Planning an outside wedding wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. It turns out that it was a lot cheaper in cost than it would have been to have an indoor wedding. Since we had the beauty of nature all around us, it wasn’t too expensive to decorate. The first thing I had to do was to find the perfect location to have our summer wedding and reception. I could have had our wedding ceremony on the beach, with a fun filled beach party reception, or an elegant garden party, but I chose a ceremony and reception in the park. I found there were several great locations that would work out perfectly for an outdoor wedding.
Since I never planned a wedding like this before, I needed all the help I could get. I found out you need to have a plan B, in case inclement weather unexpectly arises. It’s a good idea to have a tent ready to continue your ceremony if it becomes necessary.
Plan “A” was setting up a gorgeous trellis for our ceremony to be performed under and canopies for the reception. I only had to get decorations for my bridal table and the reception tables for our friends and family. With the park as our main theme, I basically had to make sure I had our table settings and maybe throw in a few extra bouquets of flowers. I thought artificial flowers would be best, since we didn’t want a bee invasion ruining our ceremony. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and didn’t look artificial at all. Planning this wedding wasn’t all that hard, but there was a little more than I expected. You want to make sure you have plenty of citronella candles scattered about, and that the rest rooms are within walking distance, and make sure your frosting on your cake doesn’t melt in the heat.
There was a variety of accessories available for the outdoor reception. Each of our guest had a park bench place card holder and the centerpieces were flowers arranged around a glass globe with citronella votive candles inside. I found very decorative favor boxes and used them to package the chrome bottle openers we bought for our friends and family as a summer wedding favor. One of the most decorative things on our wedding table was our gorgeous wedding cake with the beautiful cake topper I ordered.
I found it while browsing online for my other wedding accessories, and fell in love with it. They were customized toppers for the wedding couple. After I sent them a head shot of my fiance and myself they made our bride and groom topper to look exactly like us. How could I ask for a better wedding keepsake than that? Our friends and family were really loved the cake topper and gave us a lot of compliments on it. Our crystal champagne flutes and silver cake serving set was just a few of the fantastic accessories I ordered for our ceremony and reception. You wouldn’t believe all the nice accessories you can buy online.
Everything at the wedding and reception were fantastic. Plan B never had to be used, since the weather was so beautiful, and thankfully it remained that way through the whole evening. The DJ we hired was really exceptional and I’m sure that the music played on long after my new husband and I left for our honeymoon. Everyone commented on what a lovely ceremony and super reception we had. I’m so glad I decided to go with a wedding in the park. If we should decide somewhere down the line to have a renewal wedding ceremony, I think I’d like to have it in the park again.