Remembering Lost Loved Ones
Your wedding day will forever be marked as one of the most important days of your life. It’s spent celebrating an everlasting love between you and your significant other, surrounded by your closest family and friends. Sadly, not every loved one will make it as a guest to your wedding. Though it can be a sensitive subject, you can incorporate passed loved ones into your wedding day as an ode to their love and life. With these suggestions on remembering your loved ones that cannot attend, your wedding day will be that much more special!
A Framed Photo Tribute
Orchard Photography
Create a space at your ceremony or reception dedicated to your lost loved one by framing a photo. You can add some of their favorite objects and a sign with a beautiful quote.
Stitched with Significance
One of our favorite trends for remembering important figures as well as crossing off “something borrowed” or “something blue,” is by stitching a piece of your loved one’s clothing into your dress. It can be a small piece of fabric from their favorite garment, or simply their name stitched with blue thread!
Balloon & Lantern Ceremony
BCR Studios by Brad
With a balloon or Chinese lantern send-off ceremony, you and your guests will sentimentally celebrate the lives of those who aren’t present. It makes for gorgeous photos which you can capture while holding onto the moment for life.
A Remembrance Candle
Lighting a remembrance candle after you and your husband/wife light the unity candle is a touching way to honor your deceased family members and friends. The candlelight burns with love as a reminder that those who have passed but are not forgotten.
Charmed & Cherished
Jadie Foto
If your nearest and dearest aren’t able to make your wedding day, they can still walk with you down the aisle. Adorn mini photo-frame charms to your shoes or bouquet featuring your family member(s) who will support you in spirit.
Donations
If you lost a family member to an illness and there is a charity that supports their cause of death, make a donation to the group in lieu of reception favors or extravagant centerpieces. Guests will find that a donation to the American Cancer Society is much more memorable than a small tube of bubbles or bunch of breath mints. Most importantly, it will help those in need and commemorate your late loved one.
A Treasured Collage
Orchard Photography
For larger photos, collect multiple frames of those who are mourned. Set them up in a collage manner on a table at the reception so that your guests can pay their respects and remember both you and partner’s loved one(s).
Placed in the Program
You can make an ode to your family members or friends by simply placing “in loving memory of those who cannot be here with us today” in your ceremony programs. This ensures that guests will recognize the memorial.
VIP Seating
Orchard Photography
Orchard Photography
A beautiful way to remember your loved ones is by placing a photo of them in the front row of the ceremony seating. You can also opt to place their favorite keepsake in their seat; it will mean a lot to have a part of them there as you and your beau say “I do!”
Dancing in Memory
Did your parents have a beloved special song? Do you still sing every word to that silly tune you and your best friend danced to? If so, you can ask the DJ to play that melody as your first newlywed dance. You are sure to smile and share some happy tears as you dance and remember those who couldn’t attend the reception.
When you’ve lost someone close to you, the special moments of your life can be even more emotional. You want to share your excitement with them! By honoring their memory with one of these – or your own – tribute, you can be sure their spirit is there with you.
