes.

Vintage Book Themed Wedding

Vintage book themed weddings are lovely – but they’re normally done in neutral and brown tones. Why not girlie it up a bit with the pastels like in this wedding inspiration board? Pastel colours, add an undeniably feminine and romantic vibe to your wedding and would be absolutely perfect for spring.

Incorporating vintage books into your decor for a shabby chic look has never been easier. One creative way to do it is with these table number books from Beach Baby Blues:

Two other ideas I adore: Use a vintage book (like the bird manual shown below) as a guest book! Have guests sign and leave notes in the margins and in the white space on the photographs. For the ring bearer – instead of a traditional pillow – tie the ring on a book!

And finally, you can order a custom coloured collection of books from Beach Baby Blues and use them alongside your floral centrepieces or stacked as a cake stand!

Need some more book loving wedding inspiration? Be sure to check out:

Credits: photo credits: please sign & pastel bouquet < from The Knot, table setting & swing < via Style Me Pretty, cake & invitation suite < from Design by Dainty.