Why is a key a central element in so many themed weddings? Apart from obvious aesthetically pleasing value, antique, vintage, skeleton and other keys carry tremendous symbolic power on multiple levels. Just like wedding and marriage, keys are related to transitions, freedom, responsibility and power.
If you think about a key wedding theme, you might find a lot of ideas right here, on this page. You can use them in all stages of your wedding, as part of design on your stationary, from save the date cards to thank you notes, as decoration or favor at bridal shower or wedding reception, or wherever you want, you are limited by your imagination only.
Invitations
There are several ways to incorporate keys in the wedding stationary. You can obviously use images of keys as main graphic elements or parts of decoration, maybe as decorative borders or something. You can also use a silhouette of the key in recently so popular laser cut invites. And of course a real key can be attached to the paper. If you are inclined to this idea, you can get dozens of keys for almost no money at the local keysmith, because he almost always has several defective keys which are of no use to him and he’ll probably be happy to collect them for you, if you ask him soon enough.
As you can see on the wedding invite above, a key can be fused with other wedding themes, like black and gold or art deco or vintage, …, just like a word key, it’s interchangeably used with explanation or solution as noun, important or vital as adjective and in many other contexts. In general it is always representing something important. It’s hard to find something more important than wedding, right?
To send somebody a key carries strong message. It is the ultimate expression of trust, what is clearly shown with an old custom of giving the symbolic keys of the town to somebody who did something extraordinary. The person who holds the keys, has access to something, including the city (just remember how were gates of the towns locked at certain hours not so long ago).
Symbolic Power Of The Key
Keys represent knowledge and power from ancient times. Having a key means to have an access to something and this immediately gives an advantage to people with the keys against people without them. Keys are used in coats of arms as symbol of trust (think about absence of trust in the story about Bluebeard) and important people in art are often portrayed with keys. Next painting of Saint Paul holding the keys to heaven by Paul Rubens is just one of numerous examples:
We can find numerous examples of phrases containing word ‘key’: keys to success, health, love, under lock and key (meaning safe), being in key (in tune with something), decide to go low key (not to attract attention), etc. If someone is very excited about something we often say he is keyed up.
The key from very beginning represented wealth and power. At first it required a lot of skill and was very expensive to make a lock and key, especially from metal (first keys were wooden). If somebody wanted to show up, he just made a walk on the streets jingling with keys. It was obvious he had a lot influence, because keys alone were worth a fortune, not to mention a safe and a hidden treasure inside.
Key to one’s heart belongs to this category and this phrase inspired several popular music hits. Of course it is also used as a wedding theme. Ancient and skeleton keys are popular part of rustic and vintage themed weddings. They also work great in cyberpunk and various metallic colored oriented parties.
We can buy them in bulk and use as inexpensive yet eye catching decorative elements in the reception, on tables, walls, hanging down the chandeliers, as part of entertainment (games at showers or bachelorette parties, for instance), and they are of course very popular as wedding favors.
Key Wedding Favors
There are several ways to use keys as souvenirs for your wedding guests. They can be just part of decor or keepsakes with practical use. Using them as stylish bottle openers is definitely one of the ways to explore.
Classic look and sturdiness of these copper alloyed key shaped bottle openers convinced many happy couples to give them as thoughtful wedding favors which look great at various styles of weddings. So far they got only positive reviews what is another reason to consider including them in you wedding story as well.
If you like to explore similar possibilities of using key shaped items at your wedding, we made a full article about keys as wedding favors.
