Harry Potter and the Autumn Themed Wedding

If you are like us here at Bring Joy, you love a fall wedding. With the colors changing and shorter days, you get the smell of bonfire and the crunch of falling leaves. Not to mention, it usually means that the heat of summer is finally passing. (Here’s looking at you with fingers crossed Houston!) There are so many ways you can get into the spirit of autumn, especially when it comes to your wedding. Doing a theme for your wedding can be kitschy, but if you do it in an understated and mature way, it can look quite elegant.  

Of course, what says autumn better than Harry Potter?  As children of the 00’s and growing up being on wait list to receive the next boo in the series of Harry Potter and watching the movies in theaters, we certainly loved the adventure and magic that the books offer.  As adults, we are able to tap back into that magic and nostalgia without it being too childlike.  For a fall wedding, the overall theme of Harry Potter has so much to lend to this time of year, with the pumpkins and forests and all the candles. 

Thinking of Harry Potter and the book series makes us want a cup of tea and a roaring fire.  There are many things in all the books that can be referenced into fall, especially if they are easter eggs that make the child in us smile with nostalgic glee. 

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Using the colors of the Hogwarts school houses is a no-brainer option when doing a themed wedding.  The house colors being green, blue, red and yellow. However, to make it more elegant, try muted versions of the colors.  Try using emerald, navy, maroon, and ochre for bolder styles. If you wanted to be more subtle you can use sage, light blue, pale rose and a light yellow. If you are a real HP aficionado, and know what house you and your intended would be sorted into, use your own colors instead of all four.  It is a sweet way to lean into celebrating being a couple with inter-house community. 

You can also use accent colors of silver, gold, bronze and black to help complete the looks from each house.  These are the secondary house colors, silver and green for Slytherin, gold and red for Gryffindor, bronze and blue for Ravenclaw and black and yellow for Hufflepuff. Most people use a a version of these secondary colors anyway in their weddings for vessels and flower holders.

Throughout all of the books in the series, animals are quite important. You can lean into woodland creatures like owls, deer, stag, dog, cat, bunnies, weasels and even rats. To incorporate the animals into your wedding, you can use silhouettes of the animals on the invitations and signage around the wedding venue.  You can use feathers in your wedding bouquet or in your dining scapes. You can even try a diy of spray painted toy animals for a cohesive look.

If you want to lean more into the magic of it all, you can look into hippogriffs, unicorns, phoenix, three-headed dogs and dragons.  These are all magical creatures found in the books and if you stick to more stylized imagery, your wedding can still look adult but with a touch of whimsy. Using the magical creatures will be a more on the nose type of style, but will still create a beautiful day.

If there is one thing to take away from this article to really evoke the essence of the Harry Potter theme it would be candles, candles, candles and more candles.  This is a great way to add in ambience and an overall vibe.  When you think of Hogwarts and the books in general, candles are an important way to achieve the overall feel of the series. Try floating candles, lanterns, and especially candlesticks in bottles with wax dripping down. This can really make it look aged and adds to the experience.

String or fairy lights throughout your venue will also create a cozy scene for your wedding.  Try stringing them down either side of the aisle or around your ceremony arch.  You don’t need to stick to one type of candle or light, the more eclectic the better when it comes to different light sources. This will create a lovely ambient vibe for you and your guests to experience.

Using bottles and bud vases can help to get that potion bottle look that you probably want to go for.  It will definitely give everyone the potions class feel. Try amber or blue vases and bottles, even mercury glass if it is available to you.  Another option is to use recycled bottles, it’s a budget way to get a lot of glass.  You can paint glass bottles with spray paint or use colored bottles to get that mismatched and yet cohesive look.  If you want to DIY them yourself it can be easy, but if time is not on your side, your florist may be able to do it for you. 

Besides the aforementioned candles in bottles, you can also use little bottles as party favors of “potions” for your guests. Think felix felicis for liquid luck or a love potion. It can be one more way for your wedding guests to be in on the fun, even if what’s inside is only bubbles.

And now for extra house points! These are the little things to add to your decor that will give the Easter eggs to any Harry Potter stan. Adding stacks of books will add a scholarly look to your wedding. You can do old books, the Harry Potter series (your own thumbed through copy is especially nice), or any books without dust jackets but are color specific to your wedding.

Another thing to add in your wedding is mirrors, or picture frames that look like mirrors. This is a nod to the first book, specifically the Mirror of Erised, which shows your hearts desire. Leaning into the heart’s desire is of course apt for a wedding. You can use the mirrors as signage throughout your wedding venue by writing key quotes and even table numbers on them.  

There are plenty of other things that you can add throughout your wedding to nod to Harry Potter. Think keys, bird cages, hourglass and mantle clocks, mini cars, portraits and even golden snitches. It feels like the list can be endless when it comes to adding in little touches to your wedding to help evoke the style of Harry Potter. Really you can’t go wrong in what you choose, and finding or DIY-ing all the things you would like for your wedding.

The easiest way to add in Harry Potter to help celebrate your wedding is using quotes from the book series. You can have them on your invitations, or add to signs around your wedding venue. You can do smaller signs on tables or make sure your photographer gets a detailed shot of the book chapters with your rings. Even having your officiant incorporating some apt quotes during your ceremony will help create a magical vibe. There are endless ways to incorporate the Harry Potter books and words throughout your wedding.

We have compiled a list of quotes that we thought best aligned with a wedding, as well as some chapter names throughout the series that could seem relevant to your magical wedding day.

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