Being a “Swiftie” has been a part of my identity since I was in 6th grade and Teardrops on my Guitar hit the radio stations, so I wanted to make sure to incorporate some of that into my wedding without it overpowering my general theme and decor. My favorite part, or one of them looking back, was the few people who came up to me to say they noticed the “Easter Eggs” I hid throughout the ceremony and reception!

I hid Taylor-coded messages around, snuck her songs in where I could without drawing too much attention, and otherwise found Swiftie-inspired decor that I could place around the hall. For people who aren’t fans like my husband, they didn’t notice, and may not have guessed I was even a Swiftie until the moment my dad called me out on stage during our father-daughter dance! Unfortunately I never got photos of all the finished products, but here’s a breakdown of how I made my wedding (Taylor’s Version)!

The Wedding Program

The theme was “Fairytale Wedding” and was focused on various aspects of this, from the romantic outdoor setting in the woods for the ceremony, subtle nods to famous fairytale couples from movies and books alike, and invitations that read, “It’s a Love Story!” The first thing my guests got their hands on when they entered my big day was the wedding program, which I custom designed using Canva to make my own “Paper Rings Post”.

I opted to make this completely black and white to make it easy to print at home on my cheap little printer. It took a bit of ink and a lot of time to get enough copies done so that each couple or family could have at least 1, but it was well worth the effort! This was a perfect little touch that just took some playing around in Canva. I also ordered vintage-looking paper to give it a real “newspaper” effect!

So I “Made the Friendship Bracelets“

This is an integral part of the Swifthood, and although none of my bridesmaids are obsessed with Taylor Swift the way I have been for more than half my life, I still made them each custom friendship bracelets using gold and white beads, even little round ones that looked like pearls! I gave them each two with a symbol of our friendship or a quote I want them to always remember, as well as one with their name or nickname. We all wore them together for the big day after I gifted them all these at the end of my Bridal shower a few months back.

If you’re looking for some friendship bracelet love story quotes, these were my favorite:

I also made some special bracelets for myself to match, and they had our wedding date, my husband’s name, and lyrics that reminded me of our fairytale. This was my jewelry for the wedding! Custom and affordable.

With plenty of beads left over, I ended up making more with some of these lyrics to put at table 13! Why Table 13, you ask? If you’re a Swiftie, you know half the reason, but I’ll tell you why it was important to me for this table in particular to have friendship bracelets awaiting my lucky guests!

Table 13

Every table at my wedding had a different fairytale theme, from classics like Beauty and the Beast at tables 1 to Great Gatsby at table 2, Disney movies like Tangled at 7, and novel stories everyone knows, like “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks featured at 10 and Romeo & Juliet at 13! If you’re a Swiftie (which is a safe assumption if you’ve read this far), then you know Taylor rewrote the ending to Romeo and Juliet in her song, “Love Story,” so while the other tables had silhouettes of story characters floating around in candlelight, this table played homage to my favorite artist. The friendship bracelets were just one part of decor at this table, alongside a gold heart hand statue, the Long Live photo frame from the Taylor shop, and more hidden quotes.

Every table had a glazed mason jar with the silhouettes of the story characters shining through the LED candle inside, and for this one, I did use Romeo and Juliet reaching out to each other. The other thing that made my tables unique was the guestbooks, and yes I said guestbooks, plural.

Every table had a book on it that my husband and I will read on each corresponding year, so we’ll read Table 13’s on our 13th-year anniversary. We had a little handwritten note in each book to our guests that we started with “Dearest Reader” (for a subtle nod to Bridgerton, another fairytale I admire), but for this table, I couldn’t help myself!! I changed it up to “Dear Reader,” like the last track on her album Midnights.

Photobooth Decor

I saved myself some money from booking an actual photobooth, but I still wanted to set up a space inside and out for guests to pose for photos in front of. For this, I bought an LED sign off Amazon that read, “It’s a Love Story,” (see paid ad) and I used my cricut to make cute pillows with more love-themed lyrics from the catalog. It was a small but enchanted touch that was easy to do. I even paid my sister’s friend to take photos of the guests in these spots so there was a designated photographer, but more importantly someone I knew and trusted for my Swiftie day (oops, I mean my wedding day), and someone was happy to hire and have there! He knows a lot of my family and made everyone feel welcome to come and get some pictures while they were dressed to the nines.

Bridal Entrance Music for the Ceremony

Instead of walking down the aisle to something traditional, which I almost did, I chose to use “You Are In Love (Taylor’s Version) with the music starting at minute mark 3:07 precisely. Of course, being a true Swiftie, I did immediately realize that my DJ was playing the stolen version, but that wasn’t a battle I needed to fight on my wedding day.

(In fact, the DJ would slip up several times throughout the night, including two points where he played Taylor Swift songs back-to-back for 20+ minutes straight, despite my insisting he space out any Taylor Swift songs throughout the night because most of my guests were not Swifties like me. So if any of my guests think I am so crazy I requested 10 songs in a row like that, it wasn’t me, it was the intoxicated DJ himself who made that call. He also played “Fortnight” two times in a row, how romantic for a wedding!)

Ceremony Reading – A Poem

My dad officiated the ceremony, but I asked my best friend to read a poem by the great: Dr. Taylor Allison Swift. The poem was actually the chorus’s and bridge to “Invisible Strings”, a beautiful song for a wedding day. At my best friend’s wedding, she played the song during her cocktail hour while we all started enjoying our drinks and gushing over how beautiful the couple looked for their ceremony. No matter how you use this song, it is an adorable edition that reminds guests of how magical true love is.

Time, curious time — Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs
Were there clues I didn’t see?
And isn’t it just so pretty to think, all along there was some invisible string tying you to me?

Time, mystical time — cutting me open, then healing me fine
Were there clues I didn’t see?
And isn’t it just so pretty to think, all along there was some invisible string tying you to me?

A string that pulled me out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar
Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire
Chains around my demons, wool to brave the seasons
One single thread of gold tied me to you

Time, wondrous time — gave me the blues and then purple pink skies
And it’s cool, baby, with me
And isn’t it just so pretty to think, all along there was some invisible string tying you to me?

– a reading from “Invisible String” by Taylor Swift

And since “custom napkins” are becoming such a popular thing now for weddings, I got custom napkins with the lyric, “Isn’t it just so pretty to think, all along there was an invisible string tying you to me?” It was a sweet little touch to keep the sentiment of the lyrics alive throughout the night. I found these on Amazon (paid link), so I guess you could say the planets and the fates and all the stars aligned.

Father-Daughter Dance

My father and I have always goofed around about making a choreographed dance number to WOW the crowd at my wedding one day, and we did not disappoint! With zero dance experience and not a rhythmic bone in either of our bodies, we started our dance with “Never Grow Up (Taylor’s Version)”. I stepped up on his toes and wrapped my hand around his finger, and the crowd awed. Then after two minutes (before getting to the bridge that always leaves me in tears), we cut the music and switched to “If I Didn’t Have You” from the Monsters Inc movie and proceeded to do our fun dance.

This moment was thankfully captured on video, but of course the DJ turned the music off just before our grand finale. Besides that, it was perfect, and I’m all right knowing our dramatic lift would have been perfect had DJ Screw-Up not cut it short! (AKA “DJ Ray NNJ and partner-in-crime DJ Smacks in case you are looking for what DJs to avoid in the North New Jersey area)

Mirrorball

I can’t take credit for this one, but I made the connection the moment I walked into my venue for the first time, not that it was a deciding factor; there was a shining mirrorball hanging over the dance floor that they promised would light up the whole night. It made my Swiftie heart happy, but I didn’t think anyone else would make the notice it too. But just like that, one of my guests came up to me on the big day and said she caught all the easter eggs, “even the mirror ball!” A true Swiftie knows!

Last Song

The last song for my wedding was supposed to be “Today Was a Fairytale (Taylor’s Version)”, but as I’m sure you’re not surprised this far along to hear, my DJ messed that up too and chose his own song to play (and sing!! 🤮). I wanted to share this idea still because it would have been the perfect ending to my wedding, the song so fitting for our fairytale-themed day. If you’re planning your own happily ever after and want a special Taylor-touch, I highly recommend this song for the ending. It’s a fun and upbeat song that will have everyone giddy for you as your wedding day comes to an end or you make your grande departure.

If you’re planning a wedding now, I hope it’s the fairytale you hoped for. Sending hand hearts from the desk of ~ The Happy Wives Department ~