This cheerful couple offered whoopee cushion favors saying, "Whoopee, we're married!"

Weddings are still formal affairs, but lately they're getting a giant pop of personality. These days couples might nix the traditional white cake and opt for chocolate frosting colored navy blue, or forgo cutesy favors and instead hand out whoopee cushions. Here, four wedding professionals tell us how they helped couples toss tradition and make their wedding days distinctly their own.

ART DECO-RATED

An “architecture buff” bride wanted her wedding to have art deco style, says Sharon Sacks — president of Sacks Productions in Calabasas, Calif. — which a famed building and Sacks provided. In fact, the first art deco building constructed in Los Angeles served as the venue: the landmark 1927 Oviatt Building. The penthouse provided the space for the elegant wedding ceremony while the building's Cicada restaurant housed the stylish reception.

A wedding cake features a Lalique pattern for an art-deco fan bride.

Rather than compete with the art deco surroundings, Sacks opted to subtly enhance them. She turned to cymbidium orchid florals, ruched sheer silk organza table linen and mirrored chargers “so that the gold-leaf ceiling was reflected before the eyes of every guest,” she notes. The wedding announcements also mimicked art deco style, while the cake was an art deco work of art. The bride provided the chef a Lalique glass pattern, a brand made famous during the art deco movement, as the basis for the wedding cake design. The final product echoed the decor of the Oviatt Building itself, which houses the largest Lalique collection in the world and features windows and light fixtures made of the famous glass.

HIS AND HERS

When a bride from New Orleans and a pilot groom married, VP Events in Westlake Village, Calif., helped them marry their personal interests as well. VP president and CEO Mary N. Litzsinger, CSEP, developed seamless decor at the Santa Barbara, Calif., wedding that acknowledged the couple's individual interests. To pay homage to the groom's love of flight, for example, the groom's cake took the shape of a plane, and compasses served as escort cards. The engagement photo of the couple, blown up and hung behind the escort table, made a declaration of love in navigation terms with the phrase “You are my true north.”