Any Suggestions For Animal Theme For Wedding?

We are having our wedding/reception at a park designated for wild animals. I want to incorporate the animals into the theme without making it seem childish. As a child, my fiance was nicknamed "tiger" by his grandfather who has recently passed away. Ironically, the location has a lot of black, orange and red colors. Any suggestions for invitations, cake toppers, centerpieces, flowers, bridesmaid dress would be so appreciated!! One restriction: no balloons because they will endanger the animals!
Posted by Suzanne; updated 06/18/03

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A few ideas:
Whatever you do, please don`t make the bridesmaids wear animal-print dresses! Although I doubt any bride could be that cruel : )
It is very easy for pictures of animals to look cheesy, but an old-fashioned engraving of an animal could look very classy. Imagine a very old-fashioned illustration of a rhino or antelope on the cover of your invitation. You could get the illustration from a book from the library. We are tying our invitations with ribbon -- a small amount of animal print could be suitable here in the form of a ribbon. Or use a khaki colored ribbon that might suggest a safari.
As far as bridesmaids dresses, a chocolate brown with satin accents would go with your location well. I don`t know -- don`t have a lot of suggestions in this area.
Flowers -- it`s tempting to suggest something really exotic here like birds of paradise, orchids, etc. But they`re so darned expensive. You didn`t mention what time of year your wedding was, but if it`s in spring, tree flowers like magnolias could look exotic. Otherwise lilies like water lilies, tiger lilies, or day lilies kind of look exotic.
I say skip the cake topper and go with fresh flowers on your cake. That`s what we`re doing and here, since you don`t have as much space to fill, you could splurge on more exotic flowers. Animal figurines instead of a bride and groom on top of the cake could look really cheesy. I think it`s very possible to go overboard on a theme.
If you`ve got a fairly generous budget, for centerpieces you could get wood carvings of animals. A place like Global Village or any other import store might have these for less than you think. Maybe try Pier 1 -- they`re pretty cheap.
That`s all for now-- if I have any more ideas, I`ll write again.
Posted by Ariana; updated 06/19/03