Your Garden Wedding

Written by Rebecca Stewart, Visionary weddings

Garden weddings are romantic and as such have been a popular choice for brides and grooms for many years. Simple decorations and clever use of colour will create a stylish and elegant ceremony and reception.

Here are some easy steps to designing your very own garden wedding.

Step One: The Garden Wedding Location
You might be lucky enough to have a property in the family and a gorgeous garden that will help you create your perfect day. If not then consider public outdoor spaces that mean something to you a lakeside location, a city park, local botanical gardens, or beside the bay or ocean. All of these venues are generally available for events of this sort.

Step Two: Your Garden Wedding Colors
Nearly all colors can work well with a garden wedding, depending upon what flowers are currently blooming, and how the garden is arranged. If the garden is particularly colorful, various shades of a single color (like pink or gold) can be beautifully paired with whites and creams, creating a simple yet stylish backdrop for your special day.

This seasons colours are bright feminine tones such as purples, pinks and orange (think of irises, cherry blossom, roses and tulips).

Step Three: Your Garden Wedding Invitations
Your invitations are the first part of your wedding your friends and family will see, so it pays to make them stylish. However, note that stylish doesn't mean expensive! If you're a do-it-yourselfer, consider an invitation on handmade paper with pressed flowers, overlaid with vellum and tied with a silver ribbon. Using wedding-themed clipart of garden plants, flowers, or butterflies are also great ways to create your own lovely invitations.

Step Four: The Garden Wedding Dress
Classic garden bridal gowns are often white, with floral embroidery in white, silver, gold, or other pastel colors. Flower-themed bridesmaid and flower girl dresses are wonderful additions to a garden motif. When choosing dresses, keep the season and time of day in mind - you're most likely going to want a short-sleeved or sleeveless dress made from a breezy fabric like organdy, linen, or chiffon.

Step Five: Your Elegant Garden Wedding Ceremony

With simple decorations your garden ceremony can reflect the romance of the day. Consider getting married under a flower-decorated gazebo; arbour or even a garden arch. Walk down an aisle of scattered flower petals or a red carpet lined with rose petals. Release butterflies or doves after your ceremony and hand out flower petals to your guests to use as confetti. Garden weddings are a great setting for classical music so have a harpist play for your guests while they wait for you to arrive and as you walk down the aisle.

Step Six: The Garden Wedding Food
Garden weddings are perfect for buffet – style serving or cocktail style dining.

Think long tables filled with classy barbecue fare - grilled foods, fresh fruits and berries, gourmet potato salad, or large round tables overflowing with bite size fare. Sparkling pitchers filled with sunny lemonade and refreshing iced tea, with slices of lemon floating on the top. For your coffee service, consider finding antique flower-themed teacups and saucers at your local flea market. Even if the cups don't match, these delicate serving vessels will add character to your decorating and spark conversations amongst your friends and family.

Step Seven: Your Garden Wedding Flowers
It's a garden wedding - of course there will be tons of flowers! Just what sort will probably depend upon what sort of garden you've chosen to host your marriage, but popular choices include roses, sunflowers, calla lilies, and orchids, which are often more affordable in the summertime. You might also consider different varieties of white or cream-colored flowers, including roses, lilies, daisies, and snow mums.

Step Eight: The Garden Wedding Lighting
If your wedding will continue into the evening hours, some accent lighting can create a beautiful scene as the sun goes down. String lights up the trunks of trees in the garden, and lines of Japanese paper lanterns between them. Mason jars or white paper bags filled with sand and tea lights can be placed on tables, hung from trees, or may be used to line pathways in the garden, creating a lovely glow as your guests continue to drink, dance, and toast your happiness. Finally, floating candles in the shape of flowers or fruits can be placed in glass bowls filled with shining water. Sprinkle a few rose petals in amongst them to create a graceful centerpiece for every table.

Step Nine: The Garden Wedding Favors
Unique favours that your guests can take home and remember your elegant garden wedding might include fresh fruit; potpourri bags; or a single flower with seed packets attached will all create lovely reminders of this special day.

Step Ten: The Garden Wedding Marquee
Marquees can provide shelter from sun and rain and many will appreciate this thought. You can decorate the marquee to match the colors of wedding, and are often adorned with strings of Christmas lights and paper lanterns.

Set the marquee with tables and chairs for guests to sit at; decorating the tables with candles.

Contact Visionary weddings for your Garden Wedding requirements!