Want a country-style wedding with rusticity and charm by the bucketful? Envisioning a glorious ride for two around the hayfield? See yourself gliding down the aisle in a fresh-as-summer cotton eyelet gown?
Then you've found the right place to help you pull off that special event you've always dreamed of!
Back to the Land
Start with a palette of earthy tones: yellows and golds, tans and umbers, sage and russet, celadon and cinnamon.
Then, try building the theme around your favorite rustic flower (like sunflowers, black-eyed susans or daisies), or a carefree member of the insect world, such as bees, butterflies or dragonflies.
For a venue, try a cornfield or a wheatfield, barn or cabin. Tents can travel to all kinds of charming spots. Call around for camps and lodges that lightly booked and eager for business (though be aware that really remote locales may pose challenges for grandparents in the Lincoln Town Car ... not to mention tricky logistics involving electricity, catering, DJs and so on).
A Touch of Country
Fancy up wedding arches, rafters and other focal spots with branches, bundles of corn stalks and sheaves of wheat. If you're lucky enough to be holding your event in a barn or a lodge, wrap any rafters and pillars in elegant twinkle lights.
More great accents: ears of dried corn, grapevine wreaths, hanging lanterns, and gourds and pumpkins (carve out your monogram, then give them some glow with a votive or a battery-powered light).
To jazz up personal focal points like favors and place settings, start with raffia ties and cinnamon sticks, individual wheat stalks or lavender springs, or Mason jars, burlap bags and small pots of jam or honey.
Country-Style Centerpieces
It's simple to set the table with a little down-home glory. Candles are inherently rustic, so start there: tealights floating in water-filled mason jars, for example. Or tuck pillar candles into terra cotta pots, or place in glass cylinders filled with popcorn, dried peas or coffee beans.
Casual flowers make a big, joyous statement at a reasonable price. Try massing cheerful sunflowers in galvanized pails or watering cans. (You can even use a sunflower's enormous, friendly face as your ring pillow.) Or instead of sunflowers, try sprays of shasta daisies, lupine and viburnum mixed in with small green apples wired to birch branches, or stuck to dowels. Another popular choice: group colorful Gerber daisies into simple mason jars.
Speaking of birch branches, elegant bare-branch centerpieces can be set in any pot and anchored with Quik-Crete for sturdiness. They look especially lovely when lit with hanging votives. Then, warm up those dark corners and windowsills with evocative punched tin lanterns.
More Ways to Make it Country
Give your guest an adorable first impression by hanging escort cards from wooden clothespins on a clothesline strung near the entrance.
Want some drama when it's time to walk back down the aisle as husband and wife? Equip your best men with the goods to create an arch of pitchforks!
Finally, once it's time to eat, dress up the chair backs at the sweetheart table with dramatic sheaves of wheat tied off with russet ribbons or roses. And if your main meal's held outside, you could set the stage with homey touches like buffet or serving tables made from planks set on hay bales and sawhorses. As for the guests, set up picnic-style seating with checkered, gingham or eyelet linens.
Galvanized washtubs look gorgeous filled with ice and drinks in vintage-style bottles (think: Stewart's Sodas — and ask your local suppliers about their best-tasting microbrews.) Don't forget the oversized jars filled with fresh iced tea and cold apple cider.
Treat your guests to home-cooked soul food like pot roast and pulled pork, fritters and cornbread, apple cider donuts and fruit pies.
As for cake, try any of the Autumn-style flavors on for size (spice or carrot, apple or pumpkin ...). Decorate with your favorite fresh flowers, making sure they're unsprayed and organic.
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I am trying to find a program paddle fan made from natural paper with flower imbeds. I saw it on line somewhere about 6 months ago and now I can find it at all. Any ideas?
Am having a rustic, mountain, country, Scottish, Autumn wedding. Whew! Hard to keep on track without becoming tacky. We rented a stone lodge in a state park. Decorating with burgandy and cream mums. Twinkle lights, swags of autumn leaves, pinecones and autumn flowers. Having cocktail tables covered with white linen, then tartan toppers on them. Center pieces are lanterns that are really candle holders (www.collectionsetc.com). Beverage table with galvanized tubs full of ice and beer, tea jars with lemonade and tea. Favors are mason jar mugs. Might have fans since October in Maryland is iffy, could be cool could be hot and this place doesn’t have AC. Trying very hard not to have Harvest Festival look (no pumpkins or cornucopias), not a Christmas look (easy on the pine and twinkle lights). We are having an hammered dulcimer as guests arrive. Bagpiper for the recessional, old time string band for the music. Any other ideas? This forum is great!
Looking for ideas on how to display the seating plan.Wanted to do somthing different other than framed charts! Indoor wedding 11-03-a” rustic romantic fall theme’ We have wedding movies as tbl names and our colors are browns ,cinn,creams.The flowers I’ve choosen are mums,roses and alstermarias (i think!)The mums will be in brown bags as centerpieces.So what do u think? i thought maybe just buying large chalk boards and writing out the seating??Aproz 125 guests there will be 14 tables( thats 14 different wedding movies!!!!!!) help!!!-erika
My hubby to be doesn’t like suits and wants to bring a bit of country into the wedding and so wants to have himself and the groomsmen dressed in moleskins (cream or black), cowboy hats and boots. The bridesmaids will be in royal blue dresses. Any ideas what colour shirts the boys can wear. Also not sure how to tie in the ‘country boys’ with the girls dresses
If you’re looking for outdoorsy/artsy ways to display flowers or candles/arrangements for the tables, check out http://www.fetchingpails.com They make fabric covered galvanized pails, french vases, and tubs…. and they’ll even customize them to match your color theme.
i’m having a john deere themed wedding, and i need help with ideas for the centerpeices, i thought about mason jars, and any other ideas would be great!
I am planning a summer wedding (June of 2008). We are both farm kids and love the country so we are travelling from the church to the reception site hayride style- pulled by my hunny’s restored John Deere A. We’re planning on having a pork BBQ with all of the fixings.
I was originally planning on having sunny yellow, white, aqua, and lime green for accents as my colors. Will this clash with my vety country reception???
Also…ANY CHEAP decorating ideas that involve homemade or natural items would be greatly appreciated!
I had a beautiful outdoor wedding 4 years ago in early october. We used a local park that had a pond. It was no charge and the park manager was good enough to even bring in chairs. For table decorations, I rented glass candle holders and bought taper candles, which were really inexpensive (about .25 per table). Then, we sprinkled rose petals around the bases, although I really like the idea of a votive in a mason jar. I had green wheat in my bouquet to set off the hydraengas, lillies and autumn colored roses. Bunches of the same green wheat were wrapped with ribbon and hung along the isles. This would also be pretty for a centerpiece. We rented a huge white plactic archway, that was so sterile looking, but the florist put ferns all around the base and lined the columns with those wavly looking twigs, tying thin wire around the twigs to secure them to the columns and weaving flowers and leaves around the wire. Luckily my Dad made all the food and we recruited family and friends to serve guests. That was probably the biggest savings. Good luck and enjoy every minute!!!
I am getting married in May 08. We are having an old-fashioned type wedding. We are getting married on the (huge) front porch of an old farm house. There are not going to be many flowers just lots of personal touches, such as a quilt rack with quilts out great-grandmothers maid, a coulple of old late 1800 chuch benches and a couple of potted plants. The reception is going to be a help yourself BBQ, and I made strawberry jam for wedding favors. We are also going to use glavanized tubs filled with ice for our glass bottled drinks. I found a dress that I loved that is coved with lace and has a stole. The guys attire is just dark suits with a matching tie. There are also 7 (yes 7) nieces and nephews in the wedding so we are sure to have a great time. If anyone has any other suggestion I would appreciate your help.:D
for a twig arbor look at http://www.lingrowfarm.com and look at the photos there is one there. good luck
Does anyone have a picture of a twig arbor? I love the idea but having a hard time picturing it. How do you make one? Thanks!
Sara, just a thought…don’t waste money on linen napkins, get some beautiful paper ones that have your wedding colors and roll them up and tie them with raffia. Also for a special table, like your cake table, use a quilt for the table cover… You also can go to the local thrift stores and get all different fabrics in cremes and whites and make it very rustic looking for the table covers.good luck
I am having an autumn wedding, outside an historic farmhouse with recepiton in the barn. I’m doing the hay bales as seating for the actual wedding. My bridesmaids will be in dark truffle brown. My flower girl wearing a pinafore, holding the wild flower heads in the apron part. My ring bearer dressen in knickers, suspenders, and snap cap. We are then hosting a cocktail hour on the lawn with warm cider and champagne primarily for photo opportunites. The reception will provide a traditional amish dinner for guests, served by the local amish restaurant. We found a cheap and unique idea for centerpieces by using oil lamps. The hardest time I am having is finding bartenders for hire to serve beer and wine, and finding somewhere to rent linens and tables. I also need some help deciding that since this is a rustic, old- fashion celebration, if I should use tulle. I think tulle can really look gaudy sometimes. We are using TONS of christmas lights. Should I also use tull?
THANKS FOR THE TIPS!! IHOPE TO GET MORE IDEAS FROM ANYONE HAVING A FALL WEDDING. THIS DOESNT REALLY GO WITH MY RUSTIC THEME,HOWEVER WE ARE HAVING WEDDING DVD’S FOR OUR TABLE NAMES.(HUBBY-TO-BE IS A MOVIE LUVA) HOW COULD WE TIE THAT INTO A RUSTIC FALL THEME?? SOME PICKS ARE: FATHER OF THE BRIDE,WEDDING PLANNER AND SO FORTH.MY DAD IS MAKING WOODED PLATE EASELS TO DISPLAY THEM.AND THEN WE ARE GOING TO PLAY “MUSICAL DVD” AND GIVEM ALL AWAY @ RECEPTION!:-?
Erika, my wedding’s 10-6-07. We’re going to use tons of sunflowers and peach, orange, and warm pinks Gerber daises.
hi, my daughter is getting married on sept 1 of this year, we are going rustic colors of brown, rusts, our tables will have rust colored tablecloths and i found wrapping paper with a cream and shiny rust print to lay down the center of the table as a runner, also am using fall flowers in old mason jars , plus i found small carvable pumpkins and am planning to carve their initials in them with battery lights in them as a luminary. at the door we are making a twig arbor with grapevine and white lights, really easy to build the more irregular the better it will look. may have caramel apples at each place setting, depending on the cost. hope this gives you some ideas. v.step
HAVING FALL WEDDING AS WELL!11-03-07 FOR DECOR- LESS IS MORE!! TRY PAPER BAGS INSTEAD OF BURLAP. LOOKS REALLY RUSTIC NOT TO MENTION CHEAP. ADD LOTS OF TWINKLE LIGHTS NOW ITS MORE ROMANTIC RUSTIC!!! MY COLORS ARE BROWN,CINN,GOLDEN CREAM. NEED IDEAS ON FLOWERS!! I WAS THINKING MUMS.NEED IDEAS FOR ARBOR. NO GREEN.THINK TWIGS ,LIGHTS.ANY SUGG??
My fiance and I are planning a July 2007 western themed informal wedding outdoors next to a beautiful river. We are trying to make it as cheap as we can. Do you have any ideas for easy to make wedding favors, etc that go along with our western theme? Please let me know as soon as possible.
hi! i am having my wedding on sept 2 2007. i want the feel to be rustic (it is in a bank barn) with the colors of the end of summer… i am looking for favor ideas, table decoration and a cake table idea… it is hard to tie it together… so far i am thinking about grapevine hearts to hold the napkins.. i would love some help
thanks
pgh pa
Missie, how are you going to do the BBQ? My wedding is county fair theme also it’s going to be Oct. 6, ‘07 and I still don’t know how I want everyone to get their food. I don’t know if the BBQ should still be cooking when everyone is getting there or have it already done. We are having servers to walk around and make sure everyone has want they want but should I have them server the food to everyone as well? We are going to have about 150 people.