The Coolest Wedding Ideas We've Spotted This Year

Silvi Alcivar of The Poetry Story has created a memorable alternative to the photo booth with her poetry booth. Set up with her typewriter and desk, she will write on-demand personalized poems in three minutes or less for your guests. You just tell her who the poem is for and a little about your relationship to that person, and she works her wordy magic. Talk about a noteworthy wedding keepsake!

Selecting a meaningful first dance song can be difficult, especially if you have different taste in music than your significant other. But here's a way to make it completely unique. Jessica Lindsay, founder of MelodyWed, will write and record a personalized first dance song based on your love story. How cool is that? Jessica's been writing songs for more than a decade, but she actually came up with the idea when her little brother wrote her own first dance song.

This is how it works: couples fill out a questionnaire, then they do a video chat so she can get an idea of the couples' personality, and after some back and forth, she sends them an MP3 of the song. She said that usually the response is a lot of crying and people saying they're "blown away" by the finished product.

Give your guests a favor to remember with these "smart cookies" I saw at Evangeline Lane Photography's booth at the Lovesick Expo. They're like a more homemade, rustic twist on fortune cookies with sweet quotes cooked in them.

Anastasia Widiarsih of Indie Cakes & Pastries not only offers gluten-free and vegan options for her cupcakes and macarons, she's come up with some outlandish and delicious flavor combos. Wow your guests with sweets they've never seen before like roseberry cupcakes (rose-flavored cake with strawberry buttercream frosting), chocolate cupcakes with blood orange frosting, or meyer lemon macarons with black current filling.

Lisa Walsh, founder of Persolé, has created an überglam alternative to the simple parasol. Umbrellas make great photo props for sunny and rainy weddings alike, and these have the added bonus of bracelet closures, scalloped arches, and plenty of bling. In addition to the photo ops, they'd make gorgeous bridesmaid gifts.