While this is not about traveling to far off destinations, it’s about incorporating that love into your big day! Here are the details of our travel theme wedding in Cincinnati!

I’ve always been a big “theme” lover. Our baby has a travel theme nursery, and my sisters threw me a travel theme baby shower. I even turned our home decor into one giant travel theme too!

It’s just how I am- love it or hate it! My penchant for themes though began here though, with our wedding:

For my husband John and I, travel has always been a big element of our relationship. It is something meaningful to us individually, as well as together as a couple.

The decision to give our wedding a travel theme was based on that, not just “oh I like vacations too, what a cute idea!”.

If you are thinking about a travel theme wedding, make sure travel is an integral element of your life and relationship- and that the theme isn’t something you’ll regret.

It might be “trendy” and cute for now, but make sure you won’t get sick of it in the future!

I should mention…putting this together was not easy! It took 15 months of brainstorming, collecting pieces, and staging displays.

Cincinnati can get chilly in October so if you prefer some place warmer, there’s always different venues in California. It all came together wonderfully, but not without a LOT of time and hard work.

Here are some of the main travel elements we incorporated into our day:

Some links in this post are affiliate links, meaning if you book or buy something through one of these, I may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you!).

Reception Decorations

Wooden Direction Sign

Part of our entry display, this piece was handmade by my husband. Each direction sign pointed to somewhere we had traveled to together, and I painted the names and distances onto the different arrows.

While we did include travel locations, we also had arrows for our hometowns, our future home, our honeymoon destination and engagement location, and where we first met.

Vintage Suitcases & Globes

To acquire this display, we went to many yard sales! We borrowed from friends, and even found a suitcase in a neighbor’s trash pile.

I had envisioned a big entry display in my head, and these vintage finds (arranged artistically as they are) were the perfect welcome pieces.

International Food Stations

Instead of the traditional “chicken and veggie” dinner, we decided to do stations for our guests.

We worked with our caterer to come up with three separate food stations, each based on a different country. This was maybe the most complimented part of our wedding reception 😊.

We settled on Thailand, Mexico, and Italy- and it was delicious! I also bought little flags for each country and had them set up around the food lines. We also made a poster (with a map border) detailing the options.

The Seating Chart

In the back area, we had a seating chart displayed. I purchased a giant map, attached it to a large piece of foam-board, and stood it on a large photo stand.

I wrote guests’ names and table assignments on small luggage tags, and did my best to artistically tape these in a nice display over the map.

We also had a framed sign next to the seating chart which stated “where in the world are you sitting?”, as well as some additional pieces like a travel-themed guest book, etc.

The Table Names

Because I’m extra, each table was named for a country that either I or my husband had been to. The tables had the corresponding name and number printed over a photo we had taken while there. I also used small globe photo holders to hold up the number signs.

The Centerpieces

This was the part of the decorations that took the most time, effort, and dedication. Each table was a little different, and I had to coordinate several elements.

In general, we had vintage books, flowers in a variety of vases, and some sort of globe. Collecting these was a daunting task, given we had 33 tables!

Yard sales, craft shops, estate sales, and home decor stores were the main places we found most of these items. I gathered all these pieces the week before the wedding and set up “mock” centerpieces arranged how I liked.

I then photographed the setups, put the items all in separate bags, and assigned someone to set them up on the big day. Am I crazy? 🤪 Yes…

The Little Details

Map-Paper Flowers on the Wedding Cake 

Wedding Card Holder

Vintage suitcase with a handmade garland

Map Paper on the Vases

I did this on several of the centerpiece and side table vases using map print scrapbook paper and mod-podge.

Groom’s Cufflinks

The Flowers and Colors of the Wedding

While most of my adult life I had known I wanted my wedding colors to be blue, green and yellow, I didn’t realize that they would also blend in nicely with the color scheme of most globes! Coincidence?

Map Pinwheel & Garland Embellishments

I had these cute pinwheels scattered all over the place- they made their way into the flower vases, bar table, and attached to all of the signs I made with our wedding Instagram hashtag.  

Banner 

This was made out of map paper, and made a great focal point above the seating chart. Although it was a bit tricky to tell that it was made from maps, at least I knew!

Before the Wedding

Save the Dates

These “set the stage” for the overall feel of the big day, and gave our guests a little taste as to what our wedding day would be like. They were printed to look like actual postcards, per below:

Wedding Invitations

• I chose a map with colors that fit our wedding scheme, and had my friend create these beauties. In addition to the invitation, I printed off map paper, and cut my own envelope liners so each invitation had a beautiful map inlay.

Church Ceremony Programs

Remember to go for consistency! The programs were the same map and font from our invitations.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. For questions about where I purchased certain items,  email me: michelle at greatwidetravel.com

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