I was going to just make a Facebook post of this for my friends, but I decided this would be a perfect item for a personal blog.
Before any questions come up, no, I’m not seeing anyone, and this isn’t an idea I have for anyone. This is just a sort of thing I think about. I often find myself watching TV or looking at Facebook and wondering about the perfect proposal, or the perfect wedding, knowing that neither of these things exist but that your best approximation of it says a lot about yourself as a person in your attempt to perpetuate a relationship. Besides, this sort of blog is the most fun looking at dresses that a person who doesn’t wear them and isn’t planning to take one off of someone can have.
The concept is a wedding based on Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. The level of cosplay is completely up to the couple and how comfortable they are having a cosplay at a wedding; as a result, consider it to be something that can be added to literally any or every element of what I am describing and that for someone like me would enhance all of them. So, I am keeping this traditional.
The initial idea (keeping in mind that I am a straight male so this is largely based on what will potentially be useful to me) is for an Earth/Air wedding. It should become apparent to you why as we go through the steps.
Now, for a heterosexual wedding, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that when it comes to formalwear, women look much, much better in green than men do. So I’ve gone into this with the idea of a green and gold Earth Nation dress, which is what I’m going to start by providing some examples of.
First off, here is a mixture of artwork from Avatar and fan art inspired by it. Here is a major source for this information.
Let’s take a look at some dresses that might fit this theme. I don’t want to go overboard so I’m sticking with clothing for the wedding party where I can, or at least simplified versions that the wedding party can expand on. There are certainly less formal options for everyone else in the Earth Kingdom.
Or, if you like to go a little closer to the Asian origins:
Here’s even one option I found interesting, alluding to the Earth Kingdom symbol:
Now, I don’t want to seem as though I’m ignoring gay weddings, so I’m going to try and come up with some traditional outfits for a groom choosing Earth Kingdom as well. This also makes it a lot easier to switch which nation goes with which side of the family down the line. I actually would recommend a cosplay here, but I did promise to try and go traditional.
Now we get to the intended groom – although, like with the bride, I will try to give examples for both genders. This means that we have come to the Air Nomads, which are a very interesting creature. After all, when you first think of the Air Nomads, you’re probably going to immediately think blue:
Or maybe tan:
While the colors they traditionally wear are actually crimson and yellow:
So let’s start with some traditional red and yellow suits:
I’d like to note that while I’m not entirely satisfied with any of these four, they make it clear that the elements exist and you can combine bits of them to get something that looks good.
Considering all the colors we looked at, there are some alternative Air Nomad grooms as well:
And if your wedding doesn’t have a groom? Here are just a few options:
Now here’s where it gets really interesting. (Actually, that would probably be all the banners and streamers, but since that goes into the subjective bits like just how many Earth Kingdom symbols you’re comfortable hanging around your church, I’m leaving that to the actual wedding planners.)
Earth: As you probably expect, the Earth Kingdom in this context is the Bride’s (if we’re still going with the Earth/Bride, Air/Groom thing; if not, switch as you wish) family. This saves the question of “which side are you on” or other variations of it. This particularly applies to the married family members and the children, for reasons that will become apparent soon. Members of this family are recommended to wear greens, browns, tans, etc.
Very crafter readers may have concluded (correctly!) that the Air Nomads are the family of the groom (with all ifs in place). Again, this particularly applies to those that are not romantically available. Due to the numerous options available, it might be best if we simply recommend this group to wear bright colors; pretty much anything that’s not green, although it’s best if they have a bit of yellow and crimson on them. The specifics are all in the hands of the actual planner; hell, make them all wear robes if you want.
This was just a pretty standard, non-specific idea in which all of the elements lived in harmony, then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. This group in red and black is for singles looking to mingle. Expect to see a lot of these out on the dance floor, chatting up the Royal Handmaidens are the Air Masters, etc. They might also push the limits of expected dress, so let them know in advance if this outfit to the right might be a bit underdressed.
The last group is the Water Tribe. This may be either under- or over-utilized, depending on where you place your friends in your family and how big of a wedding it is, so whoever sends out the invitations may want to think closely on this. These are for friends of the family that aren’t particularly keen to be part of the Fire Nation group, in blues, browns and purples.
That’s it for this article. I left quite a bit to the imagination, but that is also because nobody gets their entire wedding plan from a blog article. Still, this sounds like a pretty interesting time and I’m sure there are plenty of couples that would really enjoy making this their big day. If you’re one of them (or have done something like this outside of the blogosphere) I’d love to hear your comments.
Insomniatic 