by Elizabeth Watts
By preparing a wedding website or newsletter you get a chance to craft your own love story! You can draw people into your wedding by weaving a fascinating, funny, or romantic tale. A little forethought is all it takes to get you started telling the world about the person you love.
Begin with the Basics
You could think of your relationship kind of like a movie plot: Girl and guy meet. They fall in love. Something drives them apart. But in the end true love prevails.
Here’s a basic storyline:
- Set the stage by describing of how you first met. Contrast what your life was like before your soon-to-be mate entered the picture with life afterwards.
- Add interest and excitement by telling a decisive moment when you almost broke up or ended up moving closer together. Creating tension in your story this way makes your audience care about what happens to you as a couple.
- Finally, present the proposal—the moment you knew you were meant to be together.
Give Both Sides
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Make it interesting by each of you sharing your perspective on the relationship. Not only will this make your story more dynamic for readers, but discussion brings out details you might have missed if one of you wrote the story alone. Plus, you never now what surprising or sweet thoughts your finance might reveal while talking about your time together! Writing about your relationship for other may help you achieve clarity in your own mind.
You take turns and tell your side of the story one after the other or make it an interactive dialogue. Another effective alternative is to write in the third-person, using your first names. Your story will sound creative, like a fairy tale.
Open Up Your Heads (and Hearts)
In order to get others involved in your sentimental story, you need to share your emotions. Write what each of you were thinking and feeling when you first met and during the proposal.
Thoughtful questions to spark your memories:
- What was your first thought when you met me?
- Did you think we would end up together or never see each other again?
- What were you thinking right before you proposed?
Add Sensory Detail
Good sensory details make your reader feel like he or she is right there with you. When telling your story, try to include memories that use each of the five senses: sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing.
Sensory questions to ask yourselves:
- What were you wearing that day?
- Was the weather freezing, hot, raining?
- Did you hear music playing? Can you remember the song?
- What smells were in the air?
- Did you have dinner of lunch? What did you eat?
Introduce the Wedding Party
Tell who these people are and how they relate to you as a couple. If you can, include pictures of your wedding attendants to help your visitors visualize the person you’re talking about. It always helps to be able to put a name with a face.
Another intimate touch: by each member of your wedding party write why you want them in the wedding. Tell them how much they’ve meant in your life or share an inside joke between you.
Connect to Your family
Depending on how close you are to your family, and how involved they are in your wedding, you may also want to add pictures or thoughts from siblings and parents as well. You can use their input too in telling your story.
- What did your dad say to you about your fiancé after they first met?
- Is your mom "helping" you plan your wedding?
- What kind of wedding did your parents have? What do they think about it now?
- Are you incorporating your family heritage or traditions in your wedding? How?
Together, all these elements will add up to one terrific story—your own tale of love and marriage.
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