Tag Archives: Autumn wedding ideas

The Do’s and Don’ts of Outdoor Autumn Weddings

Many brides look forward to autumn every year because it’s a romantic season to have your wedding. The natural autumnal colors provide a gorgeous backdrop to any wedding, which is why so many brides want to have their autumn weddings outdoors.

There are plenty of reasons to have your autumn wedding outside, but there are also some mistakes you should be aware of so you don’t repeat them on your wedding day.

Read on to learn some important do’s and don’ts of outdoor autumn weddings. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t work, so your wedding will be a success no matter what.

Do: Watch the Calendar
The day you choose to have your wedding is so important. It has to be a day that’s special for you and your fiance, but it also has to be available for all your guests. Think about major events around this time of year like massive football games, marathons or other festivals in your area that cause a scheduling conflict for your guests.

You should also watch the calendar for autumn weather events – Early autumn counts as hurricane season, so you should be especially careful to watch for developing storms if you’re getting married in hurricane prone areas.

Don’t: Forget About Wet Leaves
Most of the time, autumn weddings will use the changing leaves as part of the decor. It’s an inexpensive way to embrace the season and decorate your venue, but sometimes it’s not so smart to keep leaves out on the floor.

If it rains the night before or the morning of your wedding, be prepared to sweep the wet leaves away. Wet leaves make it much easier for people to slip and fall, even on surfaces that are grassy. Your guests should be able to wear stylish wedding shoes without needing to watch where they walk. Avoid simple accidents by getting rid of any wet leaves and other debris from fall rainstorms before your guests arrive at your venue.

Do: Provide Cold Weather Backup
The perfect autumn weather is the kind where people can wear light sweaters and closed toed shoes, but at night, the temperature can dip into chilly and even cold weather.

Don’t forget that your guests will be hanging out at your wedding after the sun goes down. They’ll need a way to stay warm, especially if the forecast for the day predicts colder weather than you originally expected.
Think about setting up space heaters, piles of blankets, hot drinks and even a fire pit with s’mores supplies so no one is left uncomfortable.

Don’t: Avoid Seasonal Decor
You may wonder if it’s tacky to use traditional autumn decor in your wedding, but don’t worry about it! It’ll look especially classy in an outdoor wedding, when the natural elements are all around you.

Use decor like pumpkins, gourds and even garlands in autumn colors to really pull the season in and embrace the autumnal wedding theme. Make sure to get plastic fruits, so you don’t have to worry about anything rotting before your wedding.

Do: Enhance Your Menu
The same thing goes for your wedding menu–embrace the warm, autumna foods. Food like pumpkin soup, roasted turkey and cranberry sides will fit right in with the season. Just make sure to have some staple menu items available for younger picky eaters, like mac and cheese and salad.

Don’t: Book a Dirt Floor
When it rains in the autumn, the ground holds onto the water longer than in the summer. With no summer heat to dry things up, your venue could be a muddy mess if you book a place with a dirt floor.

Make sure your venue has an area outside with some kind of flooring installed so mud isn’t an issue. If you keep that in mind along with other helpful tips like watching the weather and thinking about seasonal decor, your outdoor autumn wedding will be a major success.

Essences – Earth Tones

Following on with this week’s theme of Earthly and Autumn coloured weddings, here is an inspiration board to help you plan your own Autumn coloured wedding! I love Autumn, it’s one of my favourite seasons. If you haven’t already, check our Kristen & Derek’s outdoor autumn wedding from earlier this week – It’s full of pumpkin goodness!

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~ Invitations ~ Venue Dressing ~ Bridal Party ~ Wedding Flowers ~ Cake ~ Groomswear ~

A Glittering Outdoor Autumnal Wedding – Kristen & Derek

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This week is all about my favourite season – Autumn. Later on in the week we have a beautiful Essences board full of earth tones, but today I get to share with you Kristen and Derek’s beautiful outdoor wedding that took place at The Kings Contrivance in Columbia, Maryland, full of lovely golden and brown tones from Sarah Culver Photography.

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Our relationship has endured a lot of long-distance time in the almost 8 years that we have been together. Our relationship started out with Derek in Baltimore and me and Virginia and, most recently, we went through two years of me living in Toronto while Derek was still in Baltimore. Toronto was actually the backdrop for our engagement. I was preparing to attend the University of Toronto for graduate school, and needed to find an apartment. Derek travelled with me to Toronto to help me search for an apartment and proposed to me the first night we were there. He had this elaborate plan to go to the top of the CN Tower to propose, but I ruined it because I was exhausted after travelling all day and just wanted to get a bite to eat and head back to the hotel. So our proposal happened on the side of the street as we were walking back to our hotel after dinner and drinks! It was totally unexpected (as we still weren’t sure at that point if we were both going to move to Toronto) and was absolutely symbolic of the fact that he will always be there, no matter where I have to travel for either school or a job. He has always been supportive of me, and this was an amazing way for him to show it.

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Derek and I hand picked everything about our wedding, so I’d say that all of the details represented us as a couple. The inspiration for our wedding came from our love of all things Autumn, while also staying light and airy. Derek and I always feel the most alive during the fall months, so of course we wanted to capture that for our wedding day. I also have an insatiable love for glitter and sparkle, so we threw touches of that throughout our decor without over-powering the rustic feel we were going for. It was also very important to us that we kept our wedding “all in the family”, per se. We are lucky that we know a ton of talented people, so we were able to have a close friend marry us (who also gave us matching love note tattoos shortly after we got engaged), as well as have friends film our day and provide services such as hair and makeup for the girls and barbering for the guys. And honestly, all throughout planning, we just wanted to have an awesome party for all of our friends and family. It was more important to have amazing music, food, and cake than it was for me to have some once-in-a-lifetime dress or expensive heels. We wanted the day to be about sharing our love with everyone that has always embraced us and supported us. 

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However, the most straightforward detail of our wedding that represented us as a couple had to be our cake topper. Our baker, Charm City Cakes, made us into little figurines based on our own personalities. Derek’s figurine was in a hockey jersey, which is a nod to his love of sports, and my figurine had my cat Piper peeking out from under my dress. It was a perfect depiction of us.

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