GIs, swing music, film noir, war-time spirit… the 40s are a classic era. A 1940s wedding theme allows for stylish simplicity with a real community feel.

It's a great choice, too, for low-budget weddings – wartime rationing meant that 1940s weddings were more simple and homespun than most. A lot of people hosted their wedding at home, or in a village hall.

This is one theme where you really can make your own dress, if you want. It's pretty easy to get 1940s patterns, and there's still tons of great stuff in vintage shops.

Most 1940s brides were still wearing the 30s-style floor-length dresses, with big veils and lots of old lace. If you want something more characteristic of the general fashion of the 40s, a knee-length white satin dress would be just perfect – fitted waist, A-line skirt, small puffed shoulders. Or a neat little suit would also work brilliantly. Gloves were still worn in the 40s, and will add a really authentic touch.

The right hair is a big part of the look, so if this isn't something you can do yourself, it's definitely worth getting an expert in to style the bridal party's hair. Don't let the groom skip out, either – gel his hair, with a neat parting!

You can encourage your guests to dress the part, too. Guys look great as dashing GIs, or in a pin-stripe zoot suit, or even in film noir trenchcoat and trilby. Girls look fab in uniform, too – Wrens, Home Front, etc – or in simple little 1940s dresses, or polka dots.

If you're going for a simple dress, you want simple flowers, too – a neat bouquet, rather than a huge trailing one. If you're going for the long dress and big veil route, go for a big bouquet. Lillies, roses and carnations are great choices for the 40s.

It was still common in the 40s to have a young girl present the bride and groom with a horseshoe for luck. This is a nice job for a young relative who wants to be a flower girl!

This is a perfect wedding for arriving and leaving in a vintage car!

For decorations, you can go the homespun route and make bunting (little triangles of spare cloth stiched onto tapes, and hung the way you would hang tinsel). Or you can go the nostalgia route, and get a load of old film posters, wartime posters, or other memorabilia.

Another nice touch can be to have romantic 1940s movies like Casablanca projected onto the wall of the reception room. (Without sound, preferably, or no one will be paying attention to the speeches!) A Casablanca style pianist playing in the background is a nice touch, too.

See if you can hire a bartender who can play the part, war-time lingo and all. Make sure there are lots of cocktails on offer. For food, it's in the wartime spirit to keep it simple and affordable. You can even make your own cake, and you can decorate it yourself, or have it decorated by a professional.

For music, you can't beat big band. If you're a swing dancer, then that makes a perfect first dance. If not, you could approach one of the local swing dance groups and see if they'd be prepared to come down and give a performance – or even teach a little class!

My sister had a 1940s Hollywood wedding, and she roped in some girlfriends to dress up like cigar girls – except they didn't have cigars, of course, they had champagne instead! They stood at the door and welcomed everyone to the reception.

If you want to go the glamour route, then you might want to look for a suitably glamorous or vintage location – old cinemas or ballrooms, for example.

For thank you gifts, vintage jewellery or cigarette cases are perfect.

Vintage 1940 wedding photos

For us westerners, the Arabian Nights are always going to hold romance and mystery. So how about an Arabian wedding theme?

You could dress the wedding party to match. The guys who look so handsome dressed up like Sinbad, or like a Bedouin prince. The girls will look exitic and alluring in harem pants and veils. The bride could wear veils covered in coins, or a red and gold colour scheme.

For a really classic Arabian touch, paint the bride's hands with henna. In the middle east, they often have a henna party just for the women a few days before the wedding. This could make a fantastic hen party. I recommend you hire a mehndi professional to do the painting, though – it's very to do well youself!

Another great hen party idea is a belly dancing workshop. And belly-dancing makes for a great stag do too, especally if paired with beer and kebabs!

Tents are just perfect for an Arabian wedding theme, so this can be a great theme to do in your own garden. There are lots of suppliers who can provide real bedouin tents, or who will decorate a large marquee in a middle-eastern style. If a tent's not practical, you can make a room feel like a tent by hanging plenty of fabric over the walls.

Either way, to really give the place that eastern feel, you want low lighting (preferably lots of oil lamps), incense, and persian rugs all over the floor. For real authenticity, forget chairs – go for low tables surrounded by cushions and poufes. Baskets are very Forty Thieves – and you can hide all kinds of surprises in them!

An Arabian Nights wedding theme also provides some great possibilities for entertainment. Traditional musicians will set the tone, and you may even be able to give guests the opportunity to join in a drumming circle. Belly dancers are another great idea, of course. But how about some even more exotic options, such as sword swallowers, snake charmers, fortune tellers or fire dancers?

For food, go middle-eastern – Lebanese, for example. Instead of a buffet, you could have lots of little dishes for sharing on each table, the way you would in a Lebanese restaurant. Pair it with sherbet (sweet fruit syrup poured over ice) and mint tea or strong Turkish coffee.

Tiny boxes of Turkish delight make a great Arabian wedding favour.

And to keep the kids happy, provide a dressing-up box full of scarves, veils, and other Arabian Nights costume. They'll spend the whole evening happily running around pretending to be Jasmine or Aladdin.

A butterfly wedding is one where live butterflies are released during the ceremony. It's a really magical experience for everyone present.

And as themes go, butterflies are one of the easiest wedding themes to implement.

Of course, you don't have to release butterflies to have a butterfly theme for your wedding.

Here are some ideas for a butterfly wedding.

Live butterfly release

This is the high point of a butterfly wedding. Dozens of beautiful butterflies are released to create a really magical moment.

Here's how it usually works. The butterfly supply company will send you a box which contains your butterflies, usually the day before the wedding. It's possible to have one big box containing lots of butterflies which the bride and groom can release together, or to have lots of small boxes containing individual butterflies so that each guest can release one. Releasing butterflies is also a job your flower girls will love!

You simply keep the box somewhere cool over night, which will keep the butterflies sleepy. (Often the company will send a cool pack for you to use.) Then a couple of hours before the release point, you put them somewhere to warm up (slowly!), so that they will be awake and ready to fly when you open the box.

Butterfly release works best in warm (but not scorching) weather, as if it's cold, the butterflies will be sleepy and may not take flight!

Make sure you choose a reputable company, so that you can be sure of the butterflies' welfare. Responsible companies will be able to answer all your questions about this.

Butterfly wedding theme ideas

As I say, this is one of the easiest themes to implement – because you can stick butterflies on just about anything you can imagine! They look beautiful on dresses, jewellery, cakes, name cards, centrepieces, invitations – anything. Flower girls will adore wearing butterfly wings.

Here are some photos from butterfly weddings to inspire you.

Butterfly wedding theme images

Butterfly wedding dresses

Butterfly wedding cakes

Butterfly wedding decorations etc

Floral arrangements are still one of the most popular choices for wedding cake decorations. Here are 8 different floral cakes to inspire you, in a mixture of styles, some traditional, some very contemporary.

Amazing, no?

Here's a nice idea for a modern outdoor wedding – a colorful cake with little sugar daisies and bees.

Here's a cute idea for a wedding cake. It's as if it's a terraced garden, with trellises and little birds and curving staircases and lots of flowers. Lovely.

This would look great at a summery outdoor wedding.

Today, a couple of ideas for wedding cakes.

Cheese! A good friend of mine is about to get married, and instead of a wedding cake, he's having a six-tier wedding cheese. It'll be all done up with ribbons and stuff just like a normal cake, but it'll be made of cheese. Six tiers of cheese. Love it.

Cupcakes! This one's been kicking around for a while, but it's still a great idea. They're fun, and everyone gets their own little cake. You could even place a small tower of cupcakes on each table as an alternative to floral centerpieces.

Wedding cupcakes are also a great way to save money. Rather than spending a fortune on a traditional wedding cake, anyone with decent cooking skills and a little creativity can make a beautiful tower of cupcakes. They can be iced in the wedding colors, decorated with swirls of ribbon or crystal, and every cooking store has a good choice of lovely decorations for cupcakes, from old-fashioned silver balls to more modern and original things.

I've always loved the idea of a pirates and highwaymen wedding.

The bride could wear a gorgeous 17th century gown, like Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island (you know – the spectacular white and gold thing she wears in the chase scene right at the start of the movie, with the huge white ostrich feather fan), and maybe a knife in her garter (plastic, of course). The groom wears a frock coat, a black eye mask, and a flintlock pistol (fake, of course).

You could do the invitations on scraps of scorched parchment in a flowing hand, perhaps tucked into a miniature bottle, or with a tiny treasure map. You could invite your guests to come and witness a treaty between two pirate factions – the bride's party and the groom's party! You could encourage them to come as pirates or highwaymen or any other manner of rogue or brigand, or to come in period costume, or even just to throw on a plastic cutlass.

You could keep the kids (and maybe the adults) entertained with tattered maps leading to hidden treasure, and instead of a wedding cake you could have a large chest filled with gold-decorated cupcakes. Gold leaf is relatively inexpensive and perfectly edible, or there are good old-fashioned gold and silver balls.

Pirate style decorations are pretty inexpensive, too. Jolly Roger flags, plastic chests and treasure, pistols and cutlasses are all very easy to come by, and if you talk to merchants in terms of a 'pirate costume party' you can get 'kids' party' prices rather than 'wedding' prices. You could carry the theme into the food, too, perhaps with 17th and 18th century recipes (more fun than it sounds – they tend to involve a lot of alcohol!), with huge piles of drumsticks, or with Caribbean food, or just with centerpieces of tiny toy chests filled with gold coins and candy gems. Plus, of course, plenty of rum…

My ex and I once had a plan to get married in Vegas, at Treasure Island, on the pirate ship. But you don't need a ship to do a pirate theme. Though how great would a pirate wedding be on a rented tall ship? Beach venues are another great option for a pirate wedding. Pirates and highwaymen would also make a great night time wedding, with flickering candles or garden torches. And night time weddings can save you money, as you don't need to rent a venue for so long as an all day wedding.

Today, an idea for an original wedding bouquet: crystal.

Crystal bouquets make a gorgeous alternative to flowers, or you can weave crystals into your flowers to add some sparkle – much more creative than baby's breath!

A crystal bouquet won't set off your hayfever, and you can keep it forever.

Crystal bouquets are especially wonderful for winter wonderland wedding themes: they glitter like frost. You could even wrap strings of crystal around your cake, or the table decorations.