Today marks the first anniversary of my daughter Alex’s wedding, which we hosted here at the lake house last summer. With all of the wedding plans shifting for brides right now (my heart goes out to each of them), I thought I’d share some outdoor wedding decor ideas with you. As a bonus, it gives me a chance to look back at how beautiful the yard looked last year! Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, as this post is a long one. :-

When Alex and Ross started planning their outdoor wedding, they knew they wanted it outdoors but still wanted it to feel a bit more elegant than a regular backyard bbq. Once Alex chose her dress, which had some Art Deco/ geometric patterns elements, we began planning the decor details. Since the bride loves blue and it’s perfect for a beach vibe, she ran with that. After debating several shades of blue, Alex settled on dusty blue and grey for her bridal party, and we added mixed metals and a pretty peachy pink for some contrast in the decor. When you are having a wedding outdoors, I believe it’s best to let your beautiful surroundings shine through.

A lot of the decor was DIY because it’s kind of what I do as a Home Decor blogger. Having worked as a floral designer years ago, I decided I could handle DIYing the flowers. Even with that experience, I was still a bit nervous about finding the specific colors and flowers my daughter liked, so I found Kukka Flowers that send you pre-selected flowers, and you arrange them yourself. This made it so easy. I’ll write a post about the actual arranging next week. They also have videos to help you if you need more support. I ordered the Yours Truly collection which they allowed me to personalize a bit, and the flowers were so beautiful! I also ordered additional flowers from a local supplier for the Arch arrangements and the table decor.

Having a wedding at your home basically allows for your Pinterest dreams to come true! And we took full advantage. We rented tents and chairs to fit the 100 guests (about 90 showed up) and separated the ceremony space (beach) from the backyard space (reception), and even designated the patio as the dance floor. We did have a plan “B” in place for rain, but the day turned out stunningly beautiful.

A big bonus of having the wedding outdoors was the Best Man felt very much at home.

Some of my favorite wedding DIY’s

Dinner was catered from a favorite farm-to-table restaurant. If you are local to Grand Rapids, MI, I highly recommend Romanas Table out of Rockford, MI. They were amazing! We rented tables, glassware, and linens for dinner, which was served buffet style.

We hung faux garland borrowed from a friend to cover the poles in the tent at the last minute. We mixed in lights, and it looked lovely once the sun went down.

We used Italian Ruscus for the greenery for the table decor and ran it down the center of the tables on top of the cheesecloth that I bought from the local fabric store. It was light and airy and perfect for a summer night reception.

The couple has a favorite wine they call their LOVE wine. They made it part of the wedding ceremony and then served it to the guests during dinner. We labeled the bottles so they could share the story with their guests.

After the ceremony, the Bridal Party took a spin around the lake for some pics and a private moment while the guests enjoyed cocktails and yard games.

Talk about a CHEESECAKE!! Instead of a traditional cake after dinner, these foodies chose to serve a “Cake of cheese,” which tuned out to be a huge success with the guests; it was not only beautiful, the guests were able to nibble throughout the evening. It was beautiful as well as tasty. If you are local to Grand Rapids, MI, it’s from The Cheese People. The layers are Triple Blue Cheese, Donatello, and Cheddar.

After the ceremony and before dinner, the guests walked the property with cocktails and played various lawn games or took photos for the couple’s guestbook.

We had a Polaroid Guest book where the guests posed for pics with props. The Puppets below were a shower gift to the couple from me. I have a thing with puppets, and each of the kids received a set at their Bridal shower. It’s a weird random thing, but the wedding guests love the Ross puppet!

One of my favorite things we did was print out and frame several verses of the poem I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, which was read at the ceremony, and placed them around on the tables. Printing on the dusty blue paper helped carry the color theme throughout the reception.

We used whiskey barrels filled with quick crete and eight feet 4 x 4’s for the dance floor. We planted flowers around them. We then strung the lights at the top. I wish I had a better shot, but they worked beautifully. We bought outdoor string light from Home Depot. The shape of the patio is a circle that made for a lovely, intimate dance space.

The finale of the evening was the send-off. We purchased extra long sparklers so the guests could send the happy couple off in style without any mishaps. It added such a magical feel to a perfect day.

And that’s a wrap! For some Fall wedding decor inspiration, check out the decor we did for my youngest daughter’s wedding here (and yes, they got married in the same YEAR! LOL.

Special shout-outs to Chantal Elise Photography – Kate @Valley and Oak, who were both amazing at their jobs (Kate rocked that Cake of Cheese table!

Looking for more inspiration for your outdoor wedding? Check out this from Porch.com

I can’t resist posting an update on the happy couple. This photo was from her baby shower two weeks ago!!

Related Posts:

Hosting a virtual baby shower (book themed)

7 ideas for a gorgeous Fall wedding

Until next time,

XX

Libbie