4 Cool Wedding Ideas to Steal from My Brother’s Wedding [PHOTOS]

One of my best friends in the entire world got married in Los Angeles over the weekend and as a bride to be, you know I was taking notes!

Now, before I go any further...this wasn't just any friend.  He's someone who I used to drink "dom bombs" with every Friday night at China Blue.  He's someone that I could yell "O-H" to and he'd yell back "I-O!" Why? Because he's someone that loved Ohio State football as much as I did.  He's someone that not only came to support me during my first half marathon, but signed up to run it with me. (Ok, this guy's run the Boston Marathon, he finished long what felt like hours before I did.) He's someone I adored enough to "babysit" after he threw up in flower pot downtown...or all over my apartment stairs...or all over my kitchen...because we had too many "dom bombs," Rumple Minze or Fireball with DJ Zuz.  On the flip side, he's also the guy that would "babysit" me if I had one of those nights or encourage me to make "great decisions!"  When he moved to California, I was heartbroken but I knew he's the type of friend that whenever we meet up from here on out, it'd be like our friendship never skipped a beat. I could go on forever about why he's one of my favorite people in the world and why I actually consider him my brother, but if you've listened to 103.5 KISS FM for a while, you already know that Nathan Fast is an absolutely incredible human being!

Well on Friday, Nathan married someone as equally as amazing as he is, his new wife Rebecca!  Honestly, I've loved Rebecca ever since she made this super sweet and publicly creepy music video professing her love for him. Spoiler Alert: It worked.  6 months later, she was his girlfriend. 3 years later, they had a baby girl named Scarlett.  4 years later, they started their happily ever after!  ::Squeeeeeee:::

Anyway, their ceremony and reception were AMAZING! I was so happy they invited my fiancé and I to be part of their big day! Nathan's last words to me as I was leaving the reception were "you guys are next." We still have a little over a year to plan our wedding, but I picked up four really cool ideas from Nathan's! Check them out and see more pictures of our former night guy's big day below.

Four Amazing Wedding Ideas from Nathan Fast's Wedding

Introduce Your Wedding Party Like Athletes

Right now my fiancé and I are on the struggle bus trying to figure out which bridesmaid to pair with which groomsman. My sister did a really good job of this at her wedding last year.  She paired me up with one of her husband's friends that I'd known since we road the bus together as kids.  The only time it was awkward? When the other wedding pairs decided we should each make up some sort of creative dance together to "perform" while being introduced at the reception.  I hadn't seen the guy I was with in 10 years, so we didn't really have that type of chemistry to rock the entrance.  I loved what Nathan and Rebecca did instead!

They brought out each member of their wedding party and had their DJ introduce them using "stats" about them like they were part of a basketball line-up.  For example "Hailing from Havilland, Ohio, a piano virtuoso and attending THE Ohio State University...brother of the groom, Logan Fast!" After each introduction, each member of the wedding party danced their way across the floor to the head table individually.

Unique Place Cards for Reception Seating

For our wedding, we're still up in the air about assigning our guests to tables. That's mostly because our food situation is going to be a little different than Nathan and Rebecca's where guests had a choice of an entree.  Each guest had their selection of beef, chicken or veggie dish on the back of their name cards, so they were assigned a table to sit at to make things easier on the servers.  What I LOVED about the seating was that the couple didn't use the typical "Table 1," "Table 2," "Table 19" way of seating people.  They used creative names for the tables like "Buckeyes" (for Nathan's family from Ohio,) Luxor (for Nathan's old co-workers in Vegas,) the name of the place they had their first date, etc! I loved that they were able to weave their love story and personality into that part of their reception!

Have a Play Area for the Kids

Like I mentioned earlier, Nathan's got a one year old named Scarlett, who's the little sister to his step-daughter Lilly! Lilly had friends, cousins, etc at the wedding, so Nathan and Rebecca set up a little play area with toys for the kids play with while the adults danced all night.  If you've considered not having kids at your reception because they'd get restless and loud, this is a great alternative to nixing them from the invite list all together.

Do Something That Totally Embodies How Nerdy You are as a Couple

I think my fiancé's already watched a thousand YouTube videos trying to figure out what our first dance is going to look like next August.  There is a song that we both love, that we just lose it when it comes on and we'll definitely be doing something special with it.  Now...if you know Nathan and Rebecca as a couple, you know that their personalities and silliness are not just a perfect match for each other, but absolutely stinkin' adorable.  Likewise, if you know Nathan at all, you also know he's got a huge obsession with Napoleon Dynamite. Rebecca's all in on his obsession which made their first dace totally awesome!!! They are now wedding goals!

CONGRATULATIONS NATHAN AND REBECCA!!!