Whether
you want your autumn wedding to be very formal, most casual or somewhere
in between, you have an enormous variety of possibilities. It is
harvest time. The summer heat is gone. Yet the days are still warm and
sunny. The leaves are turning into an incredible array of colors and as
they fall off the trees, create a soft, lush colorful carpet. Halloween
and Thanksgiving are here and can serve as wedding themes or be
incorporated for a most unique personalized fall theme wedding. Can you
see the possibilities? So, put on your thinking cap and get creative.
Following are ideas to help you plan a fall wedding.
WEDDING LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Following are traditional and not so traditional locations that will enhance your autumn wedding and make it unique and special. Picture your wedding at a:
Park
Bed and Breakfast
Country Inn
Winery
Ranch or on a farm,
Barn
Gazebo
Open Field
Orchard
Nature Preserve
Botanical Garden or in a private Garden
Wooded area
Riverbank or Lakeside
Or anywhere where nature presents its glorious backdrop.
ATTIRE
Bride and her attendants
Fall weather is unpredictable. It may get chilly so, consider heavier fabrics and at least some sleeve for the gown and dresses or top them with matching boleros, stoles or shawls that can, but do not have to be worn. The wedding gown can be white, ivory, champagne or gold. The gown and or veil may show embroidered leaf motif or dainty gold embroidery.
Bridesmaids may wear either the same color or to really represent the autumn theme, have each bridesmaid represent a different fall color. See Fall Colors List. The bride may wish to wear a fall theme garter and carry a matching hankie.
Bridesmaids and flower girl will look great adorning garlands of fall flowers and leaves.
The groom and his attendants
To reflect the season, the men and boys could wear tan, beige and brown attire instead of the white, black or dark blue. Their ties should be of fall colors matching the bridesmaids dresses and their boutonnière should be a fall flower.
FALL COLORS
white, ivory, champagne, muted gold, tan, beige, various browns, hunter green, burnt orange, rust red, deep red, burgundy, cranberry, wine, navy blue, sky blue, eggplant purple, pewter, silver, pale yellow, pumpkin and orange.
INVITATIONS AND STATIONERY
Accent your invitations and wedding stationery with your chosen fall color. If you print your own, you may add fall graphics such as leaves, acorns, fall flowers, seasonal fruit, or a horn of plenty. If you purchase fall theme print your own invitations, fall theme is available. Cut the place cards to look like a fall theme item leaves, pumpkin, turkey siluettes etc...
FLOWERS
Chrysanthemums, roses, daisies, dahlias, lilies, yarrow, orchids, hydrangeas, sunflowers, baby breath, fall leaves, tallow berries, natural or dried wheat.
CEREMONY
Decorate the ceremony site with fall flowers.
Instead of aisle runners spread fall color real or fake leaves, in the center aisle. If your ceremony location does not allow spreading petals or leaves directly on the floor, glue leaves on aisle runners. This is a great activity for kids as the love to glue and can be creative. So, if you can engage kids, whether they are yours or not, they will be proud to help with your wedding.
Instead of rose petals, fill the flower basket with colorful fall leaves.
Make pew bows from ribbons in your wedding colors and embellish them with fall silk flowers, leaves, fruit, wheat, Indian corn etc...
RECEPTION
General
Use mini pumpkins, gourds, berrirs, Indian corn, apples, grapes, wheat , bales of hay and leaves foe centerpieces, favors and decorations.
Tables
Instead of numbering your tables, name them. For example:
Fall, Autumn, Acorn, Horn of plenty, Cornucopia, Maple, Oak, Apple, Pear, Pumpkin, Cranberry etc...
To add more interest and make it easier to remember give your table addresses. Just add Circle or Square depending on the shape of your tables and you send your guests to Fall Circle or Autumn Square etc...
Use fall color linens.
Ideas for Centerpieces
Before placing a centerpiece, you may strew fall leaves and or wheat on the reception tables and on the cake tale.
Place
A Horn of plenty, a basket or a hollowed pumpkin lined with fall leaves
or popcorn and filled with fall fruit, berries, nuts, gourds,
mini-pumpkins and-or acorns as your centerpiece.
Pumpkin Ice Sculpture
Carve out the inside of pumpkins and place candles in
them. If you plan a buffet, you may line hollowed pumpkins with foil and
using them as serving dishes.
Fall floral arrangements in a straw basket or hollowed pumpkin.
Place 3 or 4 fall color candles of various sizes in
hurricane lamps. The candles may be cinnamon, cranberry, spice or apple
scented.
Place leaf or pumpkin shaped floating candles in a bowl, set it on a layer of fall leaves or straw.
Paint or spray mini pumpkins and gourds and group them together.
A real plant with real blooming flowers makes a great
gift for guests. Chrysanthemums of many colors are pretty, very
reasonably prices and you can get them everywhere; Wal Mart, Home Depot,
Lowes, etc...
Display b bales of hay
If you have children, let them participate. Ask them to
string cranberries, candies and popcorn and add them to your table
decorations.
Display balloons in fall colors
Large chocolate or ice sculpture Turkeys
Favors
Fruit shaped candles
Favor boxes or bags filled with candy corn
Caramel Apples
The Perfect Pear items
Garden in a bag or box
Fall theme cookies
Fall theme chocolates
Fall theme lollypops
Maple candies
Reception Decorations
Fall theme ribbons and bows, garlands, paper lanterns or luminaries with amber light bulbs, balloons, chains of stringed popcorn, cranberries, candies, paper chains, bales of hay, ivy, garlands etc...
Accent the doorways and tables with tulle and ribbons in your wedding colors. Adhere leaves and silk flowers for inexpensive, elegant displays.
Cake
Decorate your cake with leaves, fall flowers, mini pumpkins, mini apples, marzipan fruit etc...
Flavors: Spice cake, pumpkin cake, dark chocolate cake, nut cake.
Food items you may wish to consider
Nuts
DRINKS: Apple cider, Sparkling cider, you may add: for
adults, port or brandy to the cider and for the kids cinnamon sticks.
Wine is very popular for fall weddings both as beverage and as part of a
centerpiece..
MAIN DISHES especially if close to Thanksgiving: Turkey, stuffing, corn, potatoes, cranberry sauce etc...
DESSERTS: Pumpkin pie, Apple pie, Pecan pie
HALLOWEEN WEDDINGS
Wedding colors white black and orange
Treat or trick bag for bridal purse and or as guest favors
Costumes or masks
Jack O'lantern ice sculpture or actual pumpkin as centerpiece
Jack O'lantern favors
DO NOT display ghosts at your wedding. You do not want to start your life together with "ghosts in your closet".
FUN IDEAS
Hay rides, Horse and Buggy rides, blowing soap bubbles, Harvest the rewards of your Autumn Theme Wedding planning and have a super event.
Following are ideas to help you plan a fall wedding.
WEDDING LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Following are traditional and not so traditional locations that will enhance your autumn wedding and make it unique and special. Picture your wedding at a:
Bride and her attendants
Fall weather is unpredictable. It may get chilly so, consider heavier fabrics and at least some sleeve for the gown and dresses or top them with matching boleros, stoles or shawls that can, but do not have to be worn. The wedding gown can be white, ivory, champagne or gold. The gown and or veil may show embroidered leaf motif or dainty gold embroidery.
Bridesmaids may wear either the same color or to really represent the autumn theme, have each bridesmaid represent a different fall color. See Fall Colors List. The bride may wish to wear a fall theme garter and carry a matching hankie.
Bridesmaids and flower girl will look great adorning garlands of fall flowers and leaves.
The groom and his attendants
To reflect the season, the men and boys could wear tan, beige and brown attire instead of the white, black or dark blue. Their ties should be of fall colors matching the bridesmaids dresses and their boutonnière should be a fall flower.
FALL COLORS
white, ivory, champagne, muted gold, tan, beige, various browns, hunter green, burnt orange, rust red, deep red, burgundy, cranberry, wine, navy blue, sky blue, eggplant purple, pewter, silver, pale yellow, pumpkin and orange.
INVITATIONS AND STATIONERY
Accent your invitations and wedding stationery with your chosen fall color. If you print your own, you may add fall graphics such as leaves, acorns, fall flowers, seasonal fruit, or a horn of plenty. If you purchase fall theme print your own invitations, fall theme is available. Cut the place cards to look like a fall theme item leaves, pumpkin, turkey siluettes etc...
FLOWERS
Chrysanthemums, roses, daisies, dahlias, lilies, yarrow, orchids, hydrangeas, sunflowers, baby breath, fall leaves, tallow berries, natural or dried wheat.
CEREMONY
Decorate the ceremony site with fall flowers.
Instead of aisle runners spread fall color real or fake leaves, in the center aisle. If your ceremony location does not allow spreading petals or leaves directly on the floor, glue leaves on aisle runners. This is a great activity for kids as the love to glue and can be creative. So, if you can engage kids, whether they are yours or not, they will be proud to help with your wedding.
Instead of rose petals, fill the flower basket with colorful fall leaves.
Make pew bows from ribbons in your wedding colors and embellish them with fall silk flowers, leaves, fruit, wheat, Indian corn etc...
RECEPTION
General
Use mini pumpkins, gourds, berrirs, Indian corn, apples, grapes, wheat , bales of hay and leaves foe centerpieces, favors and decorations.
Tables
Instead of numbering your tables, name them. For example:
Fall, Autumn, Acorn, Horn of plenty, Cornucopia, Maple, Oak, Apple, Pear, Pumpkin, Cranberry etc...
To add more interest and make it easier to remember give your table addresses. Just add Circle or Square depending on the shape of your tables and you send your guests to Fall Circle or Autumn Square etc...
Use fall color linens.
Ideas for Centerpieces
Before placing a centerpiece, you may strew fall leaves and or wheat on the reception tables and on the cake tale.
Fall theme ribbons and bows, garlands, paper lanterns or luminaries with amber light bulbs, balloons, chains of stringed popcorn, cranberries, candies, paper chains, bales of hay, ivy, garlands etc...
Accent the doorways and tables with tulle and ribbons in your wedding colors. Adhere leaves and silk flowers for inexpensive, elegant displays.
Cake
Decorate your cake with leaves, fall flowers, mini pumpkins, mini apples, marzipan fruit etc...
Flavors: Spice cake, pumpkin cake, dark chocolate cake, nut cake.
Food items you may wish to consider
FUN IDEAS
Hay rides, Horse and Buggy rides, blowing soap bubbles, Harvest the rewards of your Autumn Theme Wedding planning and have a super event.
Photos Before the Ceremony
First off, I'd like to say that there is no right decision. Everyone is different and I strongly believe that weddings should reflect the character and personality of the bride and groom, even down to how they lay out the day.
Believe me, I've heard both extreme sides of the argument. One one side, I've talked with people who believe it's bad luck, wedding blasphemy and that I'm crazy for even suggesting it. On the other side of the spectrum, I've talked with people who find it old-fashioned and want nothing to do with a tradition rooted in the days where marriages were arranged and virgins were sold to old men in exchange for cows. No joke, this is where the tradition came from. Not letting the groom see the bride until the ceremony was a tactic to keep him from deciding she wasn't worth the price he was paying and backing out. Obviously, I don't think that's why anyone is carrying on the tradition today.
I definitely respect the brides I meet who have envisioned that walk down the aisle to see their groom for the first time since they were a child. But, from my perspective, as a bride, as a photographer and as someone who's seen the in's and out's of hundreds of weddings, here are a few reasons to consider seeing each other before the ceremony.
1. You still get the aisle experience. Most
bride's main concern is losing the wow factor of her groom seeing her
for the first time as she walks down the aisle. But the magic of that
moment isn't lost. You're about to get married. The moment is HUGE. You
walk down single and walk back united with another person. Whether he's
seen you in your dress or not has nothing do do with the magic of the
moment. You can see it and feel it, the emotion is still there. At my
own wedding, my husband still teared up when I walked down the aisle
with my dad. Never mind that he and I had been joking around with
friends 30 minutes prior.
2. Nerves. Most
people I've talked to after their wedding say that they were so nervous
and anxious until the moment they saw each other and the butterflies
all went away, regardless of whether that moment was at the alter or a
couple of hours before. You suddenly have your other half and you can
begin processing the day with them. One time, while we were driving from
the photo shoot to the ceremony with a couple, a groom (who will remain
nameless) turned to his bride and with a relieved look on his face
said, "I would have crapped my pants if I had to wait until the ceremony
to see you!"
3. Enjoy the moment alone together. Think
about it, if you see each other for the first time at the end of the
aisle you can't talk or kiss, you can hardly touch and you'll have
somewhere between 5 and 500 of your closest friends, family, co-workers
and their random dates watching you. OR, you can set up a romantic
moment that you can really enjoy. Laugh, hug, kiss, cry- you don't have
to hold anything back because you don't have to worry about anyone
watching. AND, the moment usually makes for sweet pictures.
4. Get to the party sooner. Seeing
each other beforehand and getting pictures done means that once you're
done with the ceremony, you're ready to head straight to the reception
with nothing else to worry about except dancing with your friends. If
you are doing pictures afterwards, you'll have a lot less time and all
of your guests will be waiting.
6. Spend the day with each other. Really,
when you think about it, a wedding reception is a big party that the
bride and groom are hosting. Everyone wants to talk to them,
congratulate them, dance with them, etc. Yes, you'll probably spend most
of the reception side by side, but you'll be talking to everyone else.
As we drove away from our reception, Jason and I realized we hadn't
really gotten a chance to reallly talk to each other since before the
ceremony!
7. Get away from the stress. The
few hours before the wedding is when moms, florists, friends helping to
set up, etc. begin stressing over little details and begin to come and
ask the bride for answers and you hear questions like these: "Do you
want the flowers here, or six inches to the left?" or "We can't find the
cake! Oh wait... we found it." All things that can work themselves out
and if you're not available because you're off taking pictures, you
never have to know.
