Decorating Your Outdoor Wedding

With the weather turning warmer, lots of couples are starting to plan that backyard garden wedding. The outside wedding to me is much more relaxing than the traditional ceremonies that take place inside a church building. However, even though the outside setting might be casual, decorations will still be a primary part of the wedding.

Before you do anything, pick your theme and color scheme and work from there. Coordinated weddings and receptions, even those in backyard gardens, need to look beautiful, festive and be organized. Your theme doesn’t have to be fancy or formal, like Victorian, it can easily be a simple and beautiful free-flowing ceremony.

Check out the backyard and notice the major colors there. Do you see lots of flowers or mainly green bushes, trees and grass? Are there patches that need a little sprucing up? With a little creativity, you can transform a normal backyard into a place where dreams come true!

It’s a good idea to get some flower pots planted with flowers in your favorite colors. This should happen at least three months before the wedding. Check the grow time so you have them looking just right for the wedding day. Remember those patches that need sprucing up? will a flower pot look nice there or maybe a sitting bench. Sometimes you can put your guest sign in table or maybe the gift table over those unbecoming patches. Use your imagination, that keeps it fun. And really… you’ll be surprised at the great ideas you come up with.

The lawn should be mowed at least a day before the wedding and remember not to water it the day of the wedding. We have found the water will attract the bees, especially in late summer. If your backyard is contained inside a fence, decorate it with ribbons, bows, or anything that goes with your theme and colors. Hide anything you don’t want to be part of your celebration behind screens, rented bushes or ? use your theme and get creative about hiding things. If you can’t think of something on your own… get signed up for a Pinterest account. Trust me you’ll have “too many” ideas to try!

Wedding rental companies will deliver and pick up arbors and even gazebos for the actual ceremony. Have the gazebo delivered a few days before the wedding and decorate it with flowers, ribbons, vines etc. If you are using flowers from a florist be sure and leave a spot for those “real” flowers when, and if, you decorate early. You don’t want to put up “real” flowers to soon, you want them to look fresh for the wedding ceremony.

You can also rent chairs for the guests, tables for eating, a dance floor, tents in case of rain or to much sun, the list goes on and on.  But, you can also borrow and barter for a much cheaper event and it “does not” have to look cheap.

Your reception can be held in a different section of the lawn. You could have all the tables set up and ready to go for the reception and your guest could just pick up their chair after the ceremony and carry it to a table. Always have some groomsmen on hand to bring up extra chairs and help those who can’t carry a chair.  Your tables will be decorated with white tablecloths, or color of your choice and holding baskets of flowers, candles or other chosen center piece. If your reception is at night, hurricane lamps might be a better choice than candles because the night breeze won’t blow them out. Outside lighting in the yard will be necessary for safety and it adds so much ambiance to the setting.

Many outdoor weddings have a portable restroom or two delivered for guests to use. Don’t forget to decorate them. Rent another arbor, decorate it and place it in front of the restroom. Place a large, colorful ribbon bow on the door. Inside, add a few sprigs of flowers in the corners or some other theme decorations.

Finally, make sure whatever music you have chosen for your reception and your wedding, can be heard by your guests. If you hire a DJ or band, discuss volume with them. You need it to be pleasing in the background during the reception and just loud enough to be heard by your guests and at the gazebo, but not so loud your neighbors call the cops. That problem could be avoided by inviting them to your backyard wedding!

These decorating suggestions should give you a starting place. Use your own creativity and make your backyard wedding something you will remember every time you look out the kitchen window or sit on the deck.