How to Plan a Travel-Themed Wedding

Travel is an important part of many relationships. Whether it’s a life-changing trip, like getting engaged on top of a mountain in Switzerland, or more regular, smaller-scale couple getaways, like visiting a nearby beach town every summer, traveling helps strengthen a connection through shared experiences and priceless memories. If exploring different places is one of your mutual hobbies or passions, you might be looking for ways to incorporate this pastime into your big day. Enter: A travel-themed wedding. 

While throwing a destination wedding is a seamless way to enact this theme, you don’t necessarily have to jet overseas to make this aesthetic a reality. By instigating this design concept, you can transport guests to any thrilling destination—even if you’ve opted for a local celebration. With this theme, you can focus your nuptials around a medley of travel sites or a singular location that you want to share with your guests. Or you can simply integrate details and designs related to the act of traveling, like globes and suitcases, to highlight your hobby. Whichever route you decide to take, this central idea is guaranteed to make your event more meaningful and memorable for everyone in attendance.

If you think travel-related elements will help you tell your love story, we’ve created an expert-approved guide to executing this vision. Ahead, everything you need to know about planning a travel-themed wedding, from the venue to the entertainment.

The Venue

Whether you’re making it official overseas or staying put in your neighborhood, there are so many different wedding venues to choose from for your travel-themed wedding. Below, some suggestions from the experts.

Destination Weddings

Since travel-focused nuptials spotlight the excitement and joy of traveling, a popular place to bring this theme to life is via a destination outside of your town. “This gives you the chance to show your family and friends some of your favorite spots in an exotic place you like to visit,” planner Sophie Mae of Stylish Details Events says. If the setting of your event is integral to establishing this theme—and your budget and schedule allow for it—then saying “I do” at a far-off location is a possibility. Planner Nancy Park of So Happi Together recommends selecting a spot that is meaningful to you, like where you took your first trip together as a couple or a bucket-list site that you’ve always dreamt of exploring. The world is your oyster—you can choose virtually any place that you have a connection to (or a desire to see), whether it’s Lake Como or Antigua.

Local Weddings

If a destination wedding isn’t feasible for you or your guests, it’s more than possible to pull off a travel-themed celebration at a nearby locale—that doesn’t require any traveling at all. Whether you settle on a hotel ballroom or your own backyard, you can still set the scene by integrating travel-like décor. Another option is opting for a venue that captures the essence of travel, like an airport tarmac. 

The Invitations

Before your guests even set foot in your locale, your wedding invitations will introduce everyone to your travel-inspired theme. One out-of-the-box idea is relaying all of the details about your upcoming nuptials on a postcard, complete with a photo of you and your partner on vacation (bonus points if it’s at your venue). 

If you’re sticking with traditional invitations, you can use the design of your paper goods to reference your aesthetic: A painted illustration of your destination or travel-inspired motifs, like suitcases and compasses, will set the scene. Along with your invitations and RSVP cards, planner Laura Ritchie of Grit & Grace suggests rounding off your suite with a map, highlighting some of your favorite spots around your venue—or even around the world. Once you seal everything in an envelope, Mae advises adding postage stamps from various travel locations.

The Decorations

One of the best ways to execute a travel-themed wedding—especially if your affair is local—is through decorations that nod to your love of traveling. This might look like passport booklets for ceremony programs, a globe that everyone signs for your guest book, luggage tags for your escort cards, or framed photos of you and your partner in some of your favorite travel destinations for table numbers. You can also stack suitcases at the foot of your head table or work compasses into your runner. Park recommends incorporating more indirect elements, like artisan goods, flowers, patterns, and colors, that remind you of a certain place and allude to your love of travel.

The Dress Code

From your outfit to the overall dress code, there are plenty of attire options for a travel-themed wedding, which we explore below.

The Couple

If your travel-themed wedding is taking place in a far-flung destination, consider wearing a garment created by a designer in that area. For local affairs, you can still choose an outfit from an artisan who’s based in one of your favorite travel spots. Your accessories are another seamless way to infuse your passion for traveling into your attire. For instance, pair your ensemble with a bracelet or a brooch that you bought from a boutique on vacation there.

The Guests

Destination or themed weddings naturally offer couples more leeway when it comes to their dress code, so you can rethink the classic black-tie option. Some ideas are festive attire for a beachside bash in Tulum or all-black attire for an Italian villa venue. Regardless of your decision, Park advises sharing details about how your loved ones should dress for the location, climate, and season, like if packing extra layers or wearing a certain pair of shoes is needed. 

The Food and Drinks

For your hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and dishes, consider recreating some of your favorites from your travels, like an Aperol spritz in Italy, ratatouille in France, or flan in Spain. The goal is to share that special moment with your friends and family, so there’s no need to worry about serving crowd-pleasers. “Don’t shy away from local cuisine or delicacies that could seem a little more funky than meat and potatoes,” Ritchie says. “This is the time to have your guests experience what you love about this location, and it’s OK to offer something out of the box.” If you can’t choose just one region, Mae suggests working with your caterer to create a menu filled with dishes from around the world. Then, deck out your display with travel motifs, like compass drink stirrers, cocktail napkins embossed with a map, or an airplane cake topper.

The Activities

To make your big day even more memorable, incorporate activities and entertainment that represent your jet-setting lifestyle. This could be a photo booth with props from different countries or a game of travel-themed trivia. Music is another way to reference your travels. If you’re throwing a destination wedding, Park suggests hiring local musicians. “Immersive artist experiences that reflect the destination are always fun and unique and leave quite the impression for guests,” she says.