When we said we were having a hobbit-themed wedding, we got some laughs, some looks, and a lot of smiles—but more than anything, we got a lot of questions. Why hobbits? What should I wear? What food will be served? Do I have to wear elf ears?

Many of these questions were ones we had, too, back at the beginning. Planning a Lord of the Rings-themed wedding is, like planning any wedding, a lot of work—but also a ton of fun. The evening that resulted was something straight out of a dream. And since I know I’m not the only one who thinks hobbits are special—and certainly not the only girl who’s dreamed of a fairytale wedding—I wanted to share a bit (okay, a lot) about how we put ours together.

Table of Contents

• Why We Chose a Lord of the Rings-Inspired Wedding
• Planning a Hobbit-Themed Wedding
  • Finding a Wedding Venue
  • Wedding Attire
  • Menu & Cake Options
  • Invitations & Decor
  • Music: The Perfect Playlist(s)
  • Vows & Readings
  • Gifts & Favors
• Going on an Adventure: A Hobbit’s Honeymoon

Why We Chose a Lord of the Rings-Inspired Wedding

Because I grew up in a family of readers, and because our friend group is awesome, we didn’t get asked “why” as often as you might think. Nevertheless, for us, it was a pretty natural decision. We started at simply a fantasy theme, then narrowed it down to the story that’s been with us since the beginning.

The first movie we ever went to see together was The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. On our first date, we went to a bookstore and talked about our favorite authors. He eventually convinced me to read The Dresden Files, and I eventually convinced him to read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (he’d only watched the Peter Jackson films at that point). We’ve since rewatched all of the movies together and played a few of the board game and video game adaptations, and hope to visit New Zealand someday. Jake even used a quote from The Fellowship of the Ring when he proposed.

Another reason we zeroed in on hobbits specifically was because, well, we’re both hobbits at heart. We love food, I enjoy gardening, and he has hobbit feet. We’ve even both got curly hair and rosy round cheeks. More than that, we wanted it to be a cozy affair, both for ourselves and our guests.

Neither The Lord of the Rings nor The Hobbit is particularly romantic, but a wedding in the Shire turned out to be the perfect theme for us. A little bit rustic, a little bit Renaissance Faire… and a whole lot of fun. 

Planning a Hobbit-Themed Wedding

When I began planning our wedding a year in advance (nope, we didn’t hire a wedding planner), I started with research. I wanted to see if I could find some hobbit wedding traditions from the books I could incorporate.

As it turns out, there’s a distinct lack of source material on this topic. I looked to the following for the majority of my inspiration:

• The opening chapters of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring
• Sam and Rosie’s (brief) wedding in The Return of the King film
• Bilbo’s birthday party, in both the book and movie
• Celtic traditions
• Other people’s weddings (is that how you wound up here, dear reader?)

This quote, in particular, stuck with me throughout the planning process (it’s also the heart of my home decor philosophy):

In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the end of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing to sit down on or eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

‘The Hobbit,’ J.R.R. Tolkien

What I arrived at was the dream of a pleasant outdoor wedding in the spring, surrounded by green growing things, with tables full of comfort food and cups that never stayed empty for long. A cozy affair akin to a medieval peasant wedding—or at least the romanticized version of one. A warm and cheerful event, rather than a glitzy or glamorous party. A gathering to which folk of all sorts were welcome, not just hobbits, and at which everyone would hopefully have a very merry time.

For transparency’s sake, a disclaimer: We are very fortunate in that my parents were able and willing to cover most of our wedding expenses, which were hefty (thanks in part to all the extra guests they added to our list!). But even if you’re on your own and stuck with a tight budget, you can still have a lovely hobbit-themed wedding without relying on the generosity of others or racking up debt. I’ve done my best to include low-cost ideas and alternatives throughout this post to help you do just that.

Scouring for the Shire: Finding a Wedding Venue

The first big step in our planning process was finding a venue fit for a hobbit wedding. In the end, we settled on Buckingham Farms. We don’t have hills in Florida, but it was green, well-shaded, and included a fire pit and farm-fresh catering—not to mention a day-of coordinator who was an incredible resource throughout the planning process. (Thanks again, for everything, Anna!)

In general, I think a farm or similarly rustic venue is perfect for a big wedding—which is a very hobbity sort of wedding to have. (Ours was around 150 guests, which is large to some and modest to others. We considered it huge.) A garden would also be lovely. The more it feels like the Shire, the better!

If you’re on a budget or simply want to keep things small, a local park may be a good alternative. We have one in our area that has some gazebos and even a small building that might have worked well, had we been able to keep our guest count lower. Many parks will let you rent out part or all of the park for a private event for a day for a relatively small fee—though most won’t be able to provide any catering or help with setup or clean up.

Fashion for Hobbits: Wedding Attire

From a very young age, I dreamed of the dress my mom would make for my wedding. We came up with a simple design—something pretty but breathable, something I could wear again to similarly themed events in the future. (In fact, I already have.) She sewed me a white chemise with sparkly netting for an overskirt, and I paired it with a pre-made lace-up bodice and a pair of white sandals I altered myself. (I changed into ankle boots for dancing.)

A friend did some beautiful beadwork on the bodice for me and another friend styled my hair on the day of, braiding the front pieces back and leaving the rest loose. I went light on jewelry—just my engagement ring and white floral earrings.

Jake, meanwhile, went barefoot, like a true hobbit (though he did put sandals on after the ceremony). Instead of a tux, he wore a green vest over a white button-up shirt and cropped brown trousers.

We chose to forego a wedding party. We don’t like picking favorites among friends. We did have a secret Ringbearer hidden in the front row to ensure our wizardly officiant didn’t lose the rings in his robes, but that was all.

Our officiant was the only person who we asked to wear something specific (a Gandalf costume). For the rest of our guests, we “strongly suggested” general fantasy-themed attire. So alongside other hobbits, we had elves, fairies, and all manner of strange and wonderful folk in attendance. This way, no one had to spend a ton of money or wear stiff formal clothes.

Even now, people still talk about how ours was the most comfortable wedding they’ve ever attended. 

Hobbit Wedding Menu & Cake Options

The higher your cake, the more expensive it will be. So instead of one huge tiered cake to rival Minas Tirith, we got a small (chocolate) tiered cake and a large (vanilla) sheet cake from our local grocery store, which is known for its delicious custom cakes. We chose flavor over fondant and went light on the decor; we just had the baker drape some fake ivy vines over the cakes (which was easy to remove come dessert time).

We originally planned to have a cake topper, but the items we ordered to create our topper turned out to be a bit too heavy, so we sat our little scene next to the cakes instead. We ordered a beautiful 3D-printed hobbit hole scene and a couple of minis from Etsy and Jake painted it all to look just right. Now our little scene sits on the top of one of my bookshelves—the one with all my Tolkien books, of course.

Hobbit Wedding Invitations & Decor

I designed our save-the-dates and invitations myself. I sent our save-the-dates out digitally to save paper and money. As for the actual invites, I had them printed through Canva on rough, parchment-style paper. I sealed the envelopes with some inexpensive but elegant wax seal stickers and addressed and mailed them out with Jake’s help.

Our wedding colors were a deep green, gold, ivory, and a pale blush—but these were more guidelines than rules. The main thing I wanted was a mostly natural palette, with gold as an accent color.

As for decor, I opted mostly for fake flowers rather than real ones, mostly to keep our costs down. For safety reasons, we also used fake candles to augment the fairy lights and fire pit provided by the venue. I saved candle jars throughout the year, and we filled these with rocks and sand from the beach to create nice little centerpieces using the fake candles.

A friend grabbed some cheap craft wood and burned the names of locations in the Shire into each piece to create rustic table signs. For our seating chart, I painted a piece of cardboard green, covered it in moss and fake greenery, glued on the table names and guest lists for each, and placed it in a huge, hand-me-down frame painted gold. I bought a couple of cheap signs (including inn signs for The Prancing Pony and The Green Dragon) and tankards for Jake and me to drink from, and I dug up my old Sting sword replica for some extra on-theme touches.

We sent a handful of trusted friends to the venue the morning of the wedding with a couple of boxes full of decorations and told them to go wild. I couldn’t have been happier with the results.

Hobbit Wedding Music: The Perfect Playlist(s)

Since our venue had a hookup that allowed us to play songs on their stereo system from our phones, I created our playlist(s) myself. Technically, we had four.

• Playlist #1: Ceremony—Only one song, since we didn’t have a wedding procession. I walked to the tune of a gorgeous piano cover of “Concerning Hobbits.” 
• Playlist #2: Cocktail Hour—Mostly string-based music from various LotR adaptations and a lot of bardcore covers. I may have snuck a Rickroll in there somewhere. I avoided music with lyrics since it makes conversation harder.
• Playlist #3: Dinner—Mostly piano covers. I made sure to play “The Rains of Castamere” once everyone was seated. It was fun to see more than a few guests suddenly look up in alarm when they recognized it.
• Playlist #4: Dancing—A mix of Renfaire-style music (hello, Blackmore’s Night), Celtic-influenced pop and rock (lots of Ed Sheeran), and folk music. I did my best to balance fast and slow songs with a roughly 4:1 ratio. 

One of my favorite moments of the night was when almost everyone got up to slow dance to “As the World Falls Down” from Labyrinth. Our final song of the evening, of course, had to be “The Last Goodbye” by Billy Boyd.

Hobbit-Worthy Wedding Vows & Readings

As you might have expected, I wrote our ceremony script myself. I followed a simple structure:

1. Welcome the guests.
2. Acknowledge loved ones who couldn’t be there in person.
3. Discuss what love/marriage/etc. means to us.
4. A brief reading.
5. Vows and exchanging of rings.
6. Seal our vows with a kiss!

I won’t share our full script publicly, but I filled it with things we both love. Mostly Lord of the Rings references, of course, but also The Princess Bride and Outlander, from which we borrowed heavily for our vows. I think what surprised everyone the most was that the reading wasn’t a Tolkien selection. Instead, I went with a poem Neil Gaiman wrote at one of his friends’ weddings.

We also needed some quotes to use for the decor and favors, which I pulled exclusively from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (sometimes tweaking as necessary). For example, our wedding favor sign said “hobbits give gifts at their own weddings” (just like hobbit birthdays). For our guest book sign, I quoted Treebeard: “names tell you the story of things they belong to.” Here are a few of the other quotes from both the books and movies that I found particularly fitting for our little hobbit wedding:

• “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
• “As Beren looked into her eyes / Within the shadows of her hair / The trembling starlight of the skies / He saw there mirrored shimmering”
• “I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you.”
• “And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlight sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.”
• “I would rather spend one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”
• “May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails, and the moon walks.”
• “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”
• “It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.”
• “You can trust us to stick with you through thick and thin—to the bitter end.”
• “In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.”
• “Gandalf, my old friend, this will be a night to remember.”

We used these all quotes over the place—for signs, in invitations, in our script, even in our wedding favors! Speaking of which…

Hobbit Wedding Gifts & Favors

Since hobbits give gifts on their birthdays, we figured they’d do the same at their weddings. Our wedding favors were simple and fun—bookmarks with quotes and small, shimmery bags full of elf ears. (Thank you again to our Aunt Lisa for supplying such lovely favors!)

As for gifts for us—we’ve been living together for years, and our current living situation is comfortable but a little cramped in terms of storage space. So instead of more physical stuff to try and make room for (stuff we probably don’t need in the first place!), we asked for help with our adventure to come and set up a honeymoon fund.

Some people see this as gauche, like asking for money as a gift. But it wasn’t actually money we wanted—it was the freedom to go on an adventure and enjoy ourselves without having to count and worry over every single cent. We suggested that if people still wanted to get us physical gifts instead, they could find us something practical we could use on the trip—suitcases, socks, rain boots, etc.

That trip meant so much more to us than a new slow cooker or a set of throw pillows, and I am eternally grateful to every single person who helped us make it happen—including those who were only able to cheer us on.

Going on an Adventure: A Hobbit’s Honeymoon

Speaking of honeymoons… the obvious choice for a hobbit honeymoon is New Zealand, right? It’s literally the home of Hobbiton.

But… New Zealand is far, far away, and I have a terror of heights and flying. So we saved that destination for a future trip and chose instead to visit a place I’ve dreamed of seeing my whole life. A place that, with its rolling green hills and big breakfasts in cozy B&Bs, feels just as much like a real-life Shire as the movie set down Buckland Road.

Reader, we honeymooned in Ireland.

I am very aware of just how lucky (and privileged) we are to have been able to pull off a 10-day honeymoon in Ireland. We have exceedingly generous friends and family; the fund covered most of the cost. Saved-up travel credits helped cover the rest.

If you’re not able to swing a trip to Ireland (or New Zealand, for that matter) for your honeymoon, however, you’re not out of options. Consider a farm stay or staying at a B&B closer to home—or even a staycation honeymoon at home. A quick trip to the thrift store can help you redecorate your home like Bag End, and you can spend a week or even just a weekend cuddled up together on the couch watching your favorite LotR adaptations or reading from the books to one another.

If you’d like to cook, find some recipes based on foods from the books or movies. If you don’t want to cook but can’t go out to eat all the time, take a quick trip to the grocery store and look for comfort foods like meat pies (and/or dessert pies), canned soups, or even charcuterie board fixings.

It’s been six months since our hobbit wedding; five since our adventure to the Emerald Isle. It all still feels a bit like a dream. But if it is a dream, it’s a good one, and I’ll happily keep dreaming it for as long as I can.

Kim Berkley is an avid reader and fantasy author. Looking for more magic(k)? Get some delivered straight to your inbox every month by signing up here.

Wedding photos courtesy of Brianna Lee.