Lord Of The Rings Wedding | How To Plan A LOTR Wedding

Choose An Awesome Venue

After considering your vibe/ theme (which if you’re reading this you’ve probably already decided on a Lord of the Rings Wedding theme) & your budget, the next thing in your journey is most likely choosing a venue. A venue can have a big impact on not only the style of the wedding but what they’ll allow you to do. Whether you’re thinking of a Samwise & Rosie style wedding outdoors with folky dancing and singing or a grand ceremony like the coronation of Aragon, a venue could really shape which way you’re going to go.

A venue might also have limitations on the activities you can do at them, for example later in this blog I talk about axe throwing and archery which is obviously an activity which wouldn’t be suited to or allowed at all venues!

We’ve written a blog with some suggestions of the best venues in Nottingham and the surrounding area which could be a good place to start but obviously, a venue choice depends on where you’re planning to get married!

Invitations

Invitations or Save-The-Dates are more than likely going to be the first thing your friends and family are going to see about your wedding so it’s the perfect place to either drop some Lord Of The Rings hints or just go full on in their face with it. There are so many options on Etsy and other places – you can go for anything a subtle nod to LoRTs with ivy and greenery on the invites/ save-the-dates (like the Leaf of Lorien brooches given by Galadriel as gifts to the members of the Fellowship of the Ring) right through to full on Elvish writing or a representation of the Black Speech inscription of The One Ring.

Decorating the venue

Venue decoration can really make your theme pop and in this case, we want to spread little touches of Lord Of The Rings all over your wedding. That can be everything from signs around the venue, centrepieces, flowers, the cake, how the bar is decorated and all sorts! It’s another one of those things that you can go big or just a few little nods to the theme – as always it’s your wedding not anybody elses so make it personal to you!

Lord Of The Rings Wedding Flowers

Wedding flowers are an element of weddings which can often be overlooked but actually, they’ll be a lot of your wedding photos, especially if you have group photos and/ or couple photos so they’re an awesome thing to personalise. It can be as simple as including a little accessory for a bouquet such as having a sword hilt (handle) instead of the handle on your bouquet.

You can go really alternative with wedding bouquets too. Paper bouquets could be made from pages of one of the books or the map of Middle Earth or you could go for something bespoke from a silversmith like CRZyBest like a Leaf of Lorien perhaps or some other intricate delicate jewellery (more on that later!).

The bouquets below were actually from a Doctor Who themed wedding but the idea is the same – they were made from maps of special places to them and the groom had a sonic screwdriver as part of his buttonhole.

Honestly, there are so many things to consider and if you find the right cake maker creativity and budget are the only limits!

It’s also worth considering how you’re going to cut the cake – Shannon and Jamie went with a Hobbit’s dagger.

Wedding Book Alternatives

Wedding books are a lovely record of who’s who at your wedding and will be lovely to read back in years to come but as a standard book, they are rather traditional. Why not jazz yours up a little by playing on the Lord of the Rings theme? It could be a book which looks like an ancient copy of Lord of the Rings with blank pages for your guests to sign.

Thinking even more outside the box, you could get people to sign a makeshift prop from the set (I’m thinking a big shield, piece of armour or map of Middle Earth), sign small circles and then add them to a big decorative sign (as Shannon and Jamie did below), a giant wooden sign of some sort as Laura and Ashley did below (to make it LoTRs themed it could be a Leaf of Lorien shape or Tree of Gondor).

I’ve included our alternative wedding book below which, as we love surfing, was a surfboard, so all our guests signed it and then we had it laminated (protected) and now it hangs above our staircase so we see it all the time – obviously not LoTR themed but it does help visualise what a big piece can look like.

Of course, you could ask all your guests to come dressed in Lord of the Rings/ medieval outfits to make it a really immersive experience. Who doesn’t want to see their parents/ grandparents dressed up as Lord of the Rings characters?

Oh, and if you’re inviting them don’t forget your pets – get them dressed up too!

If you’re getting everyone dressed up you could have a sword tunnel instead of the more traditional confetti aisle for example.

Alternatively, if you just wanted a subtle hint of Lord of the Rings in your dress you could consider jewellery or other accessories to your bouquet for example (more on both of those below!)

A few useful quotes which might fit in nicely!

“I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”

“I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure”

“He’s an excellent fellow and would jump down a dragon’s throat to save you if he did not trip over his own feet.”

“And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.” 

The Wedding Breakfast aka Second Breakfast and Elevensies

Food at a wedding is often one of the things people remember the most so why not add in a little LoTRs magic to yours?

Obviously, food is a big part of hobbit life: breakfast and of course second breakfast; elevensies should be served at exactly 11 sharp; luncheon marks midday; afternoon tea including scones, cookies and jam is a winner; dinner is the biggest and supper marks the end of a busy days’ eating for Hobbits.

In terms of specific foods, there are lots of things to consider (I know some of these are actually from The Hobbit but there you go) and I’ve included some recipes I found, although I should mention I haven’t actually made them so no guarantee how good they are!

• Sam’s rabbit meat stew (recipe, Sam cooks it for Frodo & him whilst they’re with Golem)
• Lembas bread (recipe) wrapped in mallorn leaves
• Ale from The Green Dragon (Merry and Pippin enjoyed this a little too much!)
• Mushrooms from The Shire (Frodo loves stealing them from Farmer Maggot’s fields)
• Salted pork from Isengard (Merry and Pippin enjoy it whilst smoking the pipeweed after the Ents take down Isengard)
• Beorn’s honey cake (recipe, this is a bit of an obscure reference from when Bilbo stays with Beorn)
• The Prancing Pony feast – what better name for your wedding breakfast (described as “hot soup, cold meats, a blackberry tart, new loaves, slabs of butter, and half a ripe cheese: good plain food, as good as the Shire could show…”)
• Ent-draught (recipe, as drank by Merry & Pippin when they were in Fanghorn Forest)
• Miruvor (recipe, a delicious drink made by elves which gives the person drinking it strength and is said to have a warm and delicious taste)

LoTRs Activities During The Reception

The reception is so often the most fun part of the day as any nerves of the ceremony and things start to fade and you can relax and enjoy yourselves. At a wedding, it’s always good to think about any times when there’s a bit of a lull in between activities such as the time between the ceremony and dinner or the dinner and the party starting and whether you can fill them with anything Lord of the Rings based.

Shannon and Jamie went with axe throwing and archery and it was awesome! Shannon said her goal on her wedding day was to get all her grandparents to throw an axe and, of course, she managed it!

Other options to consider:

• A live band playing your favourite songs from the films
• A Hobbit-themed photo booth
• Themed cocktails (we mentioned a few ideas in the food section above but you could have Hobbit’s Ale, Ent-draught, Miruvor or Elvish Wine
• Opening a bottle of bubbly with a sword, carefully obviously! (yes, this is a thing and, yes, we’ve seen it happen – see below!)
• Have some characters (professionals only please!) stage a surprise grand battle right in the middle of your wedding. You’ve probably seen/ hear about surprise singing waiters/ waitresses why not have a surprise battle instead (again, see below!)?

Party

Obviously, it depends on your guests and how up for a party you reckon they might be but if you like to dance and you want to get your guests up and enjoying the dancefloor my number one tip would be to get a live band. To take it one step further having someone giving instructions or dancing tips such as at a barn dance or ceilidh takes things one step further. Leaders of barn dances or ceilidhs have an incredible knack of getting the dancefloor going and keeping it that way. If you’re leaning more towards a Rosie & Sam style Lord of the Rings wedding then a barn dance or ceilidh is the perfect vibe with lots of jigging and dancing and general merriment! Whether you go for a band, barn dance or ceilidh it’s worth chatting to them to see if they can incorporate and Lord of the Rings music in as well.

You can find more advice on getting a pumping dancefloor here.