Include Your Groom in the Planning

You know you love this guy and you can't wait to marry him, but how do you get him to add some input into the wedding details?  I asked myself the same question as I was planning my own wedding.  My husband doesn’t say much, unless it’s about guy stuff, so discussing wedding plans was one of the last things he wanted to talk about.  I wanted to make sure the wedding wasn’t all about me.  Sure it would be girly, but I wanted to find a way to incorporate him as well.
He only had a few things he was very adamant about; an outside reception in our front yard and no Church for the ceremony.  Well, I gave in to the front yard reception, but he had to compromise on the Church part.

The next task was to stop and listen to some of the cues he was giving me as I mentioned wedding details.  I knew he wanted to be comfortable and feel like he was in his own element, without the stress of being put on stage, so I went with a family table dinner seating arrangement.  Instead of being up on a stage or risers, we opted to be in the center of our guests and invited our parents and grandparents to sit at our “head table” with the bridesmaids and groomsmen.  It felt like we were just sitting down with the people we would normally have Christmas dinner with; in other words, comfortable.

My husband hated the idea of tuxedos; too traditional, uptight and uncomfortable for him. Instead of tuxes we opted for khaki pants and a button up dress shirt.  All of which I found on sale and he could wear again, if needed.  I even decided to one up the attire and allow him to wear his “work boots”, which he lives in (no tennis shoes for him).  But the week before the wedding I realized his boots had reached their last days, so I went out and bought a new pair of Doc Martens as a substitute; new, but casual and he could wear them again.

My husband is very in to tractors, Farmall to be exact.  I wanted to add in some of his cute tractors that he played with as a child and decided the cake table would be a perfect place for the splash of red.  Just that little touch of red on the table didn’t detract from any of the other areas of the “girly” type décor, but made him feel a part of the décor, or maybe I should say, I felt like he was a part of the decor. 

Even though I wasn’t able to incorporate all of the hints he gave me, for fear of a redneck party, I was able to add some smaller touches that made him feel comfortable and in his own element so he could enjoy the fun day as well.  We ended up with a perfect blend of his and her styles.

We would love to hear about some of the ways you incorporated your fiancé/husband into your wedding details, so please leave us a comment below.