I'm having an outdoor wedding on my Uncle's ranch in Texas near San Marcos in late April to Early May. My colors will be bluebonnet blue and white with a hint of red. My wedding site has very large oak trees around it and a river on one side, however it is mostly hidden by trees. My reception is taking place in a civil war-era mansion that has a large hallway running all the way through the first floor of the house from front door to back door. Both the front and back doors are french doors that lead out onto covered patio/porches. The hallway ends at a large stone floored and walled living room which has the french doors in it and has it's left hand wall covered in shelving. There is a fireplace on the other wall. I'm thinking about doing a sunset wedding… or a little sooner, to capture the beautiful Texas sunsets, therefore the reception will be at night and I'm probably going to use candles for a lot of the lighting. Any ideas on how to decorate this reception and wedding rustic but elegant? I'm looking for unique and tried and true ideas… I wish I had pictures but do your best with what I described :).

What you are starting with (the location itself) is already very romantic and beautiful. I don't think paper lanters or Christmas lights or tiki torches will do it justice lol! Stick with natural elements like fire (candles) and fresh flowers, like the first person said. You can seriously create a very classy romantic atmosphere free of anything obvious. Skip the crepe paper, paper lanterns, etc and go with natural elements and metals. It'll be awesome!!!

Good luck!

How to Plan for Outdoor Wedding…Have a Tent Plan! with Saundra Hadley (event engineer) with planning…forever events gives you tips!

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Here are some of my ideas but they're not set-in-stone. I would love all comments (good or bad)! August wedding, medium-sized, casual!

-My colors: Mainly green and white with small hints of yellow
-Ceremony held in front of our house (big, white colonial) and reception held in our backyard (have have some acreage)
-Any tips, comments, opinions about outdoor wedding tents?
-Khaki suit for the groom and groomsmen? Like, dislike?
-What flowers do you see with this?

Anything else? I'm drawing a blank here, people!

Thanks

I like everything you just said. The light kahki suits will compliment the casual look, if you go black with an outdoor wedding in my opinion it will look off.
( i saw pictures of a similar wedding theme and the groomsmen wore light green converses with their suits, very cool and casual)

as long as the green is a light green it sounds beautiful.

Eric Wright from All Wright Music Company tells us a bit more about Scott and Shelleys reception site, Garden Vineyards in Hillsboro.

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Everyone knows the fact that the wedding event is a very important day in the life of a couple. Some couples invest long months of preparations in order to get the perfect wedding planned down to a T. One of the options a couple has in planning the wedding, is to choose an outdoor location, instead of the traditional ballroom event.

Choosing an outdoor wedding is something that you should think long and hard about. Before opting for an outdoor event, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are we, as a couple, actually connect with the outdoors? If you’re not outdoor people, and you dislike nature, than why should you even consider doing an outdoor event? Don’t do it just because it’s “cool”. Do it only if you really enjoy the outdoor.

2. What kind of guests are you having? If most of your guests are, say, elderly people, or “city slickers”, who are not comfortable outside, than why would you want to make them come to an outdoor event?

After having said that, an outdoor wedding can be a fantastic event, if planned right. Let’s take a look at a few of it’s advantages:

1. You can choose which type of landscape you want in your wedding. You can choose the beach, mountain resorts, parks, the backyard of a friends house…There are many possibilities. Whatever you like the most. These locations can provide a beautiful picture to your wedding.

2. It’s a lot cheaper in many cases. You can rent a location outdoors you will in most cases pay much less than getting an expensive ballroom and a reception room.

3. You can be special and memorable. Most ballroom weddings look the same. You can have a special wedding if you don’t do it the way everyone else does.

And what about the disadvantages of on outdoor wedding?

1. The most obvious disadvantage is the weather. You pick a date in advance and you can’t know for sure how the weather is going to be like in your outdoor wedding. You can minimize the risks by having big fans ready for hot days, as well as preparing a sheltered space in the case of rain.

2. Some people are sensitive or allergic to bugs, direct sunshine, bees and the like. You can deal with that by preparing sun block lotion for anyone who asks for it, by placing fly catchers around the tables etc.

There’s no question that an outdoor wedding can be a great and memorable event. You just need to plan it correctly and make sure you have the right audience.

Wedding reception entertainment with a garden theme includes live musicians to accompany a harpist or violinist. Entertain guests at a garden-themed wedding reception with tips from an event coordinator in this free wedding planning video.

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We just got married in July, in Texas, where we live. My husband is originally from Brooklyn (Bensonhurst). Since alot of his friends and family didnt get to come to the wedding we would like to renew our vows on our 1st anniversary in NYC for them. He parents both live in S.I. now so we aren't sure if we want to do it out there or in BK somewhere.

He used to work at the El Caribe and we were thinking of having the reception there. So if you've ever been there feedback would be great.

As far as where to have the ceremony, Im at a complete and total loss. We are both Catholic, I was never confirmed and we had an outdoor wedding with a non denom minister. Neither of us really want the Catholic service, we'd prefer it stay no denom.

Any tips, or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'm not from there and don't know the first thing about how to go about getting things started.

Thanks
Actually, we don't want it to have the feel of an anniversary party. We dont want to have another full on wedding but we'd like it to have that feel to it. Some of these family members were very upset that they couldn't make it to the original wedding. I dont want them to feel like we are putting together some cheesy party just to make them feel a bit better. I want it to be nice and heart felt, since we are doing this for them and not for us, to make them feel like they too shared in our special day.

Make sense?

I'm from NY. There's about 8 places in Brooklyn that I see that you can have it at including El Caribe and 7 places in Staten Island. Here's the following places:

Brooklyn

Abigail Kirsch at Stage 6
Brooklyn Navy Yard
718-237-1919

The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
1000 WAshtington Ave
718-398-2400

El Caribe
5945Strickland Ave
718-531-1200

Glen Terrace
5313 Ave. N
718-252-4614

Paradise Caterers
51 Ave. N
718-372-4352

The Riviera
2780 Stillwell Ave.
718-372-3031

Rex Manor
1100 60th St.
718-8543232

Sirico's
8015-23 13th Ave
718-331-2900

Staten Island

Grand Plaza
23 Nelson Ave.
718-967-4034

The Vanderbilt at South Beach
300 Father Capodanno Blvd
718-447-0800

The Crystal Room
67 Olympia Blvd
718-447-8926

Harbor Mano
1000 Richmond Terrace
718-816-0011

Nicotra's Ballroom-Hilton Garden Inn
1100 South Ave
718-477-2400

The Renaissance
2131 Hylan Blvd.
718-987-3883

South Shore Country Club
200 Huguenot Ave.
718-356-7017

My boyfriend and I (I won't call him my fiance until I get the ring, which means waiting another couple weeks) are having a baby in February. If all goes well I hope to lose most of the weight by the end of Spring and we're aiming for a mid/late summer wedding. With the baby, and us deciding I'm going to stay at home for the first year or so we really need to save money, but we're not putting the wedding off forever to save. Aside from my dress, which is my mother's old wedding dress that I'm having a few alterations done to (wedding present from another friend), we need to cut back on the costs of everything! Our wedding party said they'd each cover their own tux/dress, but we each have so many family members, and friends we don't want to leave out, that we're looking at 150+ guests. We want to find a scenic outdoor place for the wedding, so that should be pretty inexpensive, but what else can we do to save money? I'm mostly concerned about the reception…please help!
I just got off the phone with my cousin who got married last year. She went overboard on spending for decorations and things and wound up having to cut back on things for the reception. All in all we had 175 at her wedding, the food was buffet style, and everything was wonderful. She only spent about 1000 on renting the hall, getting the food plus the cake.

I wish everyone didn't think everything at a wedding was about food and drinking. My friends and family don't drink, or barely drink, and Jacob's are the same way. There will not be an open bar, if someone wants one or two drinks, they'll buy it themselves, because we're not drinking people. Bringing a dish is something we might consider, but I'm going to keep looking at food from local restaurants who will do a buffet for us like my cousin's. Please don't tell me that I CAN'T do this for under $8000, seeing as my budget is a fourth of that, and so far our projected costs are only $600 over that.
The guests won't care about the flowers? What about if I care about the flowers? I'm not going to spend $5 on flowers for an entire wedding just so we can have surf & turf for dinner. Okay, I know how to go about getting some cheaper flowers, because there college I graduated from is an Ag. school, and their greenhouse will give me a major discount, that I hadn't considered.

A DJ for 4 hours is going to cost me $200, I thought that was pretty cheap, but I haven't compared rates yet, so I might just go with a DJ instead of our own CDs, that way I don't have to worry about technical problems all day.

I know that ettiquette wise we are supposed to cover things, but our friends from college (the wedding party of 4) said they wanted to cover it, and everything's under $100 per person anyway, so they said consider it a gift from them.

We may be doing an outdoor wedding but are not planning on an outdoor reception-or will at least find a public place with a pavillion & tables.

From what I recall, etiquette says the "bare minimum" required at a reception is cake and punch. (Regional cultural expectations may be different - I've heard that New England weddings are veritable bacchanalia - but expectations are not etiquette.) If you schedule your wedding for 2:30 pm, that's late enough in the afternoon that folks will want to have eaten lunch before they go, and early enough in the day that folks will be able to attend, mingle, and then go their own ways for dinner.

However, if you go this route, then *definitely* make a note of it on the invitations. Instead of saying "reception to follow", say "cake & punch to follow". That way, people will immediately know what to expect, and will be able to plan accordingly. This is ESPECIALLY important if you have anyone on your guest list with blood sugar problems (diabetes, hypoglycemia, etc.).

I was going to suggest what to do if anyone complains, but honestly anyone who complains probably shouldn't be invited. They're supposed to be coming for the *wedding*, not the free food afterward.

Oh, and I'd still recommend trimming your guest list. If you do a simple cake and punch reception, you'll probably want to go ahead and spring for a professional-looking cake so it doesn't seem so obvious that you're trying to do this on the cheap. Moreover, it may be really hard to find an outdoor venue that can comfortably SEAT 150 people (you did remember to consider seating and shade capacity when looking for your venue, right? Otherwise you're renting chairs and pavilions, which cranks the price right back up).

I am looking for a website with templates I can use to print my own wedding invites. The card size is about the size of a postcard, maybe a bit smaller.
The envelopes are chocolate brown, the cards are apple green. Should I put a white label on the front of the envelope to put the address on, or use white ink? I should probably use labels, right?

ALSO, wedding invite wording- help me out!!
September 6, 2008, 3pm
Mission Park, Mission, ON
Michael & Melanie (& children, Chris & Abby)
Outdoor ceremony
Bring own seating (lawnchairs)
Reception to follow @ 5pm, Mission Community Centre

How should I word it to include our children (Chris & Abby) and the fact that guests need their lawnchairs for the ceremony??

AND how do I set up my printer to print the invites?

ANY INVITE TIPS AND HINTS WOULD HELP ME OUT!!!

THANKS!

Sounds like you are not ultra-computer-savvy. Thats ok. You can make the invitaions look great.
Open an MS Word document. Go to page setup and make a custom page size, the same size as your apple green cards.
Then just type in your information, play with the fonts and spacing to get your desired effect (but dont play too much… simple is best).
Then just print like you normally would. Your green cards are an odd size, so they probably need to go in the handfeeder of your printer. When the print window appears on the computer screen, make sure you select the handfeeder.

For the envelopes, its best to handwrite the names and addresses. Its the traditional way, and it adds a personal touch. Use a white or silver gel pen and it will look great. (Labels look impersonal and lazy, and also white labels on a dark envelope is not pleasing to the eye.)

You can do this. Good luck!

**I dont think you should ask them to bring their own seating, but thats all I will say about that.

I am getting married in August and the reception is in an outdoor/indoor high peak tent. Since the ceilings are very high I bought eiffel tower vases, which are the tall skinny vases. I think they're 16". Me and my fiance met b/c of a trip to jamaica that we both happened to go on and we really want to incorporate jamaica into the wedding in an elegant way. I have quite a few ideas so far but I'm stuck w/ the centerpieces. I've seen alot of great ideas and tips on here but nonetheless - I want to use pretty much all white flowers, orchids, hibiscus, hydrangea..i saw this pic on google
http://i.ivillage.com/relationships/wedding/flowers/centerpieces/center7.jpg
and really love it..my vases dont have the open top like that though. can someone tell me what they think this arrangement contains? I can't figure it all out..also any tips on where to purchase inexpensive but nice silk flowers? thank u!! Any other tips are much appreciated as well!!

They look like a mixture of orchids to me…but I am not positive.
You can try this website for fake flowers. They also sell the eiffel tower vases…so they may be able to offer you some ideas/accessories for your centerpieces.
http://www.wedcrafts.com/silk1.html

Good luck