A sci-fi themed wedding is a great way you and your beloved can celebrate your union while incorporating your love of science fiction. Whether you choose a general theme, like hard sci-fi, space opera, and so on, or a franchise specific theme, like Star Wars or Star Trek , you'll have to make use of plan tracking techniques to stay on budget and meet your deadlines. Once you have that sorted, you can determine specifics, like venue and decorations, and then utilize those specifics in your plans.
Steps
Part 1
Part 1 of 3:
Creating a Budget
-
Determine your budget. Theme weddings often require special purchases or supplies to create the right atmosphere. This can add on a considerable amount of cost. To prevent yourself from spending outside of your budget, establish a limit for your spending.
- You'll likely want to break your budget down by category to help prevent overspending in specific areas, including food, decorations, entertainment (like a DJ and dance floor), and so on.
- As you plan, you may find that some things are more expensive than you first thought. Prepare yourself to be flexible. You may have to cut some of the more frivolous things to prevent excessive spending.
-
Set a timeline for preparations. There are many things to coordinate when planning a wedding. Make a list of all the major requirements you'll need to pull off your plan. Set specific dates for when you want these requirements fulfilled so you don't fall behind in your planning.
- Some examples of major requirements include: food, decorations, a venue, an officiant, entertainment, a photographer, and more.
- It's best to set early deadlines. Wedding venues, photographers, and entertainment (like DJs or live music) have a tendency to fill up well in advance.
Advertisement -
Record your plans and revise them as necessary. It's best to keep a written record of your plans. As your wedding plans take shape, you may have to make changes, and a written record can help you remember these along with everything else you'll need.
- You may want to use a shared digital document with your future spouse, like a saved file on a cloud account or Google Docs, so you can easily update and keep an eye on plans as they develop.
- An Excel document is a great way of keeping track of your budgeting information. Not only will this keep it orderly, there are powerful Excel math functions that tally things like total cost, saving you from the effort.
Advertisement
Part 2
Part 2 of 3:
Determining a Specific Theme
-
Choose a sub-theme, if desired. Sci-fi is a pretty broad category, and without some specification you could get guests arriving in anything from stormtrooper armor to future punk duds. This may make your wedding too busy or hodgepodge, and detract from the main focus. Some sci-fi sub-genres you might want to use to focus your wedding theme include:
- Apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic
- Cyberpunk
- Hard sci-fi
- Military sci-fi
- Space opera
- Space western
-
Pick a suitable location. Some places will be better suited for a sci-fi themed wedding than others. Churches, for example, might frown on less traditional weddings and decorations. Privately owned locations will likely allow you the most freedom.
- Some private locations that you might have your wedding at include places like camp/park grounds, private property (like your backyard), event halls, and so on. [1] X Research source
-
Plan the overarching style of decorations. You can borrow from your favorite sci-fi scenes to dress up your venue. For example, you might recreate the Yavin IV award ceremony from the end of Star Wars: A New Hope or the opera scene with the Diva from The Fifth Element . Some other scenes to consider include:
- The bridge of the star ship Enterprise, or any one of the featured star ships in the Star Trek franchise.
- The TARDIS interior (from Doctor Who)
- An otherworldly scene that mimics a different planet, like Mars, or a desert planet, like Arrakis from Frank Herbert's Dune Chronicles . [2] X Research source
Advertisement
Part 3
Part 3 of 3:
Planning the Details
-
Create sci-fi themed invitations . Include graphics and designs from your sub-genre or franchise specific themes on your wedding invitations. These might include things like popular characters, devices, spaceships/vehicles, iconic scenes, and so on. [3] X Research source
- Remember to include information about attire for the wedding. If you expect guests to dress the part, you might want to include some simple suggestions.
- You might choose an iconic font, like the opening crawl font used at the beginning of Star Wars , to set the tone of your invitation.
- For example, on a Star Trek themed invite, you might include graphics of phasers, communicators, and a picture of the space station Deep Space Nine.
-
Organize costumes. If you want guest to dress up, many of your friends and family will likely get into the spirit of things and bring a costume of their own. Some guest, however, may not. If you want your atmosphere to be consistent for all guests, you might want to have a few simple costumes on hand.
- For example, if you have a Star Wars themed wedding, you could buy some simple, inexpensive robes so that uncostumed guests will look like Jawas or Jedi. [4] X Research source
- Extra costumes for a Star Trek theme might include some plain colored shirts in the style of crew member uniforms (e.g. red shirts, gold shirts, blue shirts).
-
Get creative with table centerpieces. Simple centerpieces might be made up of action figures from your sub-genre or franchise specific theme. [5] X Research source More elaborate designs might be in the spirit of your sub-genre or chosen franchise, like:
- Model spaceships as centerpieces for space opera and hard sci-fi genres.
- Fake blasters and laser swords for military sci-fi themes.
- Cyberpunk doodads purchased from artisans, like those sold on Etsy or at renaissance festivals. [6] X Research source
-
Select sci-fi tunes for the wedding. For franchise specific weddings (like Star Wars , Star Trek , Doctor Who , and so on) you could use make a playlist of your favorite songs from the franchise soundtrack. For more general themes, you might:
- Choose music that evokes a spacey feel, like The Planets (Holst), Symphony Fantastique (Berlioz), or the Firebird Suite (Stravinsky).
- Use music based on major works of science fiction, like Space Jazz (based on Battlefield Earth ) or Geidi Primes (based on Dune ).
-
Choose a sci-fi menu. If you want to go all out, you can research recipes online that imitate popular dishes from your sub-genre or franchise. However, it might be easiest to simply rename common dishes, like steak, meat, and fish entrees in the spirit of your theme. For example:
- You might call your fish entree the Mon Calarmari Course ( Star Wars ) or the So Long and Thanks for All the Fish Course ( Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ).
- A steak entree could be renamed the Tribble Course ( Star Trek ) or Shai-hulud Steak ( Dune ).
- Vegetarian entrees might be neat if renamed the Avatar Course ( Avatar ) or the Eloi Course ( The Time Machine ).
-
Find a thematically appropriate cake. A wedding cake is often more a decoration than a desert, so it's only fitting that it matches your theme. You might ask a cake shop or a friend who's a master cake baker to design a cake in the shape of: [7] X Research source
- Popular devices and vehicles from your sub-genre or franchise, like weapons, ships, robots, and so on.
- Characters, aliens, or alien animals that are prominent in your chosen sub-genre or franchise.
Advertisement
Expert Q&A
Ask a Question
200 characters left
Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
Submit
Advertisement
References
- ↑ http://greenweddingshoes.com/doctor-who-styled-wedding-inspiration/
- ↑ http://incrediblethings.com/lists/20-super-geeky-weddings/
- ↑ http://offbeatbride.com/australia-sci-fi-wedding/
- ↑ http://incrediblethings.com/lists/20-super-geeky-weddings/
- ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bridal-guide/wedding-ideas-for-star-wars-super-fans_b_7191782.html
- ↑ http://incrediblethings.com/lists/20-super-geeky-weddings/
- ↑ http://offbeatbride.com/australia-sci-fi-wedding/
About this article
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 3,723 times.
Advertisement
