Ever heard of a Cinderella Wedding? Can you give me some ideas for this type of wedding? I can imagine the glass slipper and an awesome gown, then I’m lost. So… your prince has come? Cinderella is a fairly popular theme for weddings, which suggests that many brides’ parents have more of a sense of humor than they’re given credit for.

Remember, poor Cinders was terribly oppressed by her stepmother and stepsisters! And they danced in hot irons at her wedding, which might or might not have been considered a crueller fate than having to wear a typical bridesmaid dress. You can have a lot of fun with this theme in any number of ways.

The first question facing you is whether you want to be Disney’s Cinderella. The Walt Disney empire would love to accommodate your Cinderella fantasies, from selling you a cake-topper to renting you space at Cinderella’s castle.

For a different Cinderella, try the Cinderella Movie, which commemorates the 1997 movie that used Rogers and Hammerstein music and starred teen singer Brandy. This Cinderella is a very glamorous one, with big white dresses and a Prince Charming who wears a gold jacket.

Yet another approach to Cinderella is found in Ever After, the 1998 movie with Drew Barrymore. Her Cinderella is less glitzy and has a more Renaissance look to her outfits.

Invitations

Cinderella-themed invitations are everywhere, at every price range. A quick search for Cinderella wedding invitations will show you plenty.

The Ceremony

For ceremony music, you are not limited to “When I Wish Upon A Star.” The story of Cinderella has been turned into a ballet by Mozart, Prokofiev, and Johann Strauss, so there is wonderful classical music available. Probably the best-known piece is Prokofiev’s “Cinderella Waltz.” Unfortunately, samples don’t seem to be available online, but a music store with a good classical selection should be able to help you.

If your ceremony can include secular music, “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful” from the Rogers & Hammerstein version of Cinderella, could work nicely as a duet.

Finding a hymns is a bit more difficult (“someday, my prince will come” just isn’t in the Bible); the best match I can find for lyrics is “When Love is Found,” by Brian Wren. This is another piece that doesn’t seem to show up on the Web; check the hymnals at a large religious bookstore.

Reception Decorations

As far as the decorations for your reception, you can go any number of directions. An autumn wedding clearly calls for table centerpieces of miniature pumpkins! You can arrange the pumpkins in groups with some shimmering silver or gold ribbon… or you could choose slightly larger pumpkins, hollow them out, and use them to hold floating candles. (This is a time-consuming job, but not hopelessly so.)

For a winter wedding, go with lots and lots of candles. You should be able to get star-shaped pillar candles around Christmas time, and it’s also a good season to find silver or gold candles as well as white. The stars are, of course, for the stardust from your fairy godmother’s wand! Again, wired ribbon or silk ivy ties the look together very simply and inexpensively.

An even simpler idea, for a daytime wedding, is to find some “magic wands” that don’t look cheesy, and set them in the center of the tables with a few dramatic sprays of flowers, with no vase at all. The vaseless look is very high fashion this year, but it requires flowers that don’t wilt the minute you take them out of water.

If you have a great deal of time to prepare, you can buy unpainted plaster casts shaped like castles (or possibly like Cinderella herself, if you shop around). The quickest way to paint them is to use a marbling or verdigris technique instead of trying to paint them in accurate colors.

Are you more of a funky personality? Stock up on inexpensive but glamorous dressy shoes at a thrift store. Line the insides with tin foil, then plant pansies or other bedding plants inside. (Fresh flowers in water are likely to lead to leaks, even with the lining.) You’ll need to replant the flowers after the wedding, of course, as they won’t have proper drainage.

Also keep an eye out for Christmas ornaments with a castle, shoe, fairytale book, or Cinderella theme. Depending on what you find, you can incorporate these items in decorations, centerpieces, or favors. And don’t forget about plastic slippers waiting to be filled with colorful mints or Jordan almonds!.

Clothes for You

When it comes to your attire, you’re quite right about needing glass slippers. A word of warning to the wise: transparent shoes are made from vinyl, which does not “breathe.” Over the course of a long day, your feet can become very uncomfortable. Make sure you bring along a more conventional pair of fabric shoes for dancing, as a glass slipper is something you’ll probably want to lose before the party heats up. Saugus Shoes, which are widely available, have a couple of clear designs; you’ll certainly find clear designs from other makers, too, and possibly even in department store shoes.

Cinderella also often wears a tiara. Prices vary enormously, as does quality. If your hairstyle is dramatic, you may look just as good with a lower-cost tiara as with an expensive one, so it’s worth shopping around. Beauty pageant supply stores carry them. One reputable Web source of bridal tiaras is Romantic Headlines, which boasts a huge selection of headpieces and veils. It is sometimes also possible to rent a tiara from a costume shop or museum.

Clothing for Others

It is probably kinder to your Prince Charming to keep his formalwear relatively simple and classic. A quick skim of various Cinderella fantasies on the Web suggests that Prince Charming sometimes wears a white tux rather than a black one.

As for bridesmaids, the key is perhaps to remember that they are not the wicked stepsisters. One possible approach is to dress them a bit more like your own personal troop of fairy godmothers, in something elegant and floaty, with some rhinestones standing in for the fairy dust. Or, if you prefer the “Ever After” version of Cinderella, a more Renaissance look with flowers in their hair could work.

More Ideas

You can learn possibly more than you ever wanted to know about the Cinderella story, including where to find Appalachian and Korean versions, at The Children’s Literature Web Guide.